Question and info about Suse

[Tim Chase]

> what do you think about a Pentium 2 processor, 4.02 gb of hard disk, 64 
> mb of ram, video card of Trident Cyber and sound card of Ess Technologies?

Other than possibly for the sound-card...only because I haven't 
tried it and don't have any hardware compatibility lists on hand, 
so I can't vouch for it.  In all likelyhood, it will all work 
fine.  While Linux will most certainly run on such a machine, I'm 
not sure recent versions of Suse are slim and trim enough to run 
on such a beast without a lot of work.  While you mention 
gnopernicus, you don't specifically state whether you intend to 
run it in a console, or try running the GUI (the X Window System) 
wherein you would need gnopernicus.

You mention wanting braille, which sounds like a console version 
running brltty (or perhaps speakup with a braille driver?) might 
do the trick for you.

I would recommend a lighter version--debian, slackware, or gentoo 
depending on your geekiness would be my recommendations, though 
there are also a lot of folks on the list who opt for 
Red-Hat/Fedora.  It used to be modestly light, but has grown with 
time.  YMMV.  I have a P133 laptop with only 32 megs of memory 
running Debian and it seems to work quite well.  I can get X 
running on it, but it's a bit sluggish, and I wouldn't try to use 
Gnome/KDE on the poor critter.

If you are just using the console and a braille console (or 
hardware TTS), those specs should work quite well for you.  If 
you're trying to hammer in a GUI, at a mimimum, more RAM would 
certainly help.  If you're using software TTS, a slightly beefier 
processor and more RAM would likely be helpful, though possibly 
not essential.  It would just feel sluggish, I suspect.  Fine in 
a pinch, or while experimenting, but I suspect you wouldn't want 
to use it day in and day out.

Just a few thoughts from a guy who likes to keep his old dogged 
machines running, even when they're waaaay past their prime.

-tim