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OS Choice for a Old Computer
I recently received a Dell OptiPlex GX1 running Windows 98 with 128Mb of Ram (Pentium 2 ~350MHz) I was wondering if anyone has any ideas what OS I should put on it. It has Windows 98 SE but that got messed up and I don't like windows anyway. I am thinking Linux but am not sure what Distro to get (I have tried Damn Small Linux but it feels to rough around the edges and won't work with my HP Deskjet 3322) I really want to put it to use because it is my only "personal" computer (the rest in my house are shared) Mainly I want to do Web browsing (Firefox) Email (IMAP with Gmail) Play Music (MP4 and MP3 files) and use Word, PowerPoint, and Excel Equivalents (not just a text editor like DSL). I know it won't be like my Core 2 Duo iMac but I need something for it (I don't really want to fix windows) I am new to linux but Learn fast. Please Help.
Tags: 3322, Chris, Computer, Damn, Dell, HP, Linux, OS, Old, Pirillo, More…
Views: 6
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Branhower on -
Certainly there are some user-made Linux drivers for the Deskjet 3322?
Anyway, I heard Slackware wasn't too taxing on system resources, but that's a text-based OS.
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Permalink Reply by Greg De Santis on -
At work we had several of the same model that we had to upgrade, P2 350MHz to P3 600MHz. What we ended up doing to all of them was to upgrade the memory to the max and put on Windows XP Pro SP2 at the time and they all remained in service. On some of the models we had to upgrade the BIOS to see all of the RAM. I have loaded Windows XP Pro on systems as slow as P2 266MHz with 256MB of ram and that system is still in service even though it does not get used as much today.
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Permalink Reply by MooseStuff on -
i know thats what xubuntu is "made" for but just do a google search and see what comes up
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Permalink Reply by Ian Walker on -
Another vote for Ubuntu :)
Take care.
Ian
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Permalink Reply by Mateus Augusto Lopes on -
Windows XP
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Permalink Reply by Ian Walker on
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I think XP might struggle a bit although it would work. Why not try Windows ME or Windows 2000?
Take care.
Ian
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Permalink Reply by Mateus Augusto Lopes on
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Puppy Linux, the OS is only 94MB, so it's light and will run well, even on a old machine.
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Permalink Reply by Shtanto on -
Yeah, I ran 2k on a similar machine (Dell, 300mhz, 3 sticks of 128MB RAM). Response times were really good.
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Permalink Reply by pimpsahoy on -
I have a more powerful machine then that (1.00GHZ and 1GB of RAM) and it struggles to run Xubuntu and Ubuntu. Don't use either of those, it will be even slower.
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Permalink Reply by Mateus Augusto Lopes on
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Puppy Linux?
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Permalink Reply by Mateus Augusto Lopes on
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Do you think ubuntu 8.10 run in a machine like this?
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Permalink Reply by Ian Walker on
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I think Puppy Linux will, try that :)
Take care.
Ian
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