Legit Reviews

Hi there:

No laughting please

I was ready to resurrect an oldy when an acquaintance of mine was throwing his away so I picked it up just in case it was worth something.
Since I do not need 2 slowpokes but one will suffice , I may as well utilize the least of the 2 evils and throw away the other one.

So, who should stay alive?
On my right, we have Tyrannosaurus rex, aka celeron 600 mhz, 256 meg ram
On my left, we have Triceratops, aka pentium II 333 mhz, 512 meg ram
both loaded with the latest OS aka windows 98!

Just in case some of you would wonder if my intent is to overclock the monster , the answer is of course! lol!

Hey, you can always ship me your antique if it's better and you can't bear the idea of having such things still around!

Can't wait until I see your recommendations!

dontknowmuch well you must know at least something because you have come to the right forum!!! (yes i mean LR)
But other then that i would say is there a third option? because both of them are terrible. But i suppose id have to say the Celeron

I'd say the T-Rex would beat down the Triceratops with another 256MB of ram or more..might be a toss up as is

Can you switch the Ram in the machines? If they are compatible, I would keep the 512 RAM and the Celeron (I can't believe I just said keep the Celeron)

I can't believe you said the celeron either

Thanks to all of you for taking a few minutes to help with my stupid dilemma.

In fact what is happening is that my "normal" computer died and until I can get it back running (or replaced) which I am afraid is going to take some times, I need to get something running other than my laptop.

Surprisingly enough, the 2 oldies are running OK. I wanted to swap the rams (as you have suggested) but they are not compatible!
I also though the celeron was a better less worse than the pentium II, mainly because of the 600 versus 333 mhz speed. Does this make sense?
The problem of course is that the software are out of date, zone alarm and AVG are not compatible any more or do not support those old systems. I am behind a physical firewall but still, I like my zone alarm to be there.
I am considering loading windows 2000 but fear that the cpu and rams are going to be lacking strength and speed.

You asked about a third option... I accept donation!

Oh well, after the rain the sun will shine!

Good WE to all...cheers!

Could always grab a copy of Linux to run on it, something like Damn Small Linux should be nice and snappy for you. If you want something a bit more "fleshed-out" try Xubuntu or Fluxbuntu (Fluxbuntu is the faster of the two but it's a bit win98ish as far as style goes), should run reasonably well on that hardware, though it may not be quite as fast as Damn Small Linux.

Free, open-source software that is up to date FTW!

Thanks Alathald, it sounds like a great idea and I think I am going to proceed with your suggestion.

I have to confess I never ran linux but downloaded a year or so ago Ubuntu but never installed it. Among all those systems (DSL,Xubuntu, Fluxbuntu and Ubuntu), which one would you say would be easier to use when transiting from windows XP? (trying to limit complains from my other half!)

Really, really good idea! Thanks again

Well just starting in Linux I'd probably go with one of the 'buntus. The only real difference between them is the desktop manager and that can be changed with a simple command without even restarting the computer. There are tens of desktop managers out there for linux so it's really a matter of taste.

Saying that, I'd start with Xubuntu since it uses the least resources of the "official" distros.

Then if (and only if) you want to try out a different desktop manager (say, Flux) I'd be glad to walk you through it (it's relatively simple).

The nice thing about 'buntu is that you'll probably never have to look at the dreaded terminal unless you want to do some major revamping of your system.

Found an interesting thread about OS for old computer:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=575456
For sure, there is a lot of choice but at the same time it is kind of confusing when you have never dealt with Linux.

Alathald, I am simply going to follow your recommendation and go with Xubuntu. I'll let you know how it goes and for sure will come back to you and this forum if I need help. Your help has been valuable.

Good day all!

Yeah probably the scariest thing about Linux is the wide variety of distros available and god forbid you jump in and pick something like Gentoo or LFS as your first. Most people would run away screaming and never look back.

Ubuntu (and its main variants Kubuntu and Xubuntu) are great because it's very user friendly yet still extremely accessible to the power user. Plus lots of people use them so plenty of support.

I did a bit of looking at some different Window Managers and IceWM seems like a great choice if Xfce (which comes preinstalled on Xubuntu) still feels a bit slow. Not as quite as flashy but here's a really easy install guide if you'd like to try it out (you can always go back to Xfce at any time).

Let us know how you like Ubuntu!

Cannot install xubuntu
I get the error message - acpi:bios age (1998) fail cutoff (2000), acpi=force is required to enable acpi -
I tried acpi=force as suggested is this thread https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/38113 but it does not work for me. I then get a message - unable to load the system description table-
I checked the integrity of the CD (forgot how it is called when the screen comes up) and it is good so I can ruled out a bad CD/iso file.

I will keep looking on faqs and forums and maybe ask the same question on Ubuntu forum as well but if you have an idea, I sure could use your help.

Thanks in advance for any suggestion you may have.

