Minimal YDL install on 2-GB hard drive

[Clinton MacDonald]

Friends:

I recently obtained a 1998 "PowerBook G3 Series" (otherwise known as 
"Wallstreet"; 233 MHz G3 processor, 256 MB of RAM, 12.1 inch 800 x 600 
pixel screen). It has a 2-GB hard drive. How can I install a minimal, 
but functional version of Linux on it? What strategy should I use to 
achieve a 1-GB installation?

The Wallstreet seems to be an "Old World" machine. I created a minimal 
300 MB HFS partition for the Mac OS 9.1 installation, which went 
smoothly. I cut the swap space back to 256 MB (is that enough?) That 
left me 1520 MB of unallocated space for YDL. The YDL FAQ 
<http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/products/faq/drive_space.shtml> states 
that the following are required:

Personal Desktop: 1,901MB
Workstation: 2,258MB
Server: 855MB

By being very, very judicious in selecting packages during 
installation, I was able to pare the size to about 1550 MB -- so close! 
I really need to get the size down to around 1 GB, to leave enough room 
for actual files. :-)

I only want a few systems on this computer -- basically, I want a 
"writer's box" to run OpenOffice (or any WYSIWYG word processor that 
can read and write RTF files). I am a fan of GUIs, but I could learn to 
run some of the basics from a commandline. Therefore, I need:

[] OpenOffice.org (or something else? Abiword? K-something?)
[] a simple bibliographic program similar to Endnote (there might be 
one bundled with OO.o)
[] SSH (incoming and outgoing) to transfer files and run a few 
commandline utilities
[] a GUI file manager
[] power-management utilities for the PowerBook
[] anything else?

I would appreciate the ability to login to a streamlined version of KDE 
or Gnome, but if you can recommend alternatives, that would be great. I 
probably *don't* need Web servers, high security, development tools, 
music players, games, multiple themes and so on.

What do you recommend? Thanks!

Best wishes,
Clint

-- 
\ Dr. Clinton C. MacDonald   \ <mailto:clint.macdonald@ttuhsc.edu>
  \ Cell Biology & Biochemistry\ 806/743-2703
   \ Texas Tech University HSC  \ 806/743-2990 (FAX)
    \ Lubbock, TX 79430          \
     \ <http://www.remedy.ttuhsc.edu/cbb/faculty/macdonald/>