Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Details About Lazarus

As stated in the previous post, Lazarus is an old eMachines. Specifically, he is an etower 500ix. Here are some of his specs:
Processor: Intel Celeron 500 MHz
Memory: 64 MB
Operating system: Windows 98 SE
Hard drive: 10 GB
Other drives: CD-ROM, 3.5" floppy

Lazarus was purchased in early 2000 at an office store in eastern Oregon. My in-laws kept the receipt and all other paperwork associated with Lazarus, which they gave to us along with the tower.

Eventually, this may well turn into Operation Bionic Linux Box, in which I gradually upgrade the machine from the inside out. However, I am keeping hardware modifications to a minimum right now for 2 reasons:

1. I'd like to see what is possible with these limited resources.
2. Money's a bit tight at the moment.

So for the time being, the only hardware change is going to be adding an Ethernet card, as Lazarus only does dial-up in his current state. Fortunately, Ethernet cards are cheap, and money isn't that tight.

Also, I need a KVM switch. I've done a little research on this. I'd like to get one with a button toggle, but it looks like those are outside my budget right now, so keyboard toggle it is.

Some of you may be wondering which flavor of Linux I plan to use. I plan to experiment with several of them and will, of course, detail my experiences with each distro here. Stay tuned!

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