Which extensions should I load?

[floppy]

Hello there,
I installed TinyCore Linux today and need a recommendation which extensions I should install. My PC is a low level PC (see description below).

Webbrowser (for reading my yahoo mails and such pages): opera?
Ted in order to read/modify existing word documents from the Win98 system?
Nano as text editor?
Siag in order to read/modify existing Excel2000 files?
Xpaint for opening/working with existing MS Powerpoint files?
Torsmo as system overview control?
emelfm as file manager?
which ftp file access programm?
automatic correction for the text files? Which one? (german, english, french)
Xpdf for PDF viewing
which calculator programm?
xmms for video/sound files?
which programm in order to write pdf files as printer?
(no games..)


My PC is an AMD K6-2 450MHz, Board DFI K6XV3/+66, 780MB RAM (newly.. it was 64MB 2 months ago), 6GB HDD, Ethernet Ralink PCI card, 2x USB 1.1, Fritz WLAN USB1.1 (I will have to make it running next time), hp 4110 USB (I will have to make it running next time).

Thanks for any confirmation/recommendation which should not eat the whole memory of my old boy.

Pascal

PS: floppy is the name of our pet.. a 3 years old lovely dark brown rabbit with huge ears

[Guy]

If you install extensions as On Demand, applications which you are not using will not use computer resources.

You can install applications, and you can remove applications. So you can try various applications, then those you don't want to use can be removed. To remove applications, open Apps Audit. Click Dependencies -> Build Reporting Database. When that has finished, click Mark for Deletion. You need to reboot your computer for applications to be removed.

Different people have different preferences with apps. You should find that all, or most, applications should run on your computer. Until a couple of years ago, I was using 512 mb RAM.

I use:
Leafpad text editor
Xfe file manager
The latest version of Tiny Core has a file manager and text editor on the base, so you may use them.
Firefox
Open Office
Filezilla ftp
epdfview

With On Demand applications don't use computer resources unless you run them, so you could install both Opera and Firefox, for example.

Because you can remove applications, try a number of different applications for each purpose, and remove those you don't like.

With conventionally installed operating systems, adding and removing applications, particularly if done a lot, has the potential to corrupt the filesystem. With Tiny Core, adding and removing applications will not corrupt the filesystem.

[tinypoodle]

Some observations:

With older computers limitations are a given.
Where exactly the bottleneck exists depends basically on 2 factors, hardware component specs and particular usage.

Seeing your specs I'd say you have an unusual analogy between RAM and all the rest.

You will have to research and experiment yourself with software apps to see what can as well meet your needs as well work reasonably well with your hardware, noone else could do that for you.

What I would first try with these hardware specs would be running fully in RAM, e.g. cloud/internet mode of operation with backup/restore to HDD. This would probably result in fastest operational speed, while having a certain cost of RAM which you have plentiful in relation to your other specs.

The best approach for experimenting in such case is that for each task you would start to try the software with the least requirements and see if it meets your needs satisfyingly; if not then try the next, etc. etc.

Here are some apps I would try:

• webbrowser: links and/or elinks and in need opera (not opera10). Latter would also allow you to use any webbased service for PDF viewing.
• for video/sound: MPlayer-nodeps. To save some CPU usage in comparison just for sound: mp3blaster.

For several purposes you mention there are already (minimal) apps shipped in base which I would try before any extensions:

• file manager: FLTK integrated file manager, fluff.
• editor: FLTK minimal editor. From all extensions, my preference for speed and resource usage would be e3.
• calculator: dc Tiny RPN calculator. Otherwise you may try flume.
• ftp file access programm: ftpget and ftpput. BTW, most webbrowsers can access ftp as well.
• system overview control: top. Otherwise htop and/or watcher. Note: It may be worth to have htop running when experimenting with resource usage of various apps on order to draw conclusions.

[bmarkus]

Do not miss mc (Midnight Commander). It is a text editor, file manager, ftp client, ...

[floppy]

If you install extensions as On Demand, applications which you are not using will not use computer resources.

You can install applications, and you can remove applications. So you can try various applications, then those you don't want to use can be removed. To remove applications, open Apps Audit. Click Dependencies -> Build Reporting Database. When that has finished, click Mark for Deletion. You need to reboot your computer for applications to be removed.

Different people have different preferences with apps. You should find that all, or most, applications should run on your computer. Until a couple of years ago, I was using 512 mb RAM.

I use:
Leafpad text editor
Xfe file manager
The latest version of Tiny Core has a file manager and text editor on the base, so you may use them.
Firefox
Open Office
Filezilla ftp
epdfview

With On Demand applications don't use computer resources unless you run them, so you could install both Opera and Firefox, for example.

Because you can remove applications, try a number of different applications for each purpose, and remove those you don't like.

With conventionally installed operating systems, adding and removing applications, particularly if done a lot, has the potential to corrupt the filesystem. With Tiny Core, adding and removing applications will not corrupt the filesystem.

I loaded flume (calculator) today: nice. I could not find dc tiny RPN calculator.
And i loaded htop (system overview): nice. elinks did not open on my pc, so I am using opera. Curious: by opening an hotmail account with opera it takes 150MB in RAM. But openoffice is a bit fat for my pc: are there not another solution? (read/write existing Word and Excel files; optionally powerpoint files). For the editor I stay still with vi (i will test the others when i have more time).

