On Fri, 10 Sep 1999, Aaron deRozario wrote:
> Greetings all
>
> I am interested in teaching myself about networking using the old-fashioned
> hands on approach, and building a home network. I am wondering if I can use
> this network to solve the constant problem of both my girlfriend and I
> always wanting to use the one computer at the same time.
>
> I own two older machines - a 486DX4 at 33MHz with 8meg RAM and an AMD-133
> with 16meg Ram (one of those hot-rodded chips for 486 boards that claims
> Pent-75 performance. I would like to connect one or both of these machines
> to my current desktop (Celeron 333 with 64M).
>
> I am curious to know whether in a network I can use one of the older
> machines as a 'dumb terminal' or simply just running X. Using the dumb
> terminal can I run applications on the server using the server's CPU and
> RAM? As an example could I run CivCTP or Applix using the 486 machine, but
> have the processing done by the Celeron?
Yes but your CivCTP Sounds ill be comeing out of the celeron, sso you
might want to make sure they are in the same room.
> I want to do this so that I can run programmes that require more CPU than
> the older machines have got (at least in the case of the 486-33) and make
> use of the old equipment.
>
> The 486 has two hard drives - 40meg and 80 meg. IS that enough space to put
> in a cut down Linux? Could I get away with just installing the very base
> components plus X, with all other software on the server? I was going to
> use RH5.2 or 6 because Mandrake is Pentium optimised. Which would be the
> better of the two distros to use?
Your going to want one of the mini distro's, Something that'll fit on a
floppy. The only one i can remeber the name for right now that has an X
addon is MULinux, but i'm sure theres a couple more.
> Just doing a little background work before I sit down and RTFM.
>
> Aaron
>
--
MandrakeSoft http://www.mandrakesoft.com/
--Axalon
