Interesting issue about flash and streaming video. I have to say that if you want to use either you would be best off avoiding a P1 machine with limited ram running win 98SE (or anything for that matter). On the other hand, what do you get with an mmx p1 laptop at 166-200 or so mhz with 40-128 mb of ram? You will have a machine that runs MS office (up to 2000) like a champ. Sure, it might take a few seconds to load the firs time, but once in ram it's fast. Limited only by your typing speed, at least in my experience. With the older Opera browser you will have a very fast Internet experience. I set up an old laptop for a friend with that browser and she was amazed that it seemed to go as fast as her more modern desktops (P4) machines running the usual late version IE with flash or Firefox. The limiting factor seemed to always be the web site speed, not the PC in this case. Switch to IE/firefox on the lappy and a very sluggish experience. All this using a wireless adapter (one of the cardbus versions) plugged into the lappy's pcmia slot.
So you get a useful, usable machine, essentially for free! Like, people are giving these guys away. Or maybe you could buy one for under 50 bucks or so.
Will it work with slower machines? Well, yes. I did it with a P133 Thinkpad 560 (non MMX, non cardbus) and it's slightly slower, but still a pleasure to use. It's trickier to set up in that you need a non cardbus ethernet adapter (not too hard to find) and/or a non cardbus wireless adapter (harder to find). I've tried it with both without problems.
What's also fun, is that many of these old guys just look very cool. In an office, you will get all sorts of positive comments. Kind of retro looking, very nice keyboards, etc. Nobody will know that it's someone elses "worthless" discard. Still does the same work, though. Just won't be much good for looking at hmmmm... "diversions", which could be a problem at some offices, where diversions are really necessary to keep one's sanity, I suppose. But then, nothing is perfect!
So you get a useful, usable machine, essentially for free! Like, people are giving these guys away. Or maybe you could buy one for under 50 bucks or so.
Will it work with slower machines? Well, yes. I did it with a P133 Thinkpad 560 (non MMX, non cardbus) and it's slightly slower, but still a pleasure to use. It's trickier to set up in that you need a non cardbus ethernet adapter (not too hard to find) and/or a non cardbus wireless adapter (harder to find). I've tried it with both without problems.
What's also fun, is that many of these old guys just look very cool. In an office, you will get all sorts of positive comments. Kind of retro looking, very nice keyboards, etc. Nobody will know that it's someone elses "worthless" discard. Still does the same work, though. Just won't be much good for looking at hmmmm... "diversions", which could be a problem at some offices, where diversions are really necessary to keep one's sanity, I suppose. But then, nothing is perfect!
