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Find out how increasing memory can enable an old PC to run Linux
A few months ago we looked at running Linux on older machines and how this can make a computer that has been confined to the bottom of a cupboard for a few years useful again.
The recent introduction of low hardware specification ultra-small laptops (or ‘netbooks’, as they’re coming to be known), such as the Asus Eee PC and the MSI Wind, has resulted in a bump in the growth of desktop Linux use.
As it is considerably more efficient than Windows Vista and generally performs better than Windows XP on equivalent hardware, Linux has found a niche area and thrives on these devices.
However, the ‘low’ specification of these systems is only low compared with the average modern computer.
These machines, typically having 512MB to 1GB of memory and a reasonably fast CPU, are certainly good enough for web browsing, playing DVDs, watching Youtube and so on, and are more than capable of running a modern Linux distribution without problems.
So what about computers more than just a few years old? Reader Graham Steel wrote to ask about his computer. He said: “I have an old IBM Thinkpad installed with Windows 98 and incapable of running newer versions of Windows, with just 96MB of Ram and a Pentium II CPU.
"I investigated live editions of Linux and decided on Damn Small Linux. I was very pleased it recognised the PCMCIA network card and everything was up and running straight away.”
That sounded all very promising. Unfortunately, though, Mr Steel found he was unable to run Real Player, which he needs to listen to BBC Radio programmes, and wondered if there was any way to get around that.
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Puppy Linux
I think Puppy Linux is another good choice for this situation.
Posted by heri, 19 Oct 2008
Old PC's
An even better solution for old laptops like that IBM are as terminals for LTSP, ThinStation, etc. Their old PII proc is no longer a hinderence as the processing is handled by the server. Also another great small footprint linux is Puppy. It would work well in the constrainted memory space if you do a hard disk install of the OS.
Posted by John McGinnis, 19 Oct 2008
Windows 2000
I have really tried with Linux, but I find windows 2000 way superior and as fast as those incomplete and difficult to maintain micro-linux distributions. Moreover Windows 2000 is exactly Windows XP minus the bloat. Apparently it is even more safe for the moment. I am sorry to say this, because I am a linux advocate. But just imagine instaqlling windows 2000 on that pentium II machine. After the install and the installation of firefox and openoffice, it takes you one minute to be on the internet, and 3 minutes to create a home network based on Samba. Doing the same with linux and samba will set you easily a few days back. I used my pentium II this way now as secondary computer AND multimedia server for 5 years, without a glitch (adding AVG and a free backup program). Did you manage to get samba on linux running? do you know why it worked suddenly? Did you find a working program that is light and synchronises you data with a backup drive? Good luck.
Posted by Geert, 18 Oct 2008
Laptop frustration
I am the PCW reader who triggered the original article. I am very grateful that PCW should devote a couple of pages to my problem. I have spent many frustrating hours trying to make that old laptop into something useful. But I am afraid it must have a CD drive problem too. I got most of the way through the Xubuntu installation as described in the article, but the installer failed to install all the software, and when I tried to bypass the error, it requested that I insert the Xubuntu Alternate Install CD - although the CD was in the drive. I have suffered a similar problem when trying to reinstall Win98 on the machine - gets most of the way through and then fails to copy a file. I am afraid that my goal of making the old machine useful is proving extremely elusive. Perhaps if I could find a way of bypassing the CD and installing from an ISO image ... But I can see myself wasting yet another good few hours.
Posted by Graham Steel, 25 Oct 2008