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In an effort to do some work at home, I am thinking about turning my old dell laptop into a linux box to serve as a database server preferably running an Informix database. I could also use Oracle but am much more familiar with Informix. For a moderately sized database with few other applications running on the box, do you think that a P100 with 40MB of RAM would be sufficient?
Keep in mind that would not stress the box, only pull data from the database via a client-server application.
That's more than enough. Just keep in mind that laptops are a little harder to install to due to their proprietary nature.
Good luck.
You shouldn't have any problems... my friend is running RedHat 6.1 on an old 486 and it works pretty fast.
Based on your responses, I went out and bought Turbolinux. I was the cheapest -- $29 and a $20 rebate. Can't go wrong for $10.
Installation was somewhat bumpy -- especially the partitioning. Had to use fdisk.
The problem now is that I can only get 640x480 on Xwindows. Any advise? As far as I know I set everything up correctly through turboxcfg.
1st, a 386 w/4meg RAM will run just about every distribution except Mandrake. =)
And, Ive never used turboLinux myself, I have heard that the Laptop displays are very hard to setup, have you tried searchin any Laptop HOW-TO's?, Also, What Xfree86 is Turbolinux running on, XFree86 4.0 came out recently (I am 99% sure you arent running it already), so newer distributions oughta include that, it has better hardware support.
Finally!!, lol, try Mandrake, it has LOTS of support hardware wise.
*edit* Forgot to say most Linux sites online will burn you a distribution for like 1.99 then shipping, still very cheap. www.cheapbytes.com has a VERY good selection of cd's, and sets of like 3-7 distributions, pick the one that works best or your favorite.
Linux is the greatest =), im typing this on Mandrake 7.0 currently
[This message has been edited by Dash (edited 03-23-2000).]
Most linux distros will run on 386's and 486's as Dash said, but if you are going to use x windows I would suggest at least a pentium and 32 mb ram.
I run 2 linux boxes. one is a Pentium 233 MMX with 48 megs of ram and the other is a 386 sx 25 with 4 meg of ram, so you Pentium 100 will do fine!
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