My first Linux experience: Overwhelmingly positive.

Fluxbox is great but takes too much manual setting up for me. I like my menus to work without me having to create the structure myself.

(Mind you, maybe I just didn't try hard enough when I had a go with Fluxbox - it just wouldn't import the menu structure in from Gnome)

I've had a go with Xubuntu and it's great for low power machines. I think you'd only get a minimal improvement with fluxbuntu.

There's also Ubuntu Lite. Site currently down, but basically it uses IceWM instead of XFCE. I personally think Xubuntu is for you, since it's been out longer and has a bigger user base.

If you want to find more, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Linux_distributions#Architecture_support. Look up all the ones that support ppc. The desktop environment probably shouldn't be KDE or GNOME, as they're pretty intense graphically (XFCE, IceWM, JWM, and FluxBox should work).

I'm not all that well versed in my *buntu's, but there's got to be some way to install WindowMaker. That is one damn fine window manager, and is based off of the work done with the Step series of GUI's (NEXTStep, AfterStep, OpenStep, GNUStep). It's extremely light weight, and one of my favorite GUI's.

I use the fluxbuntu as well mainly bvecause i couldnt get the xubuntu to install on this old laptop
I also really like dsl.. with the toram option is it very fast
DSL-n is a bit bigger than dsl, but still mega fast and works great on old machines as well
arch is another decent alternative

not knowing much about linux, i have played with it off and on through out the years.
these links helped me a bit tweaks some speed. Set up ubuntu edgy for speed he has a few journels showing him installing ubuntu on machines from 75mhz +
same guy this is the first thread i found..make ubuntu like arch. he is a bit of a noob as well, but i find this helps as they are less likely to just skip a bunch of steps and leave you hanging.. like i saw on another how to "if your screen is messed up just nano the xorg.conf"
and that was the entire paragraph, he just moved on.

I'd say to stay with Xubuntu as well. It will run as well as you need it to on the machines you're using.

Here's a link for WindowMaker:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=85363

When I was using an old p200 with 64Mb ram - fluxbox was my choice of window manager. However, it does require a bit more work to set up. You'll need a desktop manager if you want icons on the desktop for instance, and you'll need to set up what file manager to use.

If Xubuntu works for you, and it's fast enough, I'd recommend sticking with it - but please do experiment with fluxbox, you migth find something you like for yourself.

The biggest 'trick' is really finding applications that are lightweight enough to run on the machines. Instead of firefox, you might want to try epiphany, it should be somewhat easier on the meagre resources those imacs can call on. Word processor: try abiword instead of openoffice - it's *much* faster and uses very little memory. You may also want to take a look at 'LYX' - which is a structured document editor. Lyx is somewhat closer to Framemaker than a regular word processor, but it's got a lot of advantages. Beautiful documents being one of them. Spreadsheet: gnumeric.
Music player: xmms.
Terminal: you might want to see if aterm is ligther than the default xubuntu one. Cdplayer: grip
Email: sylpheed (instead of evolution)
DTP: scribus
Vector graphics: inkscape
If you want to introduce your students to programming - python is IMHO the way to go.

VI! If your students can learn vi, they can learn anything on Linux ;)

I make no qualms that I am a huge Ubuntu fan boy. If, as rumor has it, VMWare Workstation 6 will support at least DirectX 8, which means DX9 is right around the corner, I may never boot directly to Windows again.

BUT, I haven't used Xubuntu. Did see this:
OK, well, I can't post a link (still a new user after 6 months???), but if you go to xubuntu.org, Help and Support, Xubuntu Desktop Guide, that's the link I tried to send.

To get to Synaptic (which is your application manager), go to Applications->System->Synaptic Package Manager. Synaptic is great for adding and removing applications. As to what HSers might need? There are a ton of possibilities, from typical "office" applications to calculators to modeling to programming...you'll find everything you need in Synaptic.

I'd guess that most of the management portion will be in System.

HTH.

ScooterDMan,

Installing software is a piece of cake. Ubuntu uses a program called Synaptic to do all the hard work for you. You can read more about it and find out how to use it here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto

Good luck and if you really want to wow the kids see if you can get your hands on a beefier box and load Ubuntu and Beryl. It will blow their minds.

Hey, there's an easier method:
http://monkeyblog.org/ubuntu/installing/

It includes a ton of other methods.

You can see for yourself. http://youtube.com/results?search_query=beryl&search=Search

I'm not sure if it works with Parallels, I'm a Linux/Windows guy.

Beryl is sweet (in my not so humble opinion, easily the best window manager), but from the sounds of it, your computers won't have the horsepower to run it. Also, I believe that Parallels can't quite yet do 3D acceleration, which is a necessity. From what I've seen, Parallels is working hard toward 3D acceleration along with VMWare.

