the better OS to use for older hardware ?

I have not been keeping up with hardware and OS changes of late (3 yrs... ok 8 yrs) and i was wondering if there is a better OS to install on older hardware.

Eg Dell inspiron 8100 PIII/866 Mhz

and by better i mean something faster, smaller and less buggy than my recollection of M$ windoze bloatware unless their newer OS solved all the earlier versions ( 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP ...) quirks :}

I was looking for something different /fun/interesting to play with on the old notebook. Does not need to be commercially supported or have a large pool of commercial app knock offs.

thanks for any helpful advice,

robb

sorry sci.elec.misc group but you guys seem to do this stuff alot and you have been helpful in that past

Reply to
robb
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Ubuntu:

formatting link

Debian if you like CLI and KDE:

formatting link

Reply to
T

In article , robb scribeth thus

Try Ubuntu Linux, seems to work fine on a couple of old PC's here...

--
Tony Sayer
Reply to
tony sayer

late

OS

newer

play

stuff

Thanks for the ideas T,

ubuntu looks like a good basic set of tools so i will probably try that first.

robb

Reply to
robb

robb

late

OS

newer

here...

Thanks for the suggestion Tony,

ubuntu does look like a good basic set of linux based OS and tools

i plan to try that first.

robb

Reply to
robb

robb "contributed" in alt.computer:

MS-DOS would be a good choice for that outdated hardware.

HTH

Reply to
John Holmes

late

OS

newer

nah, i am already using that on my P65 non UL approved fire hazard heater :)

whats next idea CP/M-86 ?

Reply to
robb

I use windows 2000 on such beasts with no problems. Just add more memory to make it run properly.

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Reply to
Peter Hucker

98SE will run fine on that. In fact XP would at a push ! You don't state your RAM. That REALLY counts. Don't use under 512 M and put the swap file on a separate small drive (maybe 2-5GB) you can pick up for pennies.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

Don't try installing if you have < 384MB of RAM.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

But beware it needs more RAM than they claim in some instances. Has me running round in circles until I installed an extra 128M.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

I've 'recently' worked on a PC with a lower spec than that.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

In message , robb writes

There are several 'small' forms of LINUX from the tiny upwards, some of which will (supposedly) run from a CD without actually installing them on the PC. The mag. freebies often include one or more versions, but a web search should bring up something useful.

--
John.
Reply to
John

In article , Eeyore scribeth thus

98SE should now be consigned to the dustbin it was a real dog especially for memory leaks. I was glad to see the back of it. WIN 200 was and still is a good version unlike that interim ME which like its medical namesake is a pox;(...
--
Tony Sayer
Reply to
tony sayer

Try this .....

formatting link

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

I used 98SE without trouble for many years. Worried about memory leaks ? Get cacheman.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

With enough memory, the swapfile is harldy touched.

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Reply to
Peter Hucker

ME was pointless. It came out AFTER the superior 2000.

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Reply to
Peter Hucker

I've got a leak in XP! After about 3 days, the graphics run at about one tenth of speed (it's a gradual slowdown). Immediately faster on reboot. This is a clean install, and the problem wasn't there in the last install. I had to reinstall after the hard disk was irrecoverably corrupted.

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Reply to
Peter Hucker

You need > 512M for that. 768M on 98SE will probably do it.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

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