Re: Which OS to just to run WEB Browser

On Wed, 30 May 2007 10:50:20 -0700, malcolm.dhuga wrote:

Any one suggest which OS or Linux? I have a unused old laptop - i386
which i want to use for browsing and email...something i can leave on in
the kitchen so the kids can use for email access or internet.

Is it a 386 or 486 or other notebook? If the first, you'll be mostly out
of luck with contemporary versions of Linux: They need at a minimum a
486 CPU, but most, if not all, will only run in terminal mode with that
CPU. Plus, how much RAM does it have? Even if it uses a 486 processor,
you'll need to have at least 32 MB of RAM to run X (the graphics server)
effectively with an old distro from the same era as the notebook.

My best advice, if a 386 or 486, is to install DOS and Windows 3.11, if
you want a GUI. I have a very old -- about 10+ years -- Packard Bell
Diplomat notebook with a 25MHz 486 and 4 MB of RAM, and I've been
unsuccessful in finding any version of Linux old or new with a GUI that
will run on it. So, it runs DOS and Windows. (I use it mainly as a
glorified typewriter. Not much good for anything else.) Plus, the old
versions of Linux from that era are just too hard for the neophyte Linux
user to administer and configure.

FYI: Contemporary Linux distros run best on systems with at least a 500
MHz (1 Gig is better) Pentium/Athlon CPU and 256MB RAM. I have Debian
3.1 Sarge with GNOME running on an IBM Thinkpad 240X (500MHz PIII and 192
MB RAM). The screen updates are slow, but it works well enough for my
purposes -- in the field writing, email, web, business stuff. (I could
improve the graphic response by going to a lightweight, less resource
demanding window manager. I just haven't bothered.) Also, I'm running
PCLinuxOS 2007 with KDE on a Dell Inspiron 5000e (500MHz PIII and 256MB)
and it runs much better than the Thinkpad because of more RAM.

Stef
.

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