Which OS would you use?

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Leros
I had a 1000Mhz P3. I tried to run Win98 on it. Ran fine for 15 minutes or so. Then there was a driver problem. I spent 30 minutes fixing that. The next day, driver problem. Etc etc. It was horrible. I tried 98SE, which wasnt as bad, but it broke after a few weeks.

I regard Win98 as a maintenance headache. Any little change requires the Install CD (be sure to copy the Win98 install files onto the hard drive) and a reboot. It was "good" for 1998, but XP is a lot easier to keep running properly.

 

[John]

128 or 256MB additional memory + XP w/ SP2 if he is a real friend.

 

[Captante]

More memory is a must ... as has been said shoot for 256mb's minimum & if you can get ahold of a copy of Win2k that would be the best bet... if not I'm going to go a different route & suggest you try installing ME, not because its a good OS (its crap!) , but because its slightly less obsolete the Win98se.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: Noema
Xubuntu is great but I believe that it might be too much for the Celeron to handle. I run it on a P4 (an old 1.GHz Williamette with 128MB of RAM) and it's very usable, but can get sluggish at times, specially when using anything that's even mildly CPU intensive.

Damn Small Linux might be a better fit for that machine.

But since your friend is not keen on Linux...there's really no other option other than Win98SE.

Xubuntu will run ok.
Damn Small Linux will fly. It'd be very fast on that machine compared to anything else.
Damn small screenshot:
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-2.3jwm.jpg
It's minimal requirements are a 486DX (~33mhz) and 16megs of RAM. Although if you run a 128 megs of RAM it can run the entire OS on ram-based drive.

But otherwise Win98 SE. Even though it's crap, but it will run well in that RAM.

If you want to run Windows 256 megs with WinXP is the only thing that makes sense.

 

[Netopia]

In a related story...

My brother in law was given an old Pentium 200 machine that has 64MB of RAM and that's all the motherboard will take (old Dell box). He's trying to set it up for an old woman who has no computer and he's putting 98SE on it. He knows NOTHING of *nix. What do you guys think the best for this machine would be? DSL/Puppy and going through the learning curve or Win98? I started to tell him to try one of the small *nix'es, but then I realized that this woman would have practically no one to help her do anything, since the average person out there would be lost with *nix on a box.

What do you guys think?

Joe

 

[phisrow]

Originally posted by: Netopia
In a related story...

My brother in law was given an old Pentium 200 machine that has 64MB of RAM and that's all the motherboard will take (old Dell box). He's trying to set it up for an old woman who has no computer and he's putting 98SE on it. He knows NOTHING of *nix. What do you guys think the best for this machine would be? DSL/Puppy and going through the learning curve or Win98? I started to tell him to try one of the small *nix'es, but then I realized that this woman would have practically no one to help her do anything, since the average person out there would be lost with *nix on a box.

What do you guys think?

Joe

Unless she has decent prior experience with Windows, she'll know nothing useful about either system. Assuming your brother in law can get Xubuntu or similar set up(pretty easy) she'll have no more or less trouble learning to use that vs. learning to use win98(assuming she just wants web, email, maybe music and word processing).

If she knows windows and is set in her ways(the latter is likely, the former less so, particularly since she doesn't have a computer now) give her windows. If she knows nothing useful about either system Linux is the clear choice.

 

[Netopia]

My point was that I've found that older people don't tend to simply learn to use anything computer related, though there are exceptions. My experience is that they tend to call others to come help them, and there may be no one to come help this woman. Also, so you can understand context, my brother in law is 62 and he's referring to her as an "older woman", so for all I know she could be in her late 70's or even 80's!

Joe

 

[imported_Uber]

DSL is great. It takes up almost nothing in the way of Hard drive space or RAM.
Ubuntu is as easy to use as Linux comes, and Xubuntu should run on 64 RAM.
I dont honestly know what kind of requirements Win98 has, but $15 for some more memory seems to be the best choice.

 

[IEC]

Xubuntu. Damn Small Linux. Not 98 of any flavor, and certainly not ME

 

[GreenMonkey]

700mhz Celery is plenty fast for WinXP. Just drop some cheap ass RAM into it. Spend the $20 and put another 256MB of RAM in the damn thing.

200mhz box - that's a Win98 box for sure. If it's an old lady she's probably going to ask other people for help. Stick with win98.

 

[Diz2K2]

Win 2K and try to max out ram if possible.

 

[cubby1223]

With 512mb, or even 384mb ram, a 700mhz celeron can handle WinXP.

 

[Journer]

turbo linux....

 

[Shawn]

Win2k or XP would run fine with more ram.