OS for a low powered machine

[Scyber]

I am setting up an old computer for my grandmother at the request of my father this weekend and I was wondering what my best bet for an OS would be.

It is currently running win95 and the specs IIRC are as follows:

Pentium 100mhz
24mb RAM
1 gb Harddrive

It is primarilty going to be used for Word Processing, Web Browsing and possibly Email.

I wanted to reformat the comp completely and install a new OS, because 95 has been on there forever and probably needs some serious cleaning up.

I have copies of 98, 2k, XP, and various linux distros. I know 2k and Xp are out because of RAM requirements. I think that even 98 would be slow on a machine like that.

I am leaning towards 98. I would like to put a linux distro on it, but there is one main problem that I see with it. I was planning on setting up NetZero on the machine so my grandma can get to the net. As far I can tell, you can't use the netzero software on linux, so therefore you can't use their free service (or can you).

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Jackal&Cash]

forget about xp and 2k they both need alot of space, ram and a decent cpu. So IMO 98 would be best.

 

[rocmonster]

I once set up netzero on an old compaq laptop with a pentium 133mhz, 16mb ram (ouch) with Windows 95 so my parents would "enter the 20th century". Because netzero is constantly feeding ads, the HD would thrash like crazy while online and web pages would take forever to load. I can't imagine how much slower it would run with windows 98 installed. Even basic bare bones set-ups crush the box you mention. Is it $$$ possible to build (or buy barebones) a cheapo box, reusing monitor, cd rom drive, keyboard and such? Then you could run '98 without any significant speed problems?

 

[nihil]

does your grandmother even know how to use linux??

 

[Willoughbyva]

I second win98.

Netzero is buggy as all get out in my experience. Plus the dialup software is a resource hog. It might be better to go with a different isp.

Good luck with it.

Will

 

[Scyber]

<< does your grandmother even know how to use linux?? >>



She doesn't know how to use any computer, so teaching her linux would be just as easy as teaching any other OS. I have taught a few people how to use linux that never used computers before. Was pretty simple.

I had suggested buying a new computer, but my dad is refusing to do so on this one. Even though it would only cost like $200 to get a much faster box, my dad doesn't want to spend that b/c he is not sure if my grandmother is going to use it. Her desire to get email and internet access may just be a passing fad for her. Of course my fear is that the slowness of the box will discourage her from using it.

My plan is to get this box up and running. If she likes it we will maybe pick up a new comp for her over the holidays.

-Scyber

 

[freebsddude]

You could upgrade the CPU, (and add small amt of memory) if the motherboard supports it to at least a 233MHz Pentium or AMD. Here is a url for P233.

http://www.chipmerchant.com/1581-0.html

You could possibly even find it cheaper elsewhere, like on ebay or something.

I think 98 would be the way to go.

Best Wishes

 

[Blayze]

I say 95 or 98

or maybe use 98lite...

 

[CaptainGoodnight]

netbsd. It needs 4mb of ram to use, 5mb to install. but if its for the grandma. Windows 95

 

[TheWart]

win95 or 98.

 

[Thor86]

Win98 without Active Desktop installed will run fine.

 

[flyerI]

For what she will do with it I would go back with 95. It will run fine with 24mb. 98 want's a minimum of 32. It will run with 24 but you won't like it. Be sure you have every device driver for it before you format. I had a client who did this and I really had a hard time finding drivers for his old devices. It would have been easier to just clean all the junk out.

 

[Woodie]

Win98SE...has security patches which are non-existent for Win95.

You should be able to find a P133 or P166 cheap, and more importantly, try and get some more RAM. 8MB simms seem to be going for ~$5, and you may be able to find 16s, which will make a tremendous difference at a pretty low price.

 

[Mitzi]

I'd go for Win95 OSR2

 

[Adrian Tung]

I have a Pentium 133MHz notebook PC with 32MB RAM, and it would choke on anything other than Win95 OSR2. I also tried to put my old Red Hat Linux 6.0 on it, text-only works fine but the whole machine chokes when I tried running X.

I'd suggest an upgrade to at least 64MB RAM if you plan to put Win98 on it though.


atwl

 

[dbwillis]

98 would be real slow on that PC, if you could get a copy,try NT4 workstation, I ran my web site of an NT4 box with 24mb of ram, it was actually quite zippy. (site ran on apache).
Im sure a cd for NT4 would be like $10

 

[KouklatheCat]

I used to run win 95 on a P75 laptop with 8 mb ram and a 512 Mb HDD. Your system should be able to handle it pretty fairly. It was a bit slow for me but since grandma hasnt yet experienced an Athlon XP 1900 with 1.0 GB of PC2700 ram yet it should be okay to get her started.

 

[Escalade]

<< try NT4 workstation, I ran my web site of an NT4 box with 24mb of ram >>


NT4 really needs 32MB to run. Personally I'd stay with Win98.

 

[thornc]

98SE,

Take out the stock IE with the IEradicator from 98lite, then install the new opera 6.01 and you should be set!

 

[manly]

<< I'd go for Win95 OSR2 >>



I agree, although W98SE isn't far behind. Once you install any app on top of W95 that requires IE, then you're better off having W98SE in the first place.

I suppose 98lite is a good way to get the bug fixes without some of the additional bloat.

NT4 is a very bad call; it's buggy, it never had great driver support, and if you choose NTFS, the filesystem needs constant defragging.

Although my heart does think Red Hat 6.2 or SuSE Linux 6.4 isn't a bad call either, assuming you're the person admining the box "on call" anyway.

If Netzero is the sticking point, don't they only give you like 10 free hours a month anyway? There are still a few cheap ISPs out there, but free access is a dead concept.

 

[freebsddude]

I have used NT4 with 32MB and it was quite slow.

 

[Scyber]

Well I went with 98SE. I installed it and stripped it down as much as possible and it is running fine. I would have upgraded the machine but unfortunately that is not really an options. The processor isn't even socket 7 (socket 5 IIRC from the last time I opened the box). But it seems to be running fine and my grandmother is slowly getting used to it.

Thanks everyone.

-Scyber