[SamK]

...openoffice is a bit fat for my pc: are there not another solution? (read/write existing Word and Excel files...

It might be worth looking at abiword and gnumeric.
   

[tinypoodle]

I could not find dc tiny RPN calculator.

Code: [Select]

dc -h
 

[MikeLockmoore]

I loaded flume (calculator) today: nice. I could not find dc tiny RPN calculator.

Hi, I'm the Flume guy.  It's kind of funny you want a RPN calculator. Flume is RPN "under the covers." Not surprising since I've been a hobbiest Forth programmer (mostly in the `90's) for a long time.  Also, I just used my old HP RPN calculator on my kitchen table just a few days ago.    Would an RPN mode for Flume be totally nutty?  But I have a lot of other things I'm doing short-term.
--
Mike Lockmoore

[floppy]

I loaded flume (calculator) today: nice. I could not find dc tiny RPN calculator.

Hi, I'm the Flume guy.  It's kind of funny you want a RPN calculator. Flume is RPN "under the covers." Not surprising since I've been a hobbiest Forth programmer (mostly in the `90's) for a long time.  Also, I just used my old HP RPN calculator on my kitchen table just a few days ago.    Would an RPN mode for Flume be totally nutty?  But I have a lot of other things I'm doing short-term.
--
Mike Lockmoore

hello mike. not funny. I used an HP41CV years ago. made some programs on it.. so I know RPN.. it was totally fun: during ma baccalaureat year in france nobody could use it except myself and one professor in the whole college. I will have again a look at flume how deep the RPN soul is in it. RPN would make running again parts of my brain (since i moved to a sales department) and avoid me to get old and grumpy. my hp41cv is still somewhere in the house. RPN would be adapted for my PC (age).

[MikeLockmoore]

@floppy-stuttgart : Open a terminal, then start Flume with --t 2 on the command-line:

  $ flume --t 2

Now whatever expression you enter, you will see the evaluation list and running result of each step.  Maybe I could allow Flume users to enter something like this directly if an RPN mode is added.  No promise, though!

Everyone else: sorry to hijack this thread.

[floppy]

Some observations:

With older computers limitations are a given.
Where exactly the bottleneck exists depends basically on 2 factors, hardware component specs and particular usage.

Seeing your specs I'd say you have an unusual analogy between RAM and all the rest.

You will have to research and experiment yourself with software apps to see what can as well meet your needs as well work reasonably well with your hardware, noone else could do that for you.

What I would first try with these hardware specs would be running fully in RAM, e.g. cloud/internet mode of operation with backup/restore to HDD. This would probably result in fastest operational speed, while having a certain cost of RAM which you have plentiful in relation to your other specs.

The best approach for experimenting in such case is that for each task you would start to try the software with the least requirements and see if it meets your needs satisfyingly; if not then try the next, etc. etc.

Here are some apps I would try:

• webbrowser: links and/or elinks and in need opera (not opera10). Latter would also allow you to use any webbased service for PDF viewing.
• for video/sound: MPlayer-nodeps. To save some CPU usage in comparison just for sound: mp3blaster.

For several purposes you mention there are already (minimal) apps shipped in base which I would try before any extensions:

• file manager: FLTK integrated file manager, fluff.
• editor: FLTK minimal editor. From all extensions, my preference for speed and resource usage would be e3.
• calculator: dc Tiny RPN calculator. Otherwise you may try flume.
• ftp file access programm: ftpget and ftpput. BTW, most webbrowsers can access ftp as well.
• system overview control: top. Otherwise htop and/or watcher. Note: It may be worth to have htop running when experimenting with resource usage of various apps on order to draw conclusions.

I could not find fptget and fptget in the extension directory. So, I loaded filezilla.

[tinypoodle]

I think you misunderstood (and misspelled as well)...
Just type 'ftpget' resp. 'ftpput' in a terminal and hit 'Enter'


Not any extension, they are already included in TC base.

[floppy]

thanks.. I should avoid any Rosé wine during christmas activities at my pc.
So, I loaded filezilla.. but nothing is coming up.. (not working? bug?)
ftpget and ftpput are.. in TCL. Wonderfull.
So, how can I put file "formylovelywife.txt" into the "ftp://fritz.box/SanDisk-U3CruzerMicro-01/exchange/" and get all files from here into my pc?
(my pc and my wife laptop are connected to a fritzbox 7170 with an USB storage called SanDisk.. on it for exchanging files between the computers.. so my theory and my secret wish).
First sucess of the day: this "ftp://fritz.box/SanDisk.." is accessed by my wife laptop (via nautilus with ubuntu 10.04).. but my old pc with TCL 3.4 is not accessing it at this time.
Has somebody an Idea
a) why filezilla is not working
b) how to use fptget and fptput? (an error message is coming with "can't connect to remote host (62.157.140.133): Connection refused")

[tinypoodle]

1. http://ftp:// looks wrong...
2. Are you sure there is a ftp server running on that box?

Edit: That IP is within a public IP Range, so you have to get the url or IP right first.

[floppy]

I dont really know.. the only thing I know is that when I give "ftp..andthewholepath" intro Nautilus in the Asus Ubuntu 10.04 of my wife, I have access to the USB Memory which is linked to the Fritz Box 7170    .. Sorry for the poor answer.
here is my wlan box:  http://www.avm.de/en/Produkte/FRITZBox/FRITZ_Box_Fon_WLAN/index.php