Sufficient hardware?

["Len Philpot" <lphilpot popalex1 linknet net>]

I've read numerous FAQs, HOWTOs, docs, etc., but would still like 
some "real world" feedback from those in the know...

I'm pretty new to *nix, having only installed an old SLS and 
Slackware distribution on a 486SLC-25 notebook (with 4 
megs...shudder)  :)

I'm considering buying and installing the latest (4.2?) RedHat 
distribution on an older box I have:

   486-33
   8mb RAM
   116 (118?) mb Conner HD (boot drive)
   330mb Maxtor HD (slave drive)
   Diamond SpeedStar 64 ISA video (2mb)
   Mitsumi FX001D 2x CD-ROM (proprietary interface)

There's no need to keep anything that's currently on the system, so 
it can be partitioned and configured at will. I'd _like_ to have at 
least a functional X installation (if not all the bells and whistles), 
and I'd like to install enough developmental tools to be able to 
recompile stuff as needed, although I won't be doing any actual 
development for Linux for quite a while... I also want to install 
from CD.

I seem to recall seeing somewhere that the Mitsumi FX001 and possibly 
the FX001D is supported by Linux - can anyone confirm this?

Is 116 megs enough room for this sort of installation? Should I put 
my swap partition on the Maxtor, or divide the Connor up into 100mb 
and 16mb (for swap)? The reason the Connor is the master is that I 
was told Conners quite often need to be the master drive when mixed 
with other makes... (is this true?) This and the CD are my major 
concerns. I'm assuming (from what I've heard) that the RedHat install 
is fairly sophisticated - will it handle creating multiple 
filesystems on separate physical drives? Or will I need to do this 
manually after installation?

I understand that Diamond is finally starting to work with X 
developers, but in a worst-case scenario, I can always run in 
640x480x4bpp mode if necessary (I'm assuming).

Any answers, advice or clarifications would be greatly appreciated.

  Len Philpot - Pineville, Louisiana
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lphilpot linknet net  *  http://www4.linknet.net/lphilpot/