old hardware, mirrored repositories, and sundry other questions

[Michael Scottaline]

On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 01:39:48 -0500, Matt Price <matt.price at utoronto.ca> wrote:
> Hello Ubuntu world,
> 
> This is my first foray ito Ubuntu; right now I run Debian Sid on 3
> machines, all workstations.  I'm about to teach a
> build-your-own-computer-and-install-linux class to a group of 20 or so
> residents of a local housing project, and since I'm familiar iwth
> DDebian, have decided on Ubuntu as the main distribution to use.  I've
> evden got a stack of warty cd's (they look great!) to distribute.  But
> since I don't run Ubuntu myself I'm a little anxious, and thought I'd
> get y'all to reassure me that everything's gonna be ok...
===========================
Your at least as likely to get Ubuntu running on the old hardware as
most other modern distros (fedora, SuSE, Mandrake, etc....; can you
imagine trying to get such a group through a Gentoo install ;-) )
===========================
> 
> 1) old hardware:  we're goingto be using donated hardware, I reckon
> pentiu-class but not uch faster.  Are there going to be issues withth
> standard Ubuntu kernel (like, maybe no APM support?)  Other issues I
> should be aware of?  I imagine Gnome will run pretty slow on such
> machines -- is there an xfce4 in ununto somewhere?
===========================
I do believe Gnome 2.8, whcih is degault on Warty will be slow; too
slow on old equipment.  And if the BIOS is pre 2001 ACPI might be a
problem though you can try forcing it at boot time (ACPI=force)
You might try installing icewm as the windowmanager if these folks
have used windows it's easy to adjust to.  If they are totally new to
computer usage then there's no need to worry about the similarity w/
windows, try a light weight wm that you might be familiar with: 
blackbox, fluxbox or enlightenment, etc.  If there's little RAM and
slow processors, even XFCE4 *might* be too heavy.
============================================
> 
> 2) mirroring a repository:  the classroom we're in won't have an
> internet connection, but I have a couple of ethernet switches and a
> spare 80-gig hard drive.  Would it be practical to mirror the ubuntu
> repositories on that drive?  Is there a guide to this somewhere?
===================================
Don't know the answer to that one.  Someone will  8^)
===================================
> 
> 3) If this project works out, I think it will be pretty good PR --
> these folks will mostly be refugee applicants from e.g. Somalia, some
> of the middle-aged -- is there somewhere I can post an account of our
> rirproaring success?
==================================
I'm sure many online linux related publications would eagerly publish
this type of story.  Good Luck!!
====================================
> 
> Anyway, looking forward to making the switch to Ubuntu!
==================================
You're gonna love it!!  
Best,
Mike

-- 
"I don't know how World War III will be fought, but I do know World 
War IV will be fought with sticks and stones" 
- Albert Einstein