You may have a better chance with the alternate text-based installer rather than installing from LiveCD (it'll be faster anyways). Then you can faff about on an installed system and either try "acpi=force" to get ACPI running or "acpi=off noacpi" to turn off ACPI...Glad to hear you're still at it after such a frustrating setback.

Thanks Alathald for sticking with me and providing support. I truly really appreciate it. Here are the latest news.

I tried the alternate install you suggested and we are making progress . That was a good idea.
At the beginning of the install process, I hit F6 then acpi=force but still got error message, however, the install kept going (before, it would hang at that stage). When came the partitioning option, I got puzzled. I tried resizing with the intend to keep windows install but after a few hours (through the night!), it was still at 1 %. I killed the process this morning, restarted everything and decided to get rid of windows (98) by selecting the entire disc option. Install process kept going well. However, it seems like now there is another issue happening. For a few hours, the install process is stuck on the "select & install software" step, indicating "configuring language-pack-en-base" at 1%. I can hear the hard drive clicking like a maniac (may not be a good thing). If it could help, I could reformat with 0 the entire drive to clean everything up. I have somewhere a software to do this ( killdisk if my memory serves me right). Not sure what I just said makes any sense
It seems I am in needs of addition support from you if you can suggest something. I feel confident we will get it going... may take some time and a sledge hammer!

Speak to you soon!

Go ahead and nuke your HD if that's what you plan on doing anyway (dBaN quick mode works well as does gParted). Then drop in the alternate install CD and try installing without any boot options. Sometimes the LiveCD has issues that the Alt CD handles just fine. If that doesn't work then use the "acpi=off noacpi" option to get it installed. ACPI isn't something that is required but if it finally installs with that option we can turn it back on if you like.

I'm usually on if you want to IM me (use buttons to the left to get my username). Good luck!

Hi,

I tried again the alternate CD. Install is very slow, don't really know why. The install process got stuck at the same place but this time I let the process run. After 6 hours ( ) still 1%!. I did not shut down the computer and let it run this night. This morning, it is at 25% !
I wonder if a pentium II can take this OS or something else is happening. This computer is the one that has 512 meg. Anyhow, I'll see tonight when I come back from work were we are at with the install process.
I may IM you. Thanks for the offer.

Great day to you

Wow, takes less than 20 minutes on the rig in my sig...well all I can suggest is let it do its thing for now and you'll probably end up replacing the window manager with IceWM so it'll be snappier. It should finish installing OK as you meet the minimum system requirements but only just.

Guess I should have thought it through a bit more before recommending one of the latest and greatest distros.

Once you get the system up and running you'll want to install IceWM and then find a lightweight browser and office suite. Or I can recommend what I should have recommended the first time...Puppy Linux!

It will probably run much nicer on your system and be a much more enjoyable experience. It's also a heck of a lot easier to use than Damn Small Linux. I'm sure you're exasperated with me right about now, but I must have be smoking crack to think you'd enjoy using any Ubuntu on a system that old (maybe try it when you get your main system back). Puppy should install much faster and work much better with your systems so you may want to give that a go for now, sorry

Puppy Linux - Download - Install

Again feel free to IM me, even if you just want to bitch at me for not knowing what the hell I'm talking about with older systems...

Also you may want to verify that your hard drives are still in working order with a machine that old. That could be the cause of some of the install issues [link]
Don't necessarily need a HD for Puppy though so even if the drive is FUBAR you'll once again have a working system.

LOL! ... 7pm, something like 27 hrs later, I am now at 67% in the "select and install software" process, "configuring app-install-data-commercial"
I am just going to let the process go just for the heck of it and see what happens

Hey, I am not exasperated what so ever with you, I think this is comical! Nobody forced me to do this and we are all (or at least I am) learning something here. Sounds like Xubuntu is too much for this system so we will have to go to plan B. Meanwhile, until the install is complete, I guess there is not much for me to do but get a

Cheers!

Well, a quick update.
Got up this morning and found the install process finished
...takes for ever to start
... takes for ever to do anything. I guess Xubuntu and and penitum PII with 516 meg are not very happy together
It was an interesting experience but I guess I am going to kill the monster (remove Xubuntu) and try that puppy linux.

More later...

The sad thing is that xubuntu boots and runs much faster than XP and esp Vista so I can only imagine...anyway, hope you like puppy, if you have any issues with formatting and partitioning (not quite as user friendly but not bad) or anything else feel free to ask

Just be sure that when you first boot up Puppy you install it to the HD (Menu>Setup>Puppy universal installer). Also, during the install process be sure to choose to install GRUB to the MBR and you'll be golden. When you reboot just pick the first entry in the boot menu.

Puppy will still act a bit like the LiveCD during boot and shutdown but other than that you'll have a working system.

If you want to try out some other Linux distros there are quite a few out there just be sure it's designed for legacy systems. If puppy doesn't float your boat, I still would suggest Fluxbuntu as a second choice...