ok, i've said this before about my favorite distro of linux, if you want a system with limited space and resources, you want GENTOO, here's why:
1) its completely cost free, if you wanted to you can pay for the cds themselves, or you can download images of them from one of the mirror sites (go to gentoo.org and get into downloads)
2) for people with broadband connection, this distro is completely installable from the internet, infact i recomend that the way to go
3) the only other linux distro that Gentoo compares to is Slackware, you can change anything and build your kernel the way you want to build it, not the autoinstaller wants it to be built, which makes for a smaller kernel (If Krylen ever posts, his kernel is about 1200k, i believe)
4) Mandrake linux uses a PPS, what you need is a PMS, and there's nothing better out there than Portage, taking its roots from BSDs Port this is by far the best PMS available, makes for very simple package and system maintenance.
5) If you have questions, gentoo forums on gentoo.org have about 80,000 users in many parts of the world, if you have questions, there's someone out there that is bound to answer it.
6) Many instructions about different setups and so forth have been translated to wiki format and posted on gentoo-wiki.com
7) Limited space is not that big of a deal, for your partitioning sceme i'd recommend:
50m - boot
512m - swap
rest - linux
that makes for about 7 1/2 gigs of space for your system, how does that sound?
8) Installation handbooks can be found here:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/index.xml?catid=install
9) You will never go to another system for easier, better and faster software installations and maintenance, ever. You need an internet connection, but portage has a huge database of software (actually stored locally), all the software that you know, heard and never even thought existed is in portage, and their lists get updated every day, sometimes many times a day. So all you need to do is open up the terminal, switch to root and do emerge [options] [package] and your computer will automagically find the package, download and install it (unless you specify to only fetch it or do a dry run or something) + with portage syncs, if a newer version of the software is released, or there are any system updates, they will be downloaded and installed with one command line. (no seriously how do other people survive without portage?)
Dont get me wrong, Suse, Mandrake, Slackware and others are still linuxes, and perhaps are better distros for people with anything less than a DSL, their updates don't include software updates, and much software is preinstalled on the system, but if you have the ability to go the extra step, Gentoo is the way to go...
P.S. Irish, Knoppix boots off of a CD, and as much as it gives you a feel for linux, its still much slower than other linux distros, because it runs off of a CD. A thing i'm looking foreward to is the next generation of gentoo live CDs, supposedly they are supposed to be more like knoppix and actually be a pretty full system running off of a cd.
P.P.S. if you have really limited resources check out minix, an OS that completely fits on a floppy (due to the fact that it is completely written in assembly), and has its own browser, office and other apps, and even a webserver.
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Microsoft, the leader in using innovative tactics to promote irksome experience, coupled with antiquated technology that's held together by a pyramid of makeshift afterthoughts.
Apple, the leader in using irksome tactics to promote innovative experience, coupled with an antiquated core that's enhanced by state-of-the-art afterthoughts.
Linux, the leader in not using any tactics to promote user-defined experience, coupled with state-of-the-art core enhanced by innovative afterthoughts.
Re: Linux & Windows
Your Friendly Neighborhood Administrator
