Dapper on PC104

[Brian Fahrlander]

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Duncan Lithgow wrote:
> On Sun, 2007-03-04 at 15:38 -0600, Brian Fahrlander wrote:
>>     Has anyone here had PC104-type experience?  Do ya think Dapper would
>> run on a 486 with 32M of RAM? (Those are the cheapest cards I can find.)
> Maybe, but it wouldn't be nice - you should be looking at mini distros
> for that kinda hardware - why have something heavy and slow on minimal
> hardware? It could run a mini distro very nicely, and I hear that the
> enlightenment desktop is designed to look cool with minimal RAM.
> 
> Here's a short list I found:
> http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributions/Mini_Distributions/

    Yeah, I'd considered that; there are some things I like about Ubuntu
so much as to not want to leave it...and so I'll pay for the extra
hardware required to run it.  The packaging system, the package updates,
the way the entire distro grows in strength, not just in eye-candy.  A
lot of the little distros would save money, but at some point I want to
do bigger things- once on the road, I'd like to do C/C++ programming,
AI, voice, the whole shebang.

    But right now being able to get a $30 CPU and a $30 I/O board
really, really rocks- even with OneWire, there's lots of wiring and
making surface-mount adaptations, etc- this just plugs onto your wiring
harness...the kind of thing that would otherwise cost several hundred
dollars, alone.  I've always had an itch for stuff like this.

    I expect no desktop- everything would run from a web-based thing,
since power for displays, mice, etc won't always be available. I need
this to work constantly, even a week after the shore power is gone. (Not
  a problem; there's going to be three Optima batteries in the bay!)
Also having a desktop-like approach means I have one main control
center...I just might need three: bedroom, workstation, and external.
(Max)  Making it web-based means I can use it from several locations.

    And, too, it means that folks from home can tell if I'm on shore
power, for example, if I'm pulling out.  :)  It's been a long time since
the dream in 1978, on the very beginning of my career until today in
it's twilight...but as a retirement plan, it's pretty solid.  I'm jazzed!

- --
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 Brian Fahrländer                 Christian, Conservative, and Technomad
 Evansville, IN                              http://Fahrlander.net/brian
 ICQ: 5119262                         AOL/Yahoo/GoogleTalk: WheelDweller
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