Nice link, Online Apps.

Beryl is very cool, however it is certainly not something you want to put on those ancient computers.

In essence it allows for all sorts of fancy effects in your desktop environment. Fading windows, "wobbly windows," and more.

I'm not really a fan of the flashy-for-the-sake-of-being-flashy school of design/programming, but sweet damn that was damn sweet.

I only used Ubuntu for about a day, I downloaded the live CD just to play around with it. I have no real desire to switch to Linux as OS X gives me everything I need* but I was very impressed.

*This is not to say OS X is quantifiably better than Ubuntu or any of its various flavors, and I have no interest in starting yet another OS debate, but simply OS X is better for me than Ubuntu....at the moment.

berly is more than flash for the sake of flash, i actaually find some of the eye candy useful.
i like the copy from under a window and have it roll up as i highligh and the cut through a window to grab things underneith.

and yeah parrells and what vmware are doing with virtualization is going to be amazing.. and now the new cps with virtualization support built in.. the underlineing os will start to lose meaning, as you can run what ever you want on any os, without the slownesss of past vm sessions or being stuck in a box.
I really think that will change things a lot.
and i for one cant wait
and yeah vmware sorta leaked some of the 3d stuff.. man it is going to be cool when they get all that worked out.

everything you say is true but i would like to meantion there is a very very ripped down version of xp for older systems as well that most people dont seem to know about.
Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs
it isnt nearly as good of a choice as ubuntu.. but is more secure than 9x
I only post this for info only I do NOT suggest. Well if you could get it free and really really hated linux and still had a win9x machine, then by all means upgrade that beast.. but otherwise, total waste of money and not as good as ubuntu anyway. win xp flp

Besides, he's got PowerPCs. You can't install Windows on a PowerPC. WinFLP is pretty interesting though.. thanks for the link.

I was thinking more about if he had a more manly machine as a personal workstation like my new iMac.

I had not heard about Fluxbuntu until I read this article either. The *buntu distros are multiplying like rabbits.

while i have only installed it.. i will say i got flux to install to hd where xubuntu would play games with me by hanging at random spots in the install.. i once got all the way up to 92%(and yeah i was paitent.. over night each time)
fluxbuntu just worked..maybe because it was smaller i dont know..
Most forrums suggested though that if you wanted the lighter weight of fluxbox, it is better to install xubuntu and than change to fluxbox.. because xubuntu is quick to be updated.. ofcouse this is if you can actually install it..

Oops, I see that you are using Xubuntu rather than Edubuntu.

I don't think you really need OpenOffice.org AND AbiWord. Audacity is great, as is Sunbird (unless you like being a beta tester, then you could try the http://linux.suramya.com/tutorials/Install_GIMPShop/"here" s="s" a="a" link="link" to="to" ubuntu="ubuntu" compatible="compatible">a>) over GIMP, but that's just my preference.

Whoops! Here's the comment I meant to leave:
I don't think you really need OpenOffice.org AND AbiWord. Audacity is great, as is Sunbird (unless you like being a beta tester, then you could try the Lightning extension for Thunderbird). I prefer GIMPShop (Ubuntu compatible one) over GIMP, but that's just my preference. It depends if you've used Photoshop before.

It is incredibly easy to get Linux running under Parallels. If you don't want to mess around with installing it at all just download the DVD image and run it as a live CD in a VM.

If you're gonna play with Audacity, grab Hydrogen too so you can make some drum beats :)

10.2 doesn't run nearly as well on those old machines as 10.3 - I had 10.2 on an original bondi blue 233mhz iMac and it was bordering on unusable - but with 10.3 it was a vast improvement and made the machine fine for general tasks.

I run a lab of Macs ranging from brand new flatscreen Intels back to no-Firewire / 128 / 4GB ancient iMacs like the one in question, and they're all actually running the most current version of 10.4, complete with Office 2004, Firefox, and a few other things (iWork is, alas, pretty much useless when you go that far back). Certainly not optimized for best use of clock cycles, but for the sake of consistency and for everything they're used for (web, word processing), Tiger works just fine.

(Note, though, that you can't merely install it from a Tiger install disc; I use for all my lab installations.)

Ugh. No links allowed? Bah!

That should've read "I use NetRestore for all my lab installations." :)

You may be right about that. I'm not sure, never tried it. On the other hand, I saw a Wikipedia article that said:

It also aims to allow resource-poor environments to maximize their available (older) equipment.

You could also just install the KDE Edutainment project and the SchoolTool calendar. They're two of the three key parts of Edubuntu (the third piece is targeted to 2-10 year olds, so I'm assuming you don't want it).

