On Tues, Feb 24, 2004, 12:54:16 PM, Ray Hogaboom wrote: > What I use the 2 old 486 laptop for are simple tasks. If I am > working on a computer that has some thing wrong with it, or working > with new applications, OS as I am doing now. Instead of printing > the instruction or documentation. I display the instruction (text > or HTML files) on the laptop wile working on another computer. > Saves paper, ink, and time.
You may not be aware of the fact that with Linux and X Windows you can have several desktops open at the same time on the same machine. I almost never print out documentation anymore. You can't do any of the following on an i486, but you can do the equivalent of what you just described on your regular Linux workstation. Let's back up a bit. Linux comes with six virtual consoles (VCs). If you are familiar with dos, that like having six separate dos computers on the same machine. Everything done in a VC is done from a command prompt. You will have those on your i486. Incidentally, another thing you can't do with ms win is cut and paste across everything. You can do what's termed "pick up and paste" back and forth between all applications running on the VCs and X Windows desktops, including applications being run via wine, dosemu, and vmware. Very slick. In addition to the six basic VCs, the 7th VC runs X Windows (which you won't have on your i486). You probably already start out in X Windows on your Linux workstation. You can hit control-alt-F1 to go to the 1st VC. Alt-F2, Alt-F3, and so forth will take you through all of them. You can tell they are changing by the "tty1," "tty2," and so forth you'll see above the login. To get back into X Windows, press control-alt-F7. In X Windows, you can have as many desktops as you have resources for. That's like having any number of ms win machines in the same machine. In addition, you can open as many windows on each desktop as you have resources for. For example. On my system I typically work in X Windows and have six workspaces (desktops) available. One I use as a VC. That is, I have an XTerm window open with several sessions running in it, including mc, one or more dosemu (with my dos applications), and whenever I need it, a root session. I then have each project and all the windows I need open to complete that project on separate workspaces. One workspace/desktop may contain everything I need to update my web sites -- text editor files containing codes and scripts that I've gotten and wish to use on the site, the web page itself open in an HTML editor, graphics manipulation software, plus post-its (using knotes) with little notes to myself. Easily 5 or 6 windows all open on that single desktop. Another desktop may contain everything I need to doctor a book for a client. The book itself, a file containing feedback from the publisher/editor, revisions supplied by the author, and depending on if the book is fiction or technical, there may be spreadsheets, supplemental information, and so forth. Again about 5 or 6 windows open on that desktop. Every so often I work on my vmware workstation where I have a win98 virtual machine (vm) installed. It's working fairly well, but there are some things I would like it to do that I haven't figured out yet, mainly having to do with networking (which is how a vm connects to its host). I have all the access I need to the vm via my zip drive, but I would like to do file sharing and printing in the usual way which I messed up somehow. So I will have that machine open in a separate desktop, with the vmware documentation for the particular workstation, RUTE chapters on networking, as well as chapters from a book on Samba, plus a text editor for logs that I've collected with the error messages and post-its with notes to myself. Again, easily another 5-6 windows open. If I get a phone call from a client and need to look at something for them, I can then go to another workspace/desktop and open the files there without having to disturb my other workspaces. It's like having separate desks, all nice and messy, each dedicated to a particular project that don't have to be cleaned up until I'm completely done with the project. I love it! In any event, you'll be surprised how much more you can do on a Linux machine than that same machine will do running ms win. > I have a Pentium 1 100 MHz desk top I want to use for firewall, > router. Using i486s as firewalls and routing servers is very common as well. There are numerous tutorials available on setting up i486s as servers of one sort or another. My comments were mainly to alert you to the limits of using them as desktop workstations. People will hear that you can use older equipment with Linux and then assume that means as a desktop workstation in the same way as they are used to with ms win. Then, they are surprised when that doesn't work and feel they've been misled. Desktop workstations are not what people are suggesting when they say you can use the older equipment with Linux. There are numerous ways to set up networks. Get a book on Samba because Samba is tricky and go over the networking chapters in RUTE. A good Samba book is located on O'Reilly. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/samba2/book/toc.html A lot of stuff just installs and works, but if you tweak it (as sometimes you must), you can easily mess up if you don't know how it works really. Those books should help you avoid making mistakes. deedee --- Registered Linux User #327485 Visit "WordStar & GNU/Linux" http://www.wordstar2.com Also, see the WordStar Users Group http://www.wordstar2.com/cbabbage/wordstar ____________________________________________________________ Find what you are looking for with the Lycos Yellow Pages http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10
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