Hello everyone,
Seeking not just any introduction, but one as I try to incorporate it into a pretty minimal and unimpressive 8 yr-old -hand-me-down "AcerNote Light" Laptop that I was recently given...

So, it came equipped with Windows 95, it has only 16 mb of RAM, 1 gb of disk space (I
think it has 120 mhz), it has a cd-rom drive and has room for a floppy drive (though it doesn't have one installed) and slots for a lan card, which I've just installed.
I've know absolutely nothing about Linux but have been told that it takes up less resources than a Windows OS & doesn't discriminate as much when it comes to system specs and therefore would be better suited for a machine such as mine.
In doing some browsing, I came accross an application called "Virtual-Linux" at the Sourceforge.net site, which seems to improve the situation even more (as you can see by the description below). I'm in the process of getting the later beta version, v1.1:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtual-linux/
Quote: Virtual Linux
Description: Virtual Linux is basically the Mandrake Linux operating system, modified to run directly from your cd rom drive. It can be run with or without a hard drive. This is great for showing people the power and flexibility of Linux. You can put the cd in your cd rom drive and reboot....and you will soon have a powerful Linux system at your disposal...all without the hassles of loading new software or repartioning your hard drive or any of that technical stuff.
Added on: 13-Jan-2003 | Downloads: 2012 | Rating: 10.0
What I'm hoping to get out of this thread is some feedback on the particular route I'm taking in trying to best serve what little resources my laptop has to offer,
as well as for someone to either directly give me some starters on what Linux is all about & how to use it or at the very least to point me in the direction of some helpful sites/links/pdf's/doc's/any kind of literature whatsoever, etc, on Linux for beginners.
Many thanks,
Roosh :wink:
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**I do have this concern: If this Linux-install for any reason, as if an attempt at installing win 98 for that matter, were unsuccessfull, I'm not sure how I would get win 95 back on the laptop, as it came with the OS pre-installed, and I don't have any of the laptop's paperwork, disks, or anything else, let alone a Win 95 reinstallation disk...
The Laptop's Bios seems very bare bones as well: I don't see an area to set the boot configuration, that so I can set cd to #1. Otherwise, it will just keep reloading the preinstalled 95. I don't see how to get to the prompt area to go through the fdisk process...
There is the option to adjust the hard disk's size from 1gb capacity and "auto" or "user", to just 0. In that case, it appears as though, in a sense, that I've f-disked the thing, bec, when I restart it asks for the system diskette. The irony is that there's no floppy drive...
Aaaaarghhhh!!!