BeatrIX
I was running Win98 SE at the time, and I sorely needed a change. Since I like to run into things headfirst, I downloaded a distribution of Linux without knowing anything about how it works. The first flavour I downloaded was called BeatrIX (link). Apparently, it was made specifically for older computers with at least 64MB of RAM. I had 128, so I figured that I was good to go.
I burned it to a CD and popped it back in my computer, letting it run from the CD at boot. It loaded slowly, which I'm sure is due to it using Gnome as the window manager. Either way, it looked rather pretty. The first thing I needed to try out was the internet. Opened up Firefox... no dice. I fiddled around with the network connection settings and got it to work. I played around with some of the features (for a 200MB download, there wasn't a very good selection), including "install to hard drive". THat must have been the biggest mistake. I installed it over Windows... knowing fully that, since I never got a Win98 installation CD, I wouldn't be able to get it back. After some heartache, I got BeatrIX to run of my hard drive. I still didn't know how to install programs, so that hindered my progress. Actually, I still don't know how to install programs, which is why, after this trial, I only download distributions that had the programs I wanted/needed.
Another problem I had with BeatrIX is that it didn't detect my soundcard. Listening to music is my #1 priority on the computer - if I can't play music, the rest of the system doesn't matter no matter how good it is.
BeatrIX was, in the end, too much of a resource hog that slowed my system to a crawl... don't believe everything you read, kids. I had to change distros before it was too late!
...which brings me to Damn Small.
I burned it to a CD and popped it back in my computer, letting it run from the CD at boot. It loaded slowly, which I'm sure is due to it using Gnome as the window manager. Either way, it looked rather pretty. The first thing I needed to try out was the internet. Opened up Firefox... no dice. I fiddled around with the network connection settings and got it to work. I played around with some of the features (for a 200MB download, there wasn't a very good selection), including "install to hard drive". THat must have been the biggest mistake. I installed it over Windows... knowing fully that, since I never got a Win98 installation CD, I wouldn't be able to get it back. After some heartache, I got BeatrIX to run of my hard drive. I still didn't know how to install programs, so that hindered my progress. Actually, I still don't know how to install programs, which is why, after this trial, I only download distributions that had the programs I wanted/needed.
Another problem I had with BeatrIX is that it didn't detect my soundcard. Listening to music is my #1 priority on the computer - if I can't play music, the rest of the system doesn't matter no matter how good it is.
BeatrIX was, in the end, too much of a resource hog that slowed my system to a crawl... don't believe everything you read, kids. I had to change distros before it was too late!
...which brings me to Damn Small.
posted by Brenky at 6:54 PM
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