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Topic: DSL in Africa

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faddat

Group: Members
Posts: 2
Joined: Feb. 2005

Posted: Feb. 25 2005,21:01

I'm trying to put together a collection of software that can easily boot computers into a GUI and give the ability to do word processing and web browsing. DSL looks like it could be the one. Only thing is, I'd like to use OO.o and Mozilla. Would these be easy to just install into DSL? Also, how does DSL fare on low-spec machines, for example, a machine with 32 MB of RAM?

What is hardware support like? Is there a DSL-heavy version I can download with more driver support? Am I barking up the wrong tree in general?

Basically, I'm looking for a distro that runs on low-spec systems, and can run firefox and OO.o. Anyone have any thoughts? Can ya steer me in the right direction?

DonttPanic Offline

Group: Members
Posts: 95
Joined: July 2004

Posted: Feb. 25 2005,21:27

DSL may be perfect for your project. The most recent version(s) of DSL have firefox already in the iso. OO.o is in the repository and is very simple to add to a cd. My box has 64 megs of ram and nearly flies on DSL. The only thing is, larger programs (such as firefox and ooo) will take a while to open. Opera is a decent alternative to firefox, and is also included in the repository. Try it out!

faddat

Group: Members
Posts: 2
Joined: Feb. 2005

Posted: Feb. 25 2005,21:31

How about hardware support? Does DSL come with the gobs of drivers that would be needed to get it running on a myriad of:

Pentium I (100-233MHZ)
Pentium II
Pentium III

Compaq
Packard Bell
Hewlett Packard
Dell
Et Cetera.

I'm trying to set up communication centers and internet cafes in Africa. Also, as I will be working as a consultant, it would have to be good in offices. Since I can't test this right now as I don't have access to a bunch of old, crazy equipment, I'd just like to hear some user experiences with older hardware. Also, is there an extended driver set that I can add to the CD?

Thank you all very much for your help-- soon your advice will help me to undertake an incredible adventure.

davide

Group: Members
Posts: 265
Joined: Sep. 2003

Posted: Feb. 25 2005,21:38

first: dsl is probably the best performing distro on older hardware; if not the best, surely amist the best ones.
second: dsl now comes with mozilla firefox browser (0.9.x releases). Oo and mozilla thunderbird programs can be downloaded very easily from dsl repository (a "store" website you can access from an icon on the desktop or from this site). They are already packaged as .dsl, this means the process for installing is extremely easy. It does it all almost with a click.
third: dsl hardware recognition is based on knoppix hw recognition, which is considered to be the best. In fact, most live distros are based on knoppix.
forth: nevertheless, if you try to run Oo or Firefox or thunderbird (dsl comes with sylpheed , a lighter and much more powerfull email client than mozilla thunderbird) on a pc with 32 mb f ram, even if it has 64 mb of swap partiton, it is very likely that it will be very slow. Oo needs 128 mb to run smoothly. Firefox runs on 32, but it's not fast to load.
this is not depending on DSL, and it will happen even if you adopt another distro.

so, in the end..give dsl a try...
and read the post n this forum about older harware. there are hundreds of them and you can find very usefull infos about viedoecard, sound etc.

good luck!

--------------
Davide

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green

Group: Members
Posts: 453
Joined: Oct. 2004

Posted: Feb. 25 2005,22:51

faddat, I must ask this: Africa is a big continent, what part of Africa are you interested in?
I have been in discussion's regarding something that may be simimlar.
You can email or PM me if you like.

4 replies since Feb. 25 2005,21:01

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