Re: [gNewSense-users] gNewsense in very old hardware

[G . Sebastián Pedersen]

On 8/18/09, Jason Self <address@hidden> wrote:
>> I would like to start using a GNU/Linux enterily free, and I was
>> wondering if there a way to install gNewsense in very old hardware (I
>> mean PIII 633 mhz. with 128 MB of RAM) because the current
>> installation don't let me. Beside, and in part that's a razon I'm
>> currently using Debian, I was wondering if there a installation way
>> like Debian (i.e. text mode with really very low hardware
>> requierements and, if wanted, very few soft installed afterwards).
>
> In the world of Ubuntu 8.04 (on which gNewSense is based), this is
> partly accomplished by an alternate install CD that boots into a text-
> based installer. It appears that gNewSense does not offer such an
> option at this time, although it would be nice.
>
> Even if such an option were available, though, in reviewing the
> alternate install CD for Ubuntu 8.04 it appears that only the
> installer is different: It appears that even this minimal text-based
> installer still installs the full desktop environment. As a result,
> even if you could boot the installer you would still run into the
> issue of running the full desktop environment.
>
> The Debian installer definitely is better in this area: You can use
> the same installer in graphical or text mode, and arrange for a /very/
> minimal installation (enough to boot the machine to a shell and not
> much more.) Even on systems that /are/ able to run the full desktop
> environment, this "less is more" philosophy is definitely appealing to
> me. I think of it as more of an "opt-in" way of installing things
> where I get to specify just exactly what I want, as opposed to the
> installer used by Ubuntu, and hence gNewSense, where it's more "opt-
> out" (I get a standard install and then remove what I don't want.)
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> gNewSense-users mailing list
> address@hidden
> http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnewsense-users
>
Thanks for your answer. You expressed very well what I have in mind
(I'm partialy held back because of my english). I love this very
minimal installation (a shell and not much more) that Debian offers,
and then install only what I need instead of a full desktop
enviroment; and, as I said, I'm also force to use it because the old
hardware I have (I'm also a little fan of low requierements softwares,
not GUI better, but that's another story... althought related with
this one). Of course I don't use de non-free repository of Debian (and
a few more that and don't remember right now) and sometimes compile
from the source some of the software (because I want to use it because
it's Free Software), but it would be great if I could install in this
way a entirely free system.

Well, keep on the good track. See you!
Sebastián.