best OS for a P2-333

[faye]

Hi, for this machine P2-333, 320MB ram, 6GB HD

which is the best/fast OS for it?

If i really want XP, is it ok?

 

[RKS]

I run XP Pro on a Dell PII 333 with 256 MB of RAM without any problems. You might want to get a larger HDD though.

 

[faye]

without a problem?? he has no problem too, but just plain slow.

u can feel that the HD is running all the time..

swap file already at 500MB.

 

[AkumaBao]

Put Linux on there rather then bogging it down with WIn resources. Get WineX, or a Office emu if you NEED the Win apps.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I'd say win98se or win2k (maybe? I dunno) with that setup. (if you're not going to do linux).

If you put on winME I swear I'll roll you in tacks and dip you in alchohol.

 

[mikecel79]

Depends on what your going to do with it. We use a similiar configuration at work for some Win2k machines (Celeron 333, 256MB, 4-6GB) and it runs pretty well for office stuff and web browsing. WinXP may be a little too much for it unless you run it without Themes enabled. I would stick with Win2k.

 

[faye]

for browsing, movie, mp3 .

the HD just keep running on every step.

 

[mikecel79]

If you plan on browsing and listening to MP3s will be fine. If you plan on watching DivX movies it won't matter what OS you have on there. PII 333 is about the minimum I would use to watch a DivX movie. My PIII 500 has trouble sometimes.

 

[Abzstrak]

Gentoo is probably the fastest you can get on there of the modern OS's....

 

[optimistic]

A vote for Win98se! Anyways that's what I will put in my old P166 soon.

 

[jackwhitter]

win 2000 would probably be the most stable and least resource hoggy (as compared to win xp). linux would make better use of ur resources if u know how to run it. win xp likes a fair amount more ram than win 2000. win 2000 likes 256 megs+ while XP likes 512megs+... give or take a little. i've run win 2000 on a p133 with 256 megs of ram, and while it was slow, once u got it booted and running, things ran fairly smoothly... for web browsing and word processing.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

2K or 98SE, depending on which kernel you'd prefer. I'd go with 2K just for the stability and security bonuses.

- M4H

 

[kehi]

If you put on winME I swear I'll roll you in tacks and dip you in alchohol.

Ahahahhah. The devil child of MS OSes.

 

[MGMorden]

Try Win2k. If that don't work go for Win98. Forget about Linux + GUI on this system. I've ran it on an equally slow system before (an IDT Winchip 225mhz, 64mb ram, and 5gb hard disk), but it's not a speed daemon )) by any means. And I've yet to find Wine to be a satisfactory way to run Windows apps (some work, some don't. very few work as well as in windows, and virtually none are as fast).

 

[Abzstrak]

Try Win2k. If that don't work go for Win98. Forget about Linux + GUI on this system. I've ran it on an equally slow system before (an IDT Winchip 225mhz, 64mb ram, and 5gb hard disk), but it's not a speed daemon () by any means. And I've yet to find Wine to be a satisfactory way to run Windows apps (some work, some don't. very few work as well as in windows, and virtually none are as fast).

an C6 225MHz is about half the speed of a P2-333... and he has 320MB of RAM, not 64 like your POS. I guarantee you that linux is faster. Load up gentoo and use waimea or blackbox for a gui and it will be 2-3 times faster than win2k. You were probably loading up Mandrake (or some simialr bloated distro) and KDE 3 or similar, in which case you system requirements would be as high as winxp...

And you can do without windows apps, but if you think you need them then use vmware, wine is a PITA.

 

[XBoxLPU]

Windows 95B

 

[ultimatebob]

On a machine like that, you have a few choices:

Windows NT (It's old, but it would work fine)
Windows 98 SE (Would be fairly quick on this system)
Windows 2000 (A little sluggish on startup, but would otherwise be OK)
Windows ME (Would run OK, as long as you find drivers for your hardware)
Windows XP (It would be sluggish, espically if you used the new desktop themes)
Linux (Use an older distro. The new versions of KDE and GNOME are sluggish on old hardware)

Of course, older OS'es like Windows 95 and OS/2 would work fine as well.

 

[earthman]

BeOS