Linux for old (slow) PCs
 

An interesting comment by Schmite on the "upgrade" thread prompted me to post regarding using Linux on my Laptop.

I'm currently thinking of switching to Linux on my old (but still trusty) laptop, to try to speed the thing up. It's a Dell LM, with a P133, 24Mb RAM and a 2Gb HDD. I use a Xircom PCMCIA modem for internet (mainly Email, but also a bit of browsing, when "on the road")

Can you give me any pointers? I'd like to still be able to run Excel spreadsheets and Powerpoint demos on it - either by "dual-booting" or with WINE, as well as the email and browsing funtionality.

What about my McAfee anti-virus and ZoneAlarm? any Linux-users can give me a pointer regarding the possibility to use these under WINE, or if there are similar utilities available for Linux?

Can't really afford to buy a brand-new 500Mb+ laptop and I was hoping that this approach might get me a few more years out of the LM133.

Of course, if there's anyone actually running Linux on an LM, that'd be really interesting!

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What Goes Around . . . . .
. . often makes a better landing

have you tried

http://www.linuxnews.com

there is a story on there about a stable(ha) release of wine

Penguins R also known 2 fall over. Just a thought, but have U tried 2 test U're boss up 4 a new machine?

(Guess Who?"

[This message has been edited by SR-71 (edited 05 February 2001).]

A P133 has enough grunt to run Linux, but if you want to run the X windowing system as well (which these days I guess most people take for granted) 24MB may be a bit on the tight side for RAM. Trying to run WINE as well *may* be trying to push it too far.
StarOffice (downloadable from Sun) comes in a Linux version, I believe, which should take care of your "Office" type needs.
The real problem with Linux on laptops is driver support for all the on-board non-standard graphics, sound etc. However there's a fair bit of documentation such as http://hci.ucsd.edu/dsf/notebooks.html.

Anti-virus? Not really an issue with Linux, as long as you keep up to date with patches.

Firewalling? Again, by default it's a much less "open" system than Windoze; there's also plenty of stuff like "ipchains" freely available if you really want to mail it down.

You seem familiar, Do I know you from somewhere E.S.G?

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ICQ# 91029795

(Possible) dumb question - what's WINE (apart from what certain F/A's do after the engines shutdown)? Something something Network Environment?

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Feline
(I Sit, I Watch, I Smile)

Apart from being the sound heard on the flight deck as the engines come to a halt, and being a lovely red fruity beverage . . . WINE is an "environment" which runs under LINUX and allows most (?) WinDoze software to run on a LIUX system.

Sits back waiting for someone more knowledgable to tear this post to bits and give a more accurate explanation :) )

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It's never a dumb question if you really don't know the answer!