I just found an old laptop

[pummer]

Here are the specs:
486 proc
16mb ram
300mb hard drive
floppy drive
PCIMCA slot
Windows for Workgroups 3.11.

There are a couple things I'd like to do with it, if at all possible:

1. Use it as an external display for my current computer, for stats and things, kind of in the manner of a Crystalfontz LCD. The only way I see of doing this is via the parallel port in some manner, or perhaps serially. I don't know if there's a program that'll do this though, on any OS (I'm not opposed to throwing a nix distro on this comp, or even upgrading sufficiently for Win95 or NT4).

2. Use it for a general *nix comp, perhaps with BitchX, some form of web browsing, some security tools. It'd be great if I could get it web-connected; I need a NIC, modem, or (preferably) wireless card for PCIMCA. What linux distros are pretty easy to configure, and can be installed via floppy? I guess what I'm looking for is something like Knoppix, but that'll run on a floppy I know I'm not going to find something like that. Text-based is fine, but graphical would obviously be better.

Any input is appreciated.

 

[David]

If you are looking for floppy based linux try TomsRTBT: http://www.toms.net/rb/

Its a basic floppy distro.

I can't think of any floppy-based Linux distro off the top of my head but perhaps if you got a PCMCIA network card for it and then used a floppy to format the hard disk and put a basic Linux system on it you could use FTP to download packages and then install them on your laptop. Kinda like a build it yourself disto.

 

[pummer]

If you are looking for floppy based linux try TomsRTBT: http://www.toms.net/rb/

Its a basic floppy distro.

I can't think of any floppy-based Linux distro off the top of my head but perhaps if you got a PCMCIA network card for it and then used a floppy to format the hard disk and put a basic Linux system on it you could use FTP to download packages and then install them on your laptop. Kinda like a build it yourself disto.

That would work, but I'm a veritable Linux noob. I'm gonna have to read more on it. Thanks