Guest ralphdewitt Posted November 23, 2004 Report Share Posted November 23, 2004 Hi All: My sister in law has two very old PC. I believe they are old HP's. On one machine she is using Windows 95 and the other has Win 98 or ME. The oldest machine has 26 mb of memory and the other 32 mb IIRC. I am desparate to find a Linux distrobution that will work on these machines. She has many problems with windows and has to reformat and install many times. Could some one recommend a Linux Distrobution that might work? She seems to use the machines for Web Browsing, email, word processing and some Yahoo online gaming. She has basic internet suppiled through here local PC Shop using Yahoo . For the time being I would like to keep her with as much of her current routine as possible. She seems very resistant to change, but I have convinced her to try a small distribution on one machine for now. My ultimate solution is to build her a new state of the art machine and supply Linux preinstalled and configured but that will take time and much hard to come by money. Thanks for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisM Posted November 23, 2004 Report Share Posted November 23, 2004 Have you considered damn small linux apparently it goes on as little as 16mb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted November 23, 2004 Report Share Posted November 23, 2004 actually, although your effort is honorable, if she does not want to change (=refuses any option) i would think twice of installing something like damn small linux, which is not something for a noob imho. in case your box is better and running linux or you have a live-cd, show her linux before causing some "(senti)mental damage" to your sister. maybe she will be convinced. if this is the case, let her play around a bit more with linux before converting her box to a "damn small box". ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisM Posted November 23, 2004 Report Share Posted November 23, 2004 Arctic is right - we tried damn small linux on a really old box at work, and whilst it was great that we got something otherwise redundant working, and from what I recall it took some effort to navigate/use. Not really what you would use to 'convert'. Slax/knoppix are Live cds you might want to consider - amongst others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ralphdewitt Posted November 24, 2004 Report Share Posted November 24, 2004 Arctic is right - we tried damn small linux on a really old box at work, and whilst it was great that we got something otherwise redundant working, and from what I recall it took some effort to navigate/use. Not really what you would use to 'convert'. Slax/knoppix are Live cds you might want to consider - amongst others. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thanks for your comments and help. I was fearing that her hardware was too marginal to run a distrobution that a newbie could handle. While I will have to put on my thinking hat and try and figure out how I can get her a system capable of running a Linux like Mandrake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisM Posted November 24, 2004 Report Share Posted November 24, 2004 Might be worth a memory upgrade - stick or two of 32/64MB - maybe eBay might be worth looking at - never used it myself. Your PC manufacturer might be able to help - particulalrly if they collect old stuff for recycling purposes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted November 24, 2004 Report Share Posted November 24, 2004 The big sucker is X.... If you could find a frame buffer broswer then thats all you need but X sucks the memory... I have a PII200(64MB) which runs firewall etc. and its fine but no X... when X is running it struggles a bit... If you were looking for new memory then the pric3e of a supercheap new mobo/cpu/mem combo starts looking more attractive.... its a pain but there you have it... however those HP boxen can be a real pain... and you might need a different PSU too ... This is a common question though and one linux should address better! *IMHO Ive been wondering anbout the browser from mythTV. Does anyone know if it works as a standalone browser without X ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest elfampiro Posted November 24, 2004 Report Share Posted November 24, 2004 Consider using Vector Linux with XFCE. It has a truly lightning speed... I recommend you to add some extra RAM to the machine (surely someone you know has an old PC with SIMM memory) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted November 24, 2004 Report Share Posted November 24, 2004 Consider using Vector Linux with XFCE.It has a truly lightning speed... I recommend you to add some extra RAM to the machine (surely someone you know has an old PC with SIMM memory) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yeah but those HP's can be a problem,... I had to give up on more than one because HP hacks the bios (and badly) and hence they have probs to be upgraded outside the official upgrade prog. and of course HP have no interest in 5 year old PC's.... I have a bunch of old SIMMS (72 pin) if ANYONE in Europe wants em.... just pay postage...also the 2nd hand price of 72 pin simms is outragious... its like owning a classic car... edits: oops used a banned word ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest elfampiro Posted November 24, 2004 Report Share Posted November 24, 2004 Maybe the BIOS could be flashed. Open your PC and take note of the BIOS reference number (over the BIOS chip, probably an AWARD chip) and search (using google) for this codes. Even if HP did not update this BIOS, probably the assembler (AWARD, American Megatrends, etc) has an update or non-patched (as HP's one) ROMs. Good luck!. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisM Posted November 24, 2004 Report Share Posted November 24, 2004 Maybe the BIOS could be flashed. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I would have thought biggest issue is lack of h/w resources? However , flash upgrade might be useful - still need more RAM MBs though I would think (I flashed bios on a not so old board because it wouldn't install mandrake at all - after the flash upgrade, all was well) I got mine from here it was pretty a straightforward process - the site also shows you how to ID your bios string without opening up the box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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