On Oct 6, 2009, at 2:23 AM, Sorin Srbu wrote: >> -----Original Message----- >> From: centos-bounces at centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On > Behalf >> Of Paul Heinlein >> Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 12:35 AM >> To: CentOS mailing list >> Subject: Re: [CentOS] How fast? >> >> The bigger issue is ensuring that an older computer has enough disk >> space to house a modern distro and enough RAM to run modern kernels >> -- >> and even then you can tighten things up if you're willing to work >> with >> a speciality distro. > > I second that, nicely put! > > If I may suggest Smoothwall for a firewall appliance...? This is a > specialty > distro, IPCop is another similar distro. Smoothwall's even got a > simple > static DNS built-in, just the thing for a smallish home network. > Might be > just what the OP is looking for? > -- i know I used to use a Linux PC as a firewall for my home system. Back before the inexpensive routers, and before the fairly easy to find specialty loads. The thing that got me away from it was it was my only Linux system at the time, and a botched update ended up with me having an unbootable system. And an emergency trip to Staples to buy the distribution they had there. A couple days without a protected home network, and I decided to eventually go with a dedicated box. Things would be different if I wanted to get fancier than what these standalone systems provided. But right now, I don't need the extra capability.