What To Do With A Really Old PII?

[FormatC]

So I bought a computer on eBay an old PII (I only wanted the Enlight EN-7200 Desktop Style Case but it had a computer in it plus I got it for $1 with $18.74 Shipping so $19.74 for computer and the case I wanted is not a bad deal ) You Might remember the case from this Thread

Will any GUI Versions of Linux run in such a machine? I tried To Donate it but all of the computer charities in my area will not take such a machine (They said if they did all they will do is use it for parts, so I'm better off keeping it)

SPECS
PII 233 MHZ MMX
64 MB of Ram (4 sticks of 16 MB) ECC Ram
Western Digital 13.6 GB hard drive (Shows up as 4.3 GB,Hence Seller Said it had only 4.3)
Diamond Multimedia S3 Virge 4MB PCI Video card
Intel 10/100 NIC
I will add a Sound card as it did not come with one and I have extras laying around I might also add a 56K Voice/Fax modem so I can fax stuff
DTK PRM-00761 E0 Motherboard 440LX Chipset Only Supports ATA 33 (Can't DL Manual as site is down)


Thanks

[kenc51]

xubuntu might

[FormatC]

already tried Xubuntu it did not run

[w00fd06]

Can you find a really old version of Mandriva Linux? Or upgrade your computer, I mean, a dollar (w/out shipping) is a great deal, but you may want to consider upgrading a little.

[dicecca112]

already tried Xubuntu it did not run

did you use the right install? The one made for older systems?

[FormatC]

which one is that? I have two *.ISO images that I downloaded one was labeled desktop and one was labeled alternate

[dicecca112]

alternate is the one you want. Also try Knoppix, its built to run on a 486 or higher

[dkarko]

but p2 is a 686 processor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I686

Now anyway is better to try xubuntu alternate. You should also try zenwalk.
At last when you think you are ready, you should definately try ARCH. its very fast!
Have seen it in action on a 400hz machine with not even a lightweight desktop (kde)
and it was running very fast, but its hard to setup.

[kenc51]

Feather Linux or DSL would do too!

[stev]

Of course the machine will work with Win98SE. Having the NIC and a DSL connection, this machine would be just fine for e-mail, surfin the net, looking at family pictures and to listening to music. It could rip music, but the speed would be dog-gone slow.

I've rebuilt a few of these older 233MMX machines in the last three years. I've replaced the processor in some to be a little faster, dumped in higher size RAM, and a larger HDD.

Not knowing the MOBO specs, I would only assume thatthe USB, if any, would be 1.0. Not much works with USB 1.0. I have an old Jump drive that is 128Mb that works with USB 1.0, but that's it.

A machine like that can run Adobe Reader 7, WMP 9, Office 97, AOL 9, Spybot S+D, and a small fire wall program. Running Norton or McAfee would kill the machine's overhead resources.

If you know of any seniors living in your area who know how to work a computer, this machine would be great for them to keep in touch with the family. This is the reason I rebuilt the three machines.

[dkarko]

If you know of any seniors living in your area who know how to work a computer, this machine would be great for them to keep in touch with the family. This is the reason I rebuilt the three machines.

That's really nice of you!

[Darkstar]

you could turn it into a firewall

[w00fd06]

Hmmmmm...... you could always run a server.

[kenc51]

If you know of any seniors living in your area who know how to work a computer, this machine would be great for them to keep in touch with the family. This is the reason I rebuilt the three machines.

It doesn't have to be older people either! My nephews are more than happy with a pc I gave them. They are 5 & 8yrs old. The 5yr old can login, dialup to the internet and goto http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies (with his parents supervision of course)
Get them when they're young and computers are child play ;)
Everyone should learn the basics of computers, especially the internet.

[Dragon_Cooler]

all i can say is


http://www.clarkconnect.com

or

http://www.freenas.org

[dlarmeir]

For a functional desktop, Debian, or FreeBSD. These are the two lightest weight OS's around. They consume very little memory and and have alot of software and will make a good file server and webserver. As Dragon stated above, clark connect, live cd router, pf sense, ipcop, smoothwall are just a few of the firewall router distros available that will fly on your p2, clark connect is a bit bloated and will run slower on the p2, pfsense and smoothwall and livecd router will be the lightest. You can aim me at n00bishpenguin if you have any further questions. I am glad to help people with open source software. Thanks, Me