[nzlug] Older Hardware

[Denise Bates]

Damian Turner-Steele wrote:
> Can anyone suggest a fully featured distro for low end hardware, (early
> Pentiums with little memory 16 - 64mb ram) that can be used for email, web
> browsing and a little word processing. Probably will need to support
> winmodems of one sort or another. I can go down the Win98 route but would
> like to avoid it if at all possible.

Cut-down distros, such as DamnSmallLinux, Puppy, Austrumi _might_ have 
all the features that you need, but they can sometimes be a bugger to 
install on a low-specced machine (I often find it easier to whip the 
hard-drive out and use another, faster machine to do the installation). 
A full distro, such as Slackware will install OK (you will need at least 
32MB of ram to run X properly, even with a lightweight window manager).

Whether a winmodem will work depends on which model, and even then, most 
of the are pretty crummy. I wouldnt bother with them anymore, as there 
are lots of ultra-cheap used proper external modems about, from about 
$5-00 at places such as CashConverters or even the Salvation Army!

regards,
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Dr Denise J. Bates,
PO Box 50,
Meremere New Zealand
E-mail: dbates at iconz.co.nz
Telephone 09-2336433
Mobile 021-2541330
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