[COMP] Re: Dancing paul!

Thank you for dancing Paul, as well as the many other tips I pick up through
the years by keeping my subscription going here.  Maybe you or someone can
give me advice on the issue contained in the following:
I have an old Gateway 486-based machine, with 16M RAM, on which I have both
DOS/Win 95 and Slakware 7.1 Linux coexisting peacefully.  I long ago tried
experimenting around with Linux, crashing this machine with earlier versions
of Slakware, then installing/uninstalling S.U.S.E. 6.0 (6.2 wouldn't install
because of the extinct Phillips 2X CD-ROM in the machine), RedHat 5.0 & 6.0
(same problem)...and now have a full version of the 2.2 kernel with this
Slakware release and all of its pretty array of window managers and
desktops.  It is good for learning the arcane UNIX-based commands, playing
around with files/directories, and fancifully daydreaming about networking
with the other machines accumulating around here,  but ultimately it needs
to do two things which DOS/Wintel have always been able to do for me without
too much giref, and that is (a) print word-processed documents & graphics
and (b) connect to the net.   The former problem I feel I can eventually
muddle through with interfaces such as Gostscript and downloadable "fixes",
but the latter problem has been complicated by the ISP's I have abandoning
the old login scripts and making their servers less accessible  except by
the more comlicated Windows-based interface programs.  I have had to pull
off my trusty 14.4 kps modem and put in something that at least advertises
up to 56K in the ISA slot; it works fine through DOS/Win95, and on booting
up Linux I see it swirl by on the startup screen --- but I am pulling out
what remains of my hair on simply getting the thing to work, "be seen", by
Minicom, Seyon or the KDE or GNOME desktop icons.   My problem is that I
know just enough to get myself into trouble, but not enough to glean a
sloution to the problem.  So I am throwing this out to see if any interested
or sympathetic guru might reply by pointing me in a direction as to where to
go next.  Any and all helpful replies gratefully appreciated, and I listen
to the the not-so-charitable ones as well.




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