More mileage from an ancient machine

[Liam Proven]

On 05/07/07, Charlie Kravetz <cjk at teamcharliesangels.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-07-04 at 04:12 +0100, Liam Proven wrote:
> > On 30/06/07, Peter N Spotts <pspotts at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> > > Folks,
> > >
> > > A friend of mine is turning over to a friend of hers a 1998 Dell
> > > Inspiron 3200 with an XGA color monitor and MMX "technology" -- my
> > > friend wasn't sure whether the processor was 166, 200, or 233 Mhz.
> >
> > It's a bit too low-end for Ubuntu. You could try Puppy Linux or DamnSmallLinux.
> >
> > I recently wrote an article on this that you may find useful:
> > http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40532
> >
> > --
> > Liam Proven • Blog, homepage &c: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
> > Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
> > Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419
> > AOL/AIM/iChat: liamproven at aol.com • MSN/Messenger: lproven at hotmail.com
> > Yahoo: liamproven at yahoo.co.uk • Skype: liamproven • ICQ: 73187508
> >
>
> Under the circumstances, does this mean I have to shut down my 266mhz
> units with 256 mb ram running ubuntu 6.06 now? I have been using Ubuntu
> since May of 2005, and since my 400 Mhz motherboard blew itself up, I am
> now running these old and slow units until I get to the city to buy a
> new one. In the mean time, it's a little slower, and I can't really
> multitask this, but, I think it is running Ubuntu with Gnome, OpenOffice
> 2.0, and all the bells and whistles it comes with. Downloading is a
> challenge, though.

Don't be silly. If you're happy, keep on truckin'.

But...

[1] RAM matters a lot. You're a *lot* better off with 256MB than 144,
let alone 128 or less.
[2] you might get better performance from a lighter-weight distro.
[3] the experience of full Ubuntu on a really low-end machine might
well put a novice off forever.

-- 
Liam Proven • Blog, homepage &c: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419
AOL/AIM/iChat: liamproven at aol.com • MSN/Messenger: lproven at hotmail.com
Yahoo: liamproven at yahoo.co.uk • Skype: liamproven • ICQ: 73187508