Newbie: Little laptop, no CD, huge problems and questions

[Little Toshi]

I don't know where to start, but I think little knoppix distribution would help me work faster than Windows '95 does (I get very sleepy on the internet)
What I have:

-Toshiba Satellite T2130 CT ( Intel Dx4 75 Mhz - Dd 520 Mo - 8 Mo Ram (640*480 256 colours))
-Xircom realport Ethernet PCMCIA Adaptor.
Both working well, but sloooow

What I want
-E-mail
-Browse the internet
-Wordprocessing
Problems
-start from scratch, having no CD, but only floppydrive and networkconnection (to full-feautured server and/or internet) Windows 95 installed.
-Which distribution should I take (200 Mb max)

I don't like to admit,but I know nothing about linux. Only booted Knoppix 3.1 once on my desktop PC (from CD) and i thought it was still a bit slow (due to CD-boot)

[fastvfr]

If you can see the network drives, why not set up an iso of Slax on one of them and boot to that?

You can use GAG to do this...but only if the BIOS has networking capabilities.

If not, do you have USB ports on that little Toshiba?

Win95 may not support 'em, but that isn't important. What IS important is, does your BIOS support BOOTING from them?!

If so, then an external CD-RW/DVD-ROM is just the ticket for you.

Good luck!

FastVFR

[OErjan]

here is a interesting alternative for your situation.
http://tiny.seul.org/
used it myself several times, i guess you need some 20 floppies (actually 14 but a few extra never hurts) and loOoOooOts of patiense (floppies are s l o OO o o o w).
I use either this or Debian-netinstall for most of these low end computers, then i use:
links, for browsing (links -g gives framebuffer graphics).
Mutt, for mail
vi or emcs for wordprocessing.
abiword is another semi-light alternative for that.
EDIT actually i use a stripped down install of Slackware 10 on a p1 @ 100Mhz but that has 74Mb ram... total that install is some 150Mb or so/EDIT

[OErjan]

fastvfr: as far as i know not many 486 computers have USB, that came along around p166MMX or so, p233 and up almost always have USB but...
the sad part about the two alternatives above are that they are somewhat complicated and require a desent knowledge of linux (not guru but bit hard for a newcommer).

[shah]

For 486 system I would suggest damn small linux (DSL). It didn't required much memory or processing power and the size is only 50M.
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
or feather linux
http://featherlinux.berlios.de/booting.html
read how to boot without using floppy, cdrom or usb. You can do a poorman hdd install or read this forum, on how to install onto system without cdrom, on
Toshiba T-4900ct same spec as yours:
http://featherlinux.berlios.de/phpBB...opic.php?t=690

Good luck.

[teckjunkie]

I would also Reccomend damn small linux. (I use it on my old 486 laptop)