OS for (elderly) laptop?

[frostbite]

I have a Toshiba Satellite 4600 that I don't use much at all, partly because the battery's stuffed, and a replacement is more than the computer is worth.

It runs very slowly on W2000 (as do most things on W2000) and I am contemplating trying it on some variety of Linux. It has a single CD reader and a couple of USB ports for input.

Any suggestions?

[Saab Dastard]

I tried putting Linux (Ubuntu "E") onto a Toshiba 480CDT that was running Win2K reasonably well (233MHz PII, 172MB RAM).

It was painfully slow under Linux. Usable with Win2K, not usable with Linux. So go for the "lightest" Linux you can use. And good luck with finding wifi drivers!

You should be able to run Win2K nicely with the Toshiba Satellite 4600 - but only if you increase the memory (I'm assuming it's still 128MB).

I've run WinXP on desktop PCs with 600MHz PIII CPUs - but with at least 256MB RAM, and usually 512.

The other thing is - how recently has it had a re-install? A system that old is likely to have slowed down somewhat and would undoubtedly be quicker with a clean install.

SD

[WaterMeths]

I'd ask Santa for a new one if I were you !! Its that time of year...

Seriously though, I do enjoy computer stuff myself and was running an old desktop PC on Win 98SE for as long as I could. The online games that the kids wanted to run on it were killing it - so with all things in the IT world, it's life was eventually cut short. I did manage to get £20 for it though - amazing !

[bnt]

The standard Ubuntu release is a little bloated, primarily because it runs the full Gnome desktop environment. There's a version called Kubuntu which uses KDE, which is also heavy on the system. If you already use Ubuntu elsewhere, I would recommend trying Xubuntu (http://www.xubuntu.org/), which uses a more lightweight "window manager" called Xfce, and lighter Office apps rather than the full OpenOffice.

Note that installing one Ubuntu version doesn't lock you in e.g. if you installed the standard version, and you have some disk space, you can add the "xubuntu-desktop" meta-package over the Internet. You then choose which one "window manager" to launch at the login screen (select "xfce" or "GNOME" from the Session menu). I'm getting more in to Xubuntu on my netbook - which is not very powerful, though I still use OpenOffice on it.

[rgbrock1]

You might want to try Damn Small Linux. Normally DSL is run from either a CD or USB stick. The entire distro is about 50MB in size and runs quite quickly on old hardware. Actually, it's the only distro I have experience with which runs quite fast straight from the CD.

You can install DSL onto your laptop using the included installer and its footprint is quite small. Since it's based on Debian you should be able to get any wireless drivers quite readily.

[frostbite]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I bought the machine secondhand and don't have a W2K cd, so the reinstall option isn't available. I tried using an XP cd but W2K wouldn't allow that.

Food for thought there.

[Mac the Knife]

Try one of the Linuxes optimised for this situation.

Damn Small Linux has already been mentioned. Maybe a bit TOO small.

Try Puppy Linux - Puppy Linux Community - Home (http://puppylinux.org/main/index.php?file=Overview%20and%20Getting%20Started.htm) or Vector Linux - Welcome to VectorLinux — VectorLinux.com (http://vectorlinux.com/)

Both excellent, fast and full featured distros for the older PC.

Mac

[Whinging Tinny]

I would agree with Mac The Knife about Puppy Linux.

Very small and has most general applications.
It has a lot of Wi-Fi drvers already installed.
So it shouldn't be to much trouble to set up the Wi-Fi connection.
Also, has a couple of graphic drivers which cover most basic options.
Instructions are also quite straight forward and the forum is helpful.

I used it to breathe life into an old Toshiba Dynabook P3 1.3 and a Celeron desktop.
Good enough for the kids to general surfing.

You can run it from the CDROM as well as a flashdrive.
Or even do a full install.

The whole O/S is only around 94-6 MB:ok:

I've never tried VectorLinux.

Like others, I have found Ubuntu to be rather bloated.

[frostbite]

Thanks for those.

Just giving Puppy Linux a try - first challenge is finding why the mouse doesn't work!

[PrettyBoy]

Try TinyXP. Runs on just about everything and still it's XP not LINUX. Google it!

[frostbite]

A few years ago I would have tried Tiny XP but there's rather a lot of negative comments putting me off.

Not got very far with Puppy Linux. It installed alright, but I can't get it to see the PS2 mouse although I selected that in the options.

[Miskin]

Try Linux Mint. Run from CD to try it. Installs a treat if you like it. Very Speedy. Hassle free. Eat your heart out Bill Gates. It's green - I mean you have to like the colour green (everything is green!). Nothing wrong with green.

[x213a]

Concur with the Linux Mint suggestion - very low resource hog and seems to work "out of the box".

[Peter Fanelli]

DOS 6.2, the last usable product to come from Micro$oft.

[P.Pilcher]

What was wrong with the final revision, DOS 6.22 then?
(Oh happy daze!)

P.P.

[mad_jock]

You can laugh but only 8 years ago I used to use dos 6.2 for making up rollout installers.

These days I presume they just boot them all straight to network.

Each person had 20 floppy's and 10 of you would fire 20 machines each and run round in circles giving the script the individual machines name and other bollocks. As soon as that 20 were done you were off to another 20 machines. By the time you had 1000 building it was back to the beginning to sort the printers and user accounts out.

[PrettyBoy]

Today I installed TinyXP on a PC with a Pentium II, 350 Mhz, 64MB RAM. Runs like a charm. Quick to start and shut down and it's XP SP3. With a few tweaks everything works and no need to learn a new language (Linux). All you have to do is to keep it hush hush. Version 9 out now. A no-brainer for me (which I need!)