[TAG] Distro choice for an old laptop (was: ISP email goes down in flames)

[Mike Orr]

On 11/17/05, Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:
> As I said separately, I do _not_ think attempting any of those things
> on, specifically, a 1996 Inspiron is a good idea.  Adam would be working
> against severe hardware constraints, if my guess about total RAM (in
> particular) is right.

The age of his computer and the fact that it's a laptop totally went
by me.  If it's less than 256 MB RAM, you'll want to stick with
smallish programs.  I also don't think it's worth putting money into
computers that old.  You'll end up with a computer that's OK, when for
not much more money you can get a 'puter that's several times better. 
The exception is if you replace the motherboard/chip/memory in one
step, then you've got a new computer.  And memory is notoriously
difficult to match.  There's subtle differences even with the same
speed memory.

--
Mike Orr <sluggoster at gmail.com>
(mso at oz.net address is broken)