[Techtalk] Do I even think about upgrading it?

[caitlynmaire at earthlink.net]

Hi, Dave,
> 
> You're not! In my case, economics have little to do with it an
> affection for the equipment is the motive, but who cares?

Actually, with the Libretto 20, that is a very big part of it.  The
20CTA was never sold in the US.  It has an English/Kanji keyboard.  It
was the very first of a very successful and ongoing line.  Besides, it's
just plain a neat box.
> 
> > It's a 486DX4-75 with 16MB of RAM and an 810MB hard drive.
> 
> I run a zenith with a 48633/16MB + 540mb HD.

Close enough :)
> 
> Depends on what your idea of usable is. It should run; RH 7.0 and SuSE
> 7.0 both ran on my Zenith, but verrrrry slowly (and the cramming
> involved was awful). SuSE 6.4 ran better ... but it was still draggy.

I would describe 6.0 (with IceWM 1.03 as the WM) as slow but very
usable.  From what you are telling me I probably want to stick with what
I have.
> 
> > How much slower is RH 7.2 than 6.0?
> 
> In my experience, a lot.

That's what I was afraid of.
> 
> Only if you have no fear of the reaper ... and can back up your system
> and restore it effectively.

That's what NFS is for :)

> 	True, you have more horsepower than me, but not much. And fact
> 	is,
> I found all the distros save one to run very poorly on my Zenith:
> Debian. They're still supporting 4MB RAM installs (with 'slink' which
> is theoretically obsolete but still gets updated). I've been thinking
> of trying woody, but don't care that much.
> 	Anyway, I found the debian setup much more zippy on my wheezer,
> 	so
> you might want to try that route. The new 'fat' distros just bog mine
> down to the point where I just don't want to run them.

Understood.  I'm thinking seriously about Vector Linux 2.5, a Slackware
derivative designed for small footprint and lightweight hardware.  Have
you tried Vector at all?  If so, any comments?

> Though RH is my current pick of the litter (and has often rated flat
> bottom in the past. My scales slide all over the place depending on
> Who Did The Stupidest Thing Last).

Sounds like my feelings exactly.

Thanks for narrowing my choices.

All the best,
Caity