[nzlug] machine pre loaded with linux

[Daniel Lawson]

>> On Wednesday 07 February 2007 22:50, cr wrote:
>> Oops - correction to that! - I misremembered some of that -  checking
>> back, I find that Debian Woody worked OK with Gnome in 64MB, it wasn't
>> till I put Sarge on it I had to cut it back to Windowmaker - my first
>> para. there relates to Sarge not Woody.
>>     
>
> My laptop with 128mb ran Sarge okay, but when I upgraded to Etch with 
> gnome it was almost unusable.  Another 256 (total 384 mb) fixed it.  I 
> would say that 256 mb was the minimum for Etch.
>   

Both of you are referring to "thick" client machines, and you will have
both had a swap partition. I'm sure that's what you wanted to say at
this point, however the discussion was about how much RAM a thinclient
needed. At the risk of flogging a dead horse, I feel it should be
pointed out that not only do thinclients not have swap, but they don't
as a rule run local applications[1] such as web browsers or word processors.

I would say that 128 MB would be fine for a thin client running any
linux distribution, as long as a recent X server was used and you were
careful about using applications like firefox or viewing large images.
As I pointed out, with a recent X server you'll only lose the
application in question. It may turn out to not be good enough for your
needs. It may run fine. You'll only know by trying :)

[1] Yes, of course you can run local apps, but thin clients also tend to
be slower processor machines than your terminal server, and they do only
have 128 MB of ram after all.