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OS recommendations for Pent.III 128MB laptop

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tomos:
many thanks for all the tips, everyone!! :)

I thought I'd try the linux route first and if it got too painful (!) then to think about the windows options (i reckoned the windows route was going to be painful anyways..)
Well I have now made the plunge, with thanks to Edvard:

For low memory and speed requirements, I recommend Slitaz or Puppy.
I've ran them both on a 400MHz laptop with 128MB, and both ran very well, despite Eóin's comments.   ;)
They're both designed to run from a CD or USB so you can try them out right away, but can be installed very easily to the hard drive, which would save memory.
The tradeoff is there will be some learning and setup involved, which might be more than you want to tackle for just a writing machine, and especially since you don't have experience with alternative OS's, but it's there if you're game...
-Edvard (March 01, 2011, 04:36 PM)
--- End quote ---

OS recommendations for Pent.III 128MB laptop

with Puppy "Wary" version 5(xx) installed - on the harddrive - looks great doesnt it :)
Wary is "the Retro Puppy for old hardware"

there were a few hiccups -
the optical drive could not read CDs but can read DVDs!
There were a few steps in the install where I didnt have a clue (e.g. video drivers, but winged it and all was fine)
I couldnt get Grub leacy to work but Grub DOS found everything automatically (or maybe I had to find the new harddrive/partition path)

It seems to be fine now, I've rebooted successfully a couple of times now. It seems very fast: so far I've just tried the wordprocessor (Gnome Office?/AbiWord). And had a play with InkScape Lite.
I think I'm converted :D


[edit] I was impressed how helpful the install was, I had to use gParted to change the format - I had used that before, so that helped. But in general very user friendly, and you could tell it was written by humans :-) [/edit]

Edvard:
 :Thmbsup: :greenclp: :Thmbsup:
Looks great!

Glad to hear it went (mostly) well.
The CD bug is strange, never seen that one before.  :huh:
Grub pathing is less than intuitive and they've changed it a couple times now, so you're not alone; it confuses me as well.

I was impressed how helpful the install was, I had to use gParted to change the format - I had used that before, so that helped. But in general very user friendly, and you could tell it was written by humans :-)
--- End quote ---

That is one feature I did like about Puppy; the folks who put it together have tried to balance the austerity with a certain type and level of user-friendliness I've been hard-pressed to find elsewhere.
One thing that has bugged me in the past is that almost every Puppy Linux fan I communicated with via mailinglist would end their post "I love my Puppy!"  :-\
Since trying it myself, I couldn't bring myself to exactly agree, but at least I now understand where the sentiment comes from.

Now the challenge will be to use it for actual work you intended to do and resist the urge to play. ;D
Welcome to Penguin-land, Tomos, hope you enjoy the ride!  :Thmbsup:

40hz:

Welcome to Penguin-land, Tomos, hope you enjoy the ride!  :Thmbsup

-Edvard (March 03, 2011, 03:26 PM)
--- End quote ---

@Edvard - You da man! Don't you just love when that happens? ;D

Edvard:
Hey now, I can't take any credit; it was Tomos who took the plunge, I only made a few humble recommendations.  :-[

I'm just glad it turned out less painful than it could have been.
I've lost my fair share of scalpage wrestling with Grub and installations that don't go quite right, so relatively painless installs, as common as they are lately, I still meet with a certain degree of relieved anxiety.

That said, I'm also willing to get in the hot seat and lend a hand if something goes wrong down the line.
Are ya with me?

tomos:
That said, I'm also willing to get in the hot seat and lend a hand if something goes wrong down the line.
-Edvard (March 03, 2011, 04:04 PM)
--- End quote ---

I'm sure I'll have a few questions but guess I should have a good look around first...
actually if you could refer me to a good introduction of the (very) basics I might need or need to understand (does that exist!?). I dont know is this typical linux or how variable the version are...

Also, you say above:
> Just do a little reading to get familiar with Debian's "APT" software management system, and you'll be trying out writing tools in no time.
You know I meant just "writing" - not coding lol - you really think I need to understand that :tellme:
any good easy links on that - I'm spoiled now by the easy install - I want it all to be easy now :-)
But I'm not really a look-under-the-hood type: until I need to, I'll avoid that like the plague :-[

did find this
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/linux-101-efficient-software-management-with-the-advanced-package-tool-in-debian/6104158

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