There are also a couple other educational stuff out there, such as The Cutter Project (based on SuSE) and DebianEdu (based on Debian, like (X)Ubuntu).

I second the vote for the KDE edutainment packages. Also, what you can do is boot an Edubuntu CD on your own (more powerful) machine and look at what sort of software the Edubuntu team chose. That might serve as inspiration. And at any time you can use Add/Remove Software to browse through a sizeable selection of edutainment (not just for KDE). KDE-based software will run on your XFCE-based desktops, by the way, Xubuntu will make sure to include the required libraries.

Also, get the maths and geometry teachers to peek at all the nice free software educational tools available on those topics. It might make them envious! Check out Kig for example, an interactive geometry exploration tool like the commercial Cabri.

The KDE Potato guy will keep your stoned friends amused for hours too.

Haha, I suppose that's the closest you'll ever get to it. Plus, you don't exactly need a ton of computing power. You solved and addressed the problem correctly. Congrats.

It might slow them down (or it might not), but check out this guide: Make Ubuntu look like OSX
http://www.taimila.com/ubuntuosx.php

thats the problem, they should use gimp
they also have a version gimpshop i think that is more like photoshop than just gimp.
I think you can get started in college but technology moves to fast for them.. or atleast way back when when i went.. i was always annoyed at how far back behind the times they were.
Get some fundementals, and confidence, and then get the heck out of there.. and learn on your own

Hah, that's definitely good advice. I should probably learn on my own. I'm just too busy. I think I have confidence and already know some of the fundamentals of photoshop. Maybe I'll take a class over the summer that is more in depth at one of the colleges nearby. Doesn't every teenager want to get the hell out of where they live?

I like Gimp a lot. I've never used Photoshop and since I learned Gimp first I don't have the crossover problems that a lot of people have.

Gimp is an excellent image editing tool. You can get a native Windows version too.

one of the few problems i have with Linux isnt a problem with linux.
Drivers and codecs.. ok yeah i can wrap non standard wireless drivers from the windows versions but it isnt quite as easy as windows and i know this is the manufactures fault.
AS well as certain codecs, that arent offcially legal of linux.
Once again not a problem with linux..
You can spend hours fixing easy problems like this... that said it is free

I find it's getting easier to find solutions for Linux problems then Windows ones. When I have a Linux issue I can usually find something that points to a solution. With many Windows issues you can find a lot of other people having the same problem but not always a solution.

That's the beauty of Open Source. The only limit on how deep you can dig to solve a problem is your technical expertise and there is almost always someone out there who has said expertise and has spent the time digging.

We had a technical issue at my last job that we sent to Microsoft support and 18 months later the all they could tell us is that they couldn't figure it out either.

GCompris is from ages 2 to 10, so I wouldn't use it in a high school....

Everything else is great though.

Scribus will run just fine on those machines. I run it on an ibook G3 800 Mhz machine, however, because of your memory limitations, I would recommend exiting firefox before running scribus.

Check out this link It seems to say that InDesign can read PDF's from Scribus, if I'm reading it correctly.

I'm glad to see someone mention LaTeX to you. I can't emphasize it enough: LaTeX is *brilliant*. Every 10th grader who learns how to use it will save years of drudgery formatting his documents with Microsoft Word or whatever. LaTeX is the single best computer tool you can bring to them.

My 8th grader prepares her papers by logging into my NetBSD machine from her Mac. She uses an ordinary text editor to prepare her papers. When the first draft is done, she pastes a preamble at the top, puts "\end{document}" at the bottom, and prints a typeset version of her work. The only thought she gives to questions of format owe to clueless rules imposed by the school (1" margins, double-spaced, 12 point "Times New Roman". As though the teacher can distinguish Times New Roman from a dozen other serif fonts.)

Encourage them to use LaTeX, and to let LaTeX exploit its knowledge of typesetting, and to learn from it. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

That one is available through fink on the Mac too. Fun program.

Try Wikipedia. They've at least got screen shots. Also, here's a guide:
http://www.pcmech.com/show/os/917/

BobG-128875, I recommend getting a Ubuntu live CD. You can boot from it and play around with Ubuntu without changing anything on your PC. I did that with one PC and it worked so well that I soon installed it

There is an article that covers that at www dot coulier.org slash CMS/MDV_2007_homeusers_1_EN.html. This site does not let me enter the link in the normal way (what a stupidity!), but just replace dot by . and slash by / and you have it.

Puppy doesn't look as nice though. Even if it looks like XP.

http://digg.com/linux_unix/My_first_Linux_experience_Overwhelmingly_positive
It's on the front page.

This was all a scam to make money off of ads, right ;-)?

Wow, 937 diggs after I dugg it. Not bad.