Richard Fateman wrote:
> I am thinking of converting an old intel laptop to run some version of unix,
> since the laptop
> is otherwise kind of redundant.
> Students here seem to prefer ubuntu.
> Is this a good idea if I want to run lisps and maxima? Or is something else
> better?
>
> It would be nice to have a simple installation, and an otherwise functioning
> unix networking system..
> Thanks for suggestions.
> _______________________________________________
> Maxima mailing list
> Maxima at math.utexas.edu
> http://www.math.utexas.edu/mailman/listinfo/maxima
>
>
I don't have any experience with Ubuntu. I have been running Fedora on
all my machines and see no reason to change. Currently, I am running
Fedora core 6 on all my home machines.
I know some people running Fedora core 8 which has some newer bells and
whistles. With Fedora one can get clisp, gcl, sbcl, cmucl, and maybe
some others. Also, in case it is interesting, intel supplies its fortran
compiler for free for non-commercial use in linux. The gmp, mpfr, mpfi,
and Chee Yap's core programs installed without a hitch. I always compile
maxima from source and have not had a problem installing it since at
least version 5.9.0.
The only problem with linux is that some things like wireless network
can be painful to set up (at least they used to be). However, 10/100
ethernet runs fine. I have been told that using ndiswrappers, one can
use windows drivers for the wireless, but I have no experience with that.
My experience with Fedora (maybe all variants of linux) is that the
execution speeds are among the fastest available for a given processor.
E.g. I have a MacBook Pro with a 2.3GHz Core 2 duo processor and 3 GB
RAM. My old Toshiba M200 laptop with a 1.83 GHz processor dual core
intel processor (i.e. slower) and 1GB RAM runs maxima code about 50 per
cent faster than the MBP. It is also very stable--like solaris used to
be. In the office I have a Fedora Core 4 box which has been up for 229
days. The last reboot was because I added a disk.
-sen
What are the specs of your laptop? BTW, you can set it up so that you
can boot either into Win-XP or linux if that is useful.