Fastest OS for my laptop?

[Ardy]

I just picked up an older laptop.(Dell xpi-cd,Pentium 166mmx 80mb ram) and wanted to install the system that will run the fastest and still support wireless networking.XP I think will run too slow,95 doesn't support wireless,which leaves me with '98,ME or 2000.Any suggestions?Thanks

 

[Spyro]

If its between windows 98 and ME. I recommend 98.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

98SE

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Fastest? Dos would FLY on that sucker!

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
Fastest? Dos would FLY on that sucker!

Heh, I was just waiting for somebody to say that , seriously though, Dos isn't even a half functional OS anymore cmpared to anything else out there. As for fast, if the choice is between Windows 98 and Windows ME then I would definitely recommend 98. Now if he really wants the fastest and the most functional, CLI-only debian with a custom kernel would do quite well.

 

[Ardy]

Well it looks like '98 is it then.Windows 2000 doesn't rate?Guess I'll install 98 tonight.
Thanks

 

[Soybomb]

I'd even say consider 98lite (google if you're not familiar with it), it helps cut out some of the fat. Thats a really slow machine without much ram, 98 is as high as you should even think. Me sucks for everyone. 2000 and Xp is insane. Maybe even try a linux

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: Soybomb
I'd even say consider 98lite (google if you're not familiar with it), it helps cut out some of the fat. Thats a really slow machine without much ram, 98 is as high as you should even think. Me sucks for everyone. 2000 and Xp is insane. Maybe even try a linux

I don't really see why 98 lite is needed at all. Windows 98 works just fine as long as active desktop is disabled. Throw in a well configured ram manager and things run even better.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
Fastest? Dos would FLY on that sucker!

Hmm...Didn't even think about that one..

 

[Nothinman]

Friend of mine at work recently put Linux on his work notebook (PII 333 IIRC) because XP and 2K both ran too slow.

 

[SpeedFreak03]

I'd definitely say Win98. WinME has too many bugs, and your computer JUST cuts it for WinME. 95 would be the best, but that sucks you need wireless. Linux would be great on that system!

 

[Ardy]

Originally posted by: SpeedFreak03
I'd definitely say Win98. WinME has too many bugs, and your computer JUST cuts it for WinME. 95 would be the best, but that sucks you need wireless. Linux would be great on that system!

Does Linux support wireless?

 

[Nothinman]

I've used my Linksys 802.11b card in Linux perfectly fine, infact it seemed to perform better than in Windows. You just gotta find out what chipset your card has and see if it has a driver.

 

[Abzstrak]

if your stuck on using MS, I'd use Nt4, win2k or XP... who cares if they're alitle slower than win9X's, the win9X's suck.

I'd suggest linux, if you got alittle time trya stage 3 version of gentoo... it'll save you alot of compile time and is still pretty optimized for that CPU. As with any distro, using a lightweight window manager will make the thing feel VERY fast. I'd suggest waimea

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

I'd suggest waimea

Honestly if I was going to use windows on that I'd use 2000. Turn off some services, and 80MB is tolerable. 2k boots up to something like 50MB used I think.

 

[PhoenixOfWater]

I would use Win98SE..
Still the best OS for slower computer and everthing will run on it