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Recommendations for a "light" OS

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 6:37 pm
by obsidian
I have my old clunker of a laptop that I'm interested in using as an internet terminal and wordprocessor - gonna stick it in my kitchen/living room or something so I can read recipes off it and other stuff.

Dell Latitude LM:
Pentium 133
64MB RAM

Recently installed Mandrake Linux on it, but it didn't run very well - perhaps had something to do with the GUI I was using (gnome or gtk, can't remember). I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for a low system requirement OS that I can install on it.

Thanks.

Oh, I'll probably be sticking a wireless card in it so I'll need support/drivers for wireless on the OS as well.

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 7:08 pm
by Foo
133? Windows 98SE would run well, with a decent firewall and antivirus if you're taking it online.

Windows 2000 might run, I'm not sure.

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 7:19 pm
by dzjepp
Win98 SE + the unofficial service pack: http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 7:28 pm
by +JuggerNaut+
no, you'll need to get a Linux distro with an X window that's light (fluxbox?). if your wireless card is a decent brand it will be supported.

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 10:55 pm
by obsidian
I had 98 installed on it originally, but didn't ever like 98 since it was always rather flakey. I guess I'll try reinstalling it with that service pack and see how stable it runs.

(Linux noob) Any specific recommendations for a Linux distro and X-window?

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:35 pm
by ^misantropia^

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:49 pm
by Foo
obsidian wrote:I had 98 installed on it originally, but didn't ever like 98 since it was always rather flakey. I guess I'll try reinstalling it with that service pack and see how stable it runs.

(Linux noob) Any specific recommendations for a Linux distro and X-window?
98 and SE are very different, assuming you had the original 98 installed. SE was actually... well, good :)

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 1:48 am
by obsidian
Sorry, meant 98SE. It was OK, I suppose. I'll try it with the patch and/or with Linux and see how things go. Thanks guys.

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 3:02 am
by shiznit
A tweaked version of 95 or 98?