Howto live with dialup and be happy ?
Submitted by atang1 on Sun, 03/26/2006 - 10:26.
Since 90% of computers have dialup modem, you can be happy, if you:
1) update your Pctel to v0.92 firmware to add a little more speed upload and download.
2) use 5x speed(extra cost) increase with reduced bandwidth ISP.
3) Never download freeware, to avoid virus and spyware unless you use livecd.
4) Never use middleware such as popup blockers.
5) Frequent garbage collection to clean up swap memory by restarting browser.
6) Avoid overloaded ISP or use their cheat sheet for one of their spare servers(less than 25,000 other users per server).
7) Use your ISP on off peak hours.
Use your favourite websites on off peak hours.
9) Learn to avoid denial of service by email with your ISP technical staff often.
10) Try modem telephone cable in different length(matched inpedance) to get better speed connecting to your ISP.
11) Clean cable connector contact resistance to reduce noise for better connection speed. 12) Increase modem signal volume(at command M, m1, m2) to send stronger signals to get better connection speed to ISP.
Good Luck.
How to build a distro from tiny to full blown ?
We can easily start with 37mb of Linux kernels compressed tgz image. Add abiword, Rox on Fvwm, busybox, Xfce, etc. including Firefox or Opera. This is the basis for Tiny Linux at about 50-60 mb of compressed image for livecd, dektop version only. Some of the software mentioned can be plug-ins or extensions for browsers mentioned including mplayer, xmms, Xine etc to run internet multimedia.
To add KDE is relatively easy and the MIDI distro balloned to close to 200 mb. KDE will do most of the languages around the world. And Konqueror has control center and kpackage of software you can add. KDE includes search engine and file manager, but no bbs server yet.
Then you could add LAMPSSS or LAPPSSS to make your desktop build and run a repository of servers on ethernet. This building block is very interesting, and can be bug free with care to build up the software. The distro then becomes full blown, even if its 500-750 mb compressed image. Of course more applications can be added and written by using phpMysql.
If you are interested, Please visit http://austrumi.mypunbb.com for discussions of how to build from Austrumi architecture. And how to work around a livecd archtecture. The discussions are design oriented, not codes oriented. because we are on top of the architecture, and add functions needed or rather packages added with all the library included to make everything work, which depends on having all the dependency files available. Then debugging can begin.
If you look at Linux philosophy of shared modules to write once and use forever; you will appreciate the interchangeable parts(upto package level such as KDE or LAMPSSS) of building a tiny Linux operating system and then add parts to become a full blown operating system.
How to turn a distro around to a new migration path ?
Puppy started wonderfully with Mandrak 9.2 linux kernel, substtuted with Fvwm window manager that looks and feel like Windows95. It has Abiword and Rox and many software to pretend to be a big distro.
Puppy then developed into a developers' Linux version using Vector Linux(tiny Slackware) to add simple codes to have fuctions not available before. Adding taskbar to JWM desktop is one of the new projects in Puppy 2.x alpha version. What this leads to, is a Puppy no longer serve a purpose of even being useable. Bugs galore for the challenge to their Puppy followers to test and debug.
To turn them around, a Puppy v3.0 is proposed to have a migration path to have functional Puppy again. Please visit http://puppy.mypunbb.com for discussions of how to retrograde the versions now available. Then add browser beyond Firefox or SeaMonkey to include all the software now ran on the desktop. Let us see if there might be some surprises coming, in the turn around approach?
Footnote:
When tiny Linux people strip down the full distro, the remarks and some drivers are removed. They have to go back to full Linux kernels to build the distro back up. You can not start with a stripped down Vector Linux to build up to a full blown Linux operating system. Missing Linux commands had to be restored too.