[ltp] which distro 4 a linux newbie T20?

Tim Prince linux-thinkpad@www.bm-soft.com
Tue, 2 Jul 2002 23:17:13 -0700


On Tuesday 02 July 2002 11:14, Michal Lisecki wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> Ever since I've had my T20 (2647-44G; 11GB/200MB/8MB Video) I've been
> thinking of installing Linux on that. I am now using W2K Prof. with 2 NTFS
> partitions. My knowledge of Linux is basic (I only did a simple Debian
> install and got it running with X on a desktop) therefore I would like you
> to suggest which Linux distribution should I have a go for? My
> requirements/expectations/questions are as follows:
> - fairly trouble-free install on T20,
> - what partitioning would you suggest for a 11GB hdd (I need to leave at
> least 6GB for W2K and I would need Linux mainly for wordprocessing and
> simple networking, i.e. connecting with various LANs) I guess I won't need
> much for that but what would be a minimum?
>
> Right now I have access to Debian r4i3. Would that be a good choice for a
> T20? I do realize I might have a lot of trouble installing any Linux distro
> on a laptop that's why I would rather choose a one with a possibly most
> trouble-free installing procedure and easy X setup on a S3 Graphics
> Savage/IX 1014.
>
> I would be very thankful for any hints and suggestions. Perhaps you might
> also be able to point me to some "Linux-for-dummies"-like sites on the
> Internet ;-)
>
> 
FWIW, I've run Win98, Win2K, rh6.2, rh7.1, and SuSE 7.3 on the T20.  SuSE was 
the easiest to install and get sound, NIC, and modem working.   A co-worker 
has rh7.2 on his, and it is more satisfactory than the earlier rh.  I assume 
that IBM dropping the ltp support has something to do with the more complete 
built-in support of recent distros.
If you install one of the recent commercial distros, you may want several GB 
for linux.  If you mean what you say, 1GB would be more than enough, but I 
keep running out of disk with rh7.2 on 9GB on another box.  I dread the day 
when I will be forced to devote the entire 12GB on the T20 to XP; 2K with all 
the pre-sp3 stuff my employer insists upon is already taking more than its 
share.
-- 
Tim Prince

----- The Linux ThinkPad mailing list -----
The linux-thinkpad mailing list home page is at:
http://www.bm-soft.com/~bm/tp_mailing.html