On Sunday, May 2, 2004, at 09:05 PM, David W. Drake wrote:
I've recently decided that I want to install linux or BSD on a 7300 I have that is currently sitting idle with a Mac OS 9 installation that was on it when I bought it. (I don't have OS 9 on CD, but I do have OS 8.6 in case it matters for any reason.)
Initially, I just want to play with the unix/linux command line and some
of the non-GUI programs that I understand come with all BSD and linux
installations everywhere. I don't just want to move dummy files around
for training or something like that, though, so I want to be able to do
some things almost from the start.
For instance, I want to be able to print to my Epson SC740 color inkjet printer with some kind of simple formatted text such as I hear I might get from vi and nroff or their equivalents. I want to be able to connect to the internet via a dialup connection with a Global Village 56k serial modem, send and receive email from my usual ISP, read and post to Usenet groups, and use a (text-only?) browser to get weather reports (I do this with the WannaBe text-only browser on Mac OS 8.6 now).
It would also be nice if I could record from the radio using the 7300's audio input, turn these recorded files into mp3 format, play the mp3s back, and write them to CD-R or CD-RW on an internal SCSI CD-RW drive. Ripping audio CD's and making new ones from uncompressed music files of some kind is another thing I'd like to be able to do.
Later, if I decide to keep going, I'll probably want to use a graphical
web browser with 128 bit security (for banking and buying stuff online),
and get JPEG format digital photographs off my camera's compact flash
card, hopefully by using a Kodak SCSI PCMCIA card reader with compact
flash adapter that I'm already using with the Mac OS now. I'll want to
be able to do some simple editing of the pictures (cropping, changing
color balance, things like that) and print the pictures on the Epson
SC740 or a better printer that I don't have yet.
I'll probably want to network the 7300 to a Mac OS 8.6 G3 All-In-One, but I don't foresee any need to set the 7300 up as a server other than as may be necessary to connect these two computers.
Everybody keeps recommending Yellow Dog Linux to me and the YDL website
makes it look like a good OS. It does seem to be a little large and
complex and graphical, particularly for my initial experiments, which I
want to focus on the command line and on the old traditional unix type
programs so I can get a good foundation in how to use that stuff. I
would also like to download the initial installation rather than buy it
on CD, so size matters. I used to use MS-DOS and DR-DOS a lot in the
late eighties and early nineties, so the concept of a command line isn't
entirely foreign to me, but I know very little about unix or linux.
For some reason I'm personally attracted to netBSD, probably because it seems to be more simple and straightforward than Yellow Dog. My ignorant guess is that netBSD might be as good or better for my initial learning, but might not be able to do some of the more complex things I want to do later at all.
I happened to mention my plans to some people on a Usenet newsgroup not
devoted to computing, and someone there thought that it would be very
hard to use Yellow Dog without a three button mouse. I see that
Kensington markets a four button ADB trackball, but it's very expensive.
So, my first questions are:
Is what I want to do (or some parts of what I want to do) practical at all, with any BSD or linux installation?
Is my desire to concentrate at first on the command line and non-graphical apps evidence of insanity, or is their some other reason why I just shouldn't do it that way?
What should I use--netBSD, Yellow Dog, or something else, or should I start with one thing and later switch to something else?
Do I really need a three button mouse? If I do, does anyone know where I can get one (or better, a trackball) cheap? What kinds can I use--is ADB my only choice?
Thanks for any help,
-- David W. Drake
While it's been a while since I've tinkered with YDL, it uses F11 and F12 to emulate buttons 2 and 3. So far I've used YDL 2.3 and 3.0, and attempted to install Mandrake to a 9500 which I no longer have. Since I installed OS X.2, I haven't had a desire to try to get Linux/BSD working on my G3s, although I do have a 8500/7200/7600 hybrid I'm willing to try it on.
Not having the graphical interface forces you to learn commands that you may not need using a graphical shell, which isn't a bad thing. It also reduces overhead if all you are going to do is to set up a server. When I first started to use PCs, I learned DOS, which has come in handy. It drives my wife nuts for me to get a lot done using only the keyboard that she does with the mouse. :)
Brian
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