[nzlug] Distribution recommendations

[Denise Bates]

Vik Olliver wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-05-07 at 22:35 +1200, Nevyn wrote:
>> Does anyone know of a distro or a window manager (of course it'd have
>> to have a powerpc offering) that would work on this thing? and perhaps
>> a recommendation of a word processor?
> 
> XUbuntu springs to mind.

XUbuntu on a ppc? Not likely! The optimism of *buntu zealots never 
fails to amaze me <g>.

At the risk of committing heresy on a Linux list, I would 
recommend NetBSD. Linux's cousin isn't all that different from 
what you are used to and it supports some architectures that Linux 
doesn't (in the case of NetBSD, some _very_ strange architectures, 
indeed!). It runs on very gutless Macs, and if you are planning to 
use the machine for a limited number of tasks, then the amount of 
RTFMing should be minimal.

For a single-task machine, TWM should suffice. It comes with X: if 
you don't install any other Wm, you'll get TWM. It is very 
undemanding of resources. It is quite painful to use for multiple 
tasks, but you could arrange the word processor to start up 
automatically, and only use TWM for the odd configuration job.

If you were planning on using Abiword, I can recall that it didn't 
work well on 640x480 resolution. I use LyX for all my serious 
"academic" work. It isn't resource-hungry, but it is very 
powerful. It works well on 640x480, but looks better at at least 
600x800. Without add-ons, it only outputs PDF, PS, DVI, TXT and 
its own formats (LyX, TeX).

regards,
*********************************************
Dr Denise J. Bates,
PO Box 50,
Meremere 2441
New Zealand
E-mail: dbates at iconz.co.nz
Telephone 09-2336433
Mobile 021-2541330
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