I'm seting up an older computer.

[drag]

Linux supports more hardware out of the box then either Windows XP or Windows 2000. It runs on more different types of computers, new and old, more types of computer architectures, from Motorola 68k to Fireball to x86 to AMD64 to Itanium to POWER, then anything else out there.

The only crap on older computers you have to realy watch out for is those crappy winmodems.

Oh, and of course Sata support. I can install on a sata-using machine with no floppy and combine pata and sata drives into a raid 5 configuration with no special drivers or hardware. I have literially thousands of programs and tens of thousands of software packages at my immediate disposal thru online repositories on various ftp and websites. I have software capabilities with Debian GNU/Linux that would literally cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to replicate using propriatory software on Windows. (and probably would end more difficult and time consuming to collect and install)

All of this can be easily aviable to anybody on earth with a decent internet connection and most of it would work just fine on a old 200mhz computer. All that it takes is a willingness to learn and put up with crap like not being able to play more then one audio application at once on crappy sound cards unless you make a 10 line text file in your home directory and a free office suite that is slightly crappy compared to one you'd have to pay 150-300 dollars for.

Personally I'd just turn it into a firewall, mp3 server, file server, web server, or a asterix server, or something like that. Old computers are just slow for desktop use, but are plenty fast for other things.

 

[Hyperblaze]

Originally posted by: nweaver

Originally posted by: Bluefront
I have to laugh at some of these posts.....It's obvious this won't be the fastest computer possible no matter what OS is used. Why not go the easiest route with XP? It supports the most hardware....drivers can usually be found for older hardware much easier than any Linux brand, etc.

I've had XP on machines with much less horsepower, such as a P-Pro 200 with 128mg ram. Ran just fine, but guess what....slower than a 3.2 Northwood with 1gb ram. So what?

lol....the easiest route is XP? XP supports most hardware? Ever try to install XP on your SATA drive without going old school and busting out your floppy disks? Linux has much better support for newer tech, like SATA. Really, if you just want a box to surf the web or use as a newsreader, go linux with a lightweight GUI.

umm.....floppy drives are considered old school now?

Since when? I still use floppies for certain things. Have I been living under a rock?


PS: And while this might sound like a good opportunity to use Linux, the OP might not be interested in learning a new operating system (which I assume is the case). But you never know. I'd recommend linux myself. Just not the flavor I'm using (Gentoo)

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: Hyperblaze

umm.....floppy drives are considered old school now?

Yes, they are. Alot of newer systems don't have them. Just got some new 1U's from Dell. they support USB thumbdrive booting, but don't have a floppy.