[techtalk] swaping & upgrading

[Elizabeth]

Hi all,
  I too have been a lurker (only a few weeks though) and am ready to come
out of the shadows...
  About a month ago I started using linux regularly on a dual
win95/redhat 5.2 system.  I have several problems/questions:

1.  In relation to the discussion before about the swap directory and
Netscape and StarOffice.    
   a.How can I tell if  my swap directory is (or is not) being
utilized?  I never hear or see the HD light go on, like I do when
erWindows is using the HD for swap space- 

   b.when using (and when I installed) StarOffice it takes (took) a _very_
long time to load the program (as in minutes), once i'm using it its okay.
But I have 64 mb ram (and I think 128 swap), and from what I've read,
people are doing it with much less and more successfully.  Any idea why?
I'm using afterstep for my WM.  [Netscape does better, and only takes
seconds to load up]

2.  I need to update my redhat to at least 6.0 (normally i wouldn't be too
picky or in such a hurry, but need it to run some software for a class).
How do I go about doing this?  (and since I've just got most of linux to
act like I want it to -including my most generic ethernet card- how do I
keep from loosing that. I installed 5.2 from a CD, but don't have access
to a 6.* one;  my school has a local mirror site with 6.0 on it
(ruberducky.cs.binghamton.edu), so that is the easiest way that I am
thinking of at the moment...but I don't know where to start (i've tried
the redhat manual, but its just not making sense to me)

3. Has anyone ever done linux of any kind on a mac?           


Thanks for reading this far, and for any help that can be provided.  

Liz

bf18842 at binghamton.edu


************
techtalk at linuxchix.org   http://www.linuxchix.org