A while ago, my father-in-law gave me a hand-me-down laptop. It runs windows 95 and is pretty much useless to me now, since
A) The battery is shot and therefore has to be plugged in everywhere
B) It doesn't have a network card
C) The only development software installed is Visual C++ 6 Student Edition
I'd like to make use of it, so I've decided to install a linux distro on it and use it to learn more about linux and program in other rooms than the one I'm always stuck in (the hottest in the whole place). I looked at linux.org at various distros, looking for one that doesn't require broadband access, would run on an older machine, and came with g++. I looked through the previous thread on favorite distros, as well.
I tried the gentoo Live CD, but when I boot it, it gives me the boot prompt, and regardless of the kernel/options I choose, it restarts the computer, which gives me the boot prompt. Regardless of the kernel/options I choose, it restarts the computer, which...
The Live CD works fine (though the resolution seems off) on a different computer, so I assume there's something with that laptop that won't boot gentoo. Fine. I then downloaded few minimalist distros, most of which booted fine, but none of which included g++. Without a network/internet connection, I can't download the modules/packages that include g++ for a given distro to the laptop.
What I'm looking for is a linux distro that will run on that machine, doesn't require internet access to install, and comes with g++ standard (and vim or pico or something I can create my .cpp files with). The laptop does have a 3.5" floppy drive, so I can transfer files back and forth that way once I get it running.
As I'm sure is plainly obvious from the above, I am almost totally new to linux. I have a SuSE box that I have limited experience with. I am trying to get that one to acknowledge my router so I can pass files back and forth and test my code's portability. (That's a whole 'nother issue )
Any advice on a particular distro that would fit, or a way to get g++ added to one of the distros I have would me more than greatly appreciated. I don't even need a desktop. A command line interface would be great, maybe even ideal.