[rescue] UNIX-like OS for a laptop

[Mike Hebel]

The steam powered teletype chattered and a message from Steve Sandau
rolled out in a wad of paper tape...
>> I have an old laptop on which I'd like to install something in the UNIX
>> constellation.  Solaris, one of the BSDs, some Linux distro, I don't
>> much
>> care.  That is, I don't much care as long as it supports the Cardbus
>> network
>> cards I have: a D-Link DWL-G630 WiFi card and a D-Link DFE-690TXD
>> Ethernet
>> card.
>>
>> Other potential issues ... it's a Taiwanese no-name laptop, P-III 600 or
>> something, and will only take 128 MB of RAM.
>>
>> I don't care about having a high-zoot GUI; command line is fine, though
>> it
>> ought to have an X Windows client.
>>
>
> I have a couple of low-memory laptops that run OpenBSD nicely. In fact,
> wireless was easier to set up on OpenBSD than Linux, I thought. Granted,
> I am using a standard Cisco card.
>
> The hardware page ( http://www.openbsd.org/i386.html ) says that both of
> those network cards are supported, too.
>
> FWIW, I run OpenBSD 3.9 on a 500MHz Toshiba Portege with 128M of RAM,
> and it works fine with XFCE. I use it for email, browsing and lots of
> terminal sessions.

OpenBSD and Fluxbox is what I use on my old CF-25 model Panasonic
Toughbook with 96 meg of ram.  Works like a dream except for the stock
CF-25 "radio" module which is proprietary as far as I know.  That and I've
never bothered to get the sound working on that box...

Mike Hebel
----
See with eyes unclouded, Think with mind uncluttered, Act with heart
unchained!