Jack,
Thanks for the info! Sadly I've already hit a problem, so while I've found a suggestion I wanted to run it by you as well. I tried to install from CD, got to the point where debian says it is loading linux, and after a little while the process stops and the screen turns into lots of differently coloured blocks, some of them flashing. Sounds like a video issue! I can't find any site still available that has info on the 520D, but a site for the 555T (which is the closest number I can find with the same graphics chip) suggested using the TECRA boot floppies ("guaranteed to work"!), but if this is something you ran into I'd be please to hear from you.
Cheers, Paul
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Having run Linux on that exact configuration I'll make the following suggestions:
1. Distro - probably doesn't matter. When I had this system running until last year when the 32MB RAM chip blew, I ran a variety of things and the last one was SuSE 6.4. (At that point I had a 4GB HD so I had plenty of space.) If you want sound get something that has OSS.
2. Window manager: Ice WM. Not reasons, I just like it. ;-)
3. Browser: Opera. Either the free version with the banners or pay for the ad-less version. Netscape is okay once it gets started. Unfortunatly half the sites you want to visit will go out of existance waiting for that to happen!
Check the Linux Laptops site (url escapes me at this time) because they have a good discussion of the machine and configuration. If you run into any issues contact me off-list and I'll be glad to offer words of encouragment if not advice.