-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 10:00:45 +0100, Lobster <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I know DOS and am used to it. Linux is different and > I am not used to it. > If I learn Linux will I have to learn new stuff for every distro? Not really, they are generally the same, more or less like the differences between win98, nt, 2000, xp. Look at linux as a sort of: * superduperdos, * pathnames are now with forward slashes instead of backward slashes * no drive names but devices mapped to a folder * device drivers are called modules and are loaded and unloaded on demand (or hard compiled into the kernel) * comparable with tools formely residing in c:\dos they are now in /usr/local/bin or /sbin or so. Conceivably one could create a shell that emulates the dos appearance, and compiles and renames the dos utilities for linux. Such is being done for the Windows GUI: http://images.google.nl/images?hl=nl&lr=&q=xpde The huge benefit of linux over dos is the smoother multitasking and the huge amount of compiled open source and impressive kernel capabilities. One couldstart from there with easy tasks like * exploring the capabilities of the different tools like grep, (g)awk, cat, tail, ls - by typing man cat or man gawk and try the different parameters. If you are really afraid you can setup dosemu on alt-f1, keep running your favorite dos applications like norton commander, pkzip and jump to a alt-f2 linux shell session whenever you feel like it. Ofcourse there are clones for pkzip and norton commander also in linux: midnight commander and zip/unzip. There also is the option of running linux within win32 (afaik not dos). > >For diehards and 286's that should have died there is ELKS > >http://elks.sourceforge.net/ > > Interesting . . . > and incomplete - sort of working > Do you think this is the best/easisest of the single disk type of Linuxes? No, it's the most difficult I think. And it's not really comparable to a single disk linux as it is specifically designed for the 286 and lower - as for linux one needs a 386+. A 386 can be found for free in the trashcan's if one doesn't count the costs of searching and cleaning up, perhaps one of the causes why the project is stalling between the letters alpha and beta. i used hal91 for a while: http://chris.silmor.de/hal91/ Another minimalistic system: http://phatboydesigns.net/0sys/ then there are also those firewall lrp derivates, which were handy once (now the functionality is tucked away in the "hardware" firewall). As the floppy and disks are also going the way of the dinosaur.... I generally keep a set of very handy and small win32 and linux commandline utilities in two supercompressed files (i like 7-zip) on the web or usb disk, so I can download it over 14k4 or gprs and setup my favorit environment independent of operating system in no time. > >If you really want dos why Seal if there is Win3.11 (calmira.de delicious)? > >Perhaps because of Microsoft Moloch? > > That is a good question. I suppose the answer is one of development potential > as opposed to abandonment. That also goes for dos. Only nostalgia keeps me longing for dos, I won't give into it as it costs me time. OS/2, CP/M and C64 (Frodo emulator) are also nice when feeling nostalgic, but except for OS/2 not always very practical in todays demanding IT world (xml parsing, web database serving, programming). A nice alternative to linux and the bsd's I find BeOS. > Win 3.11 is dead because MS do not support it I never needed MS's support personally. There are other parties which could support Win3.11 - if a cultural wave of Win3.11 craze would spread, all across the internet there would automagically appear win3.11 support groups - perhaps there still are like the calmira forum? So here's an idea, partition your disk to 640 mb the size of a cd. Create a minimal win98, 2000 or xp system, with every file you don't need stripped out, use abiword and gnumeric (when it's available later this year), firefox and family, the compiled gnu utilities and whatever else you need. Bake a bootable cd with a ramdrive out of it, and tada. Your personal system on a disc. To big you say? Well try to get it down to on one of those business card discs. Already done for linux: http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/ as it's easier to do. Put xpde inside it, and you won't see the difference between a damnsmallxp and a damnsmalllinux or would you? regards, Francis -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (MingW32) - WinPT 0.7.96rc1 iD8DBQFBb5+3afIDcDZ0YksRAgnwAJ9w8zq7dHduI+N+n0+iSlFYkd5F4ACgicrs C3GT02Cg9D4y70y6BPHsjVM= =6FbX -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/J8folB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HolyGeek/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
