What OS to us for laptop?

[Talas]

Hej everyone,

I have a rather old laptop (celeron processor 666MHz). When I bought it I had WIN98 installed, but it was rather unstable and some things just didnt work the way I wanted them. Then, some months ago I installed WINXP because I had experienced no problems with it on my normal pc. Now, I only have 64 MB RAM on the laptop and thus XP runs pretty slooooow. Just a sec ago I got an idea. :geek: Why not install a different OS, like Linux for example? Should be stable AND fast n´est pas? And since I dont have ANY knowledge about how Linux works, and which one is good and which one isnt, I am asking you guys this question, because I know that some of you have much experience with Linux.

To sum it up: I need a "lean" OS that runs fast and stable. I want to be able to watch movies and listen to music. If possible, I dont want to pay for the software (nope, I am not demanding pirate software here, I want Freeware IF possible). :alucard: I want to have something equal to MS Office, and I want to be able surf the internet. Oh and btw, is it possible to establish a network conection with my WINXP Pc? Shouldnt be a problem now, should it? :fireman:

Ok then, I hope some of you can give me advice on this, your help is appreciated. :bouncy:

Talas

[Remote]

Check what stuff you have inside your laptop, if it's common stuff it's probaly supported by linux. As for Office equvalent, OpenOffice is pretty neat.

www.openoffice.org

[pandamoan]

Check what stuff you have inside your laptop, if it's common stuff it's probaly supported by linux. As for Office equvalent, OpenOffice is pretty neat.

www.openoffice.org

also for a ms replacement, if it's primarily word processing you are wanting, abiword is a great lean alternative. www.abisource.org

all i use is open source (freeware) software. it runs better than any alternatives. (with the exception of windows itself)

except for winamp, but both cool player and smooth player work pretty good.

:)

use bsplayer to run movies under windows, or vlc works good as well. also i highly recommend the real and quicktime alternatives at:

http://kazaalite.tk/

they run absolute circles around the bloat/adware that is quicktime and real player.

also consider:
a fresh win 98 install (after a hard drive format) will probably fix most or all of the problems you were having, in my experience that has been the case.

[The Khan Artist]

For an older laptop you may do well with Linux, but you are still likely to have problems. Especially with power management.

[Talas]

For an older laptop you may do well with Linux, but you are still likely to have problems. Especially with power management.

Could you specify what problems? Why with the power management? You think there is no good alternative to WIN98?


Check what stuff you have inside your laptop

Well as fas as I know, its all standard hardware for laptops. Shouldnt be a problem.


also consider:
a fresh win 98 install (after a hard drive format) will probably fix most or all of the problems you were having, in my experience that has been the case.

I thoght about that too, but I wanted to learn some linux anyway, so I would like to install a linux os on my laptop, you have any ideas which one is the best for this combination?

@ALL Thx for your recommendations, but no one told me WHICH Linux I should use. Are there no big differences? Or is red hat and suse Linux and so on all the same?

[Remote]

Although not a big linux fan myself, through a couple of dist and see what you like / dislike then choose...

[Clements]

Hmm, what's wrong with Windows 2000? It's leaner than XP and is about as stable. Much more compatible than Linux with all your software like emulators then.

[Talas]

Hmm, what's wrong with Windows 2000? It's leaner than XP and is about as stable. Much more compatible than Linux with all your software like emulators then.


Hm... never really thought about that alternative to be honest. So you think that WIN2000 would run smoothly with my celeron 666 and 64MB RAM? Because XP is a pain in the ass with those specs.

To be honest, I am a little surprised. :canadian: I had thought that there would be alot of enthusiasm for Linux. However, no one really has said anything about an actual linux OS. :chef:


Although not a big linux fan myself, through a couple of dist and see what you like / dislike then choose...

Sorry, I dont really understand your sentence. What does "dist" mean?

[Remote]

dist = abb for distrubution, i.e RedHat, SuSe, Slackware, Gentoo etc

abb is short for abbrevition :P

[Malcolm]

Talas.::. I would suggest installing Linux on a laptop unless you can get me the exact specs.

The Win2k alternative would be your best option if you don't want to experiment with Linux/BSD. Win2k runs on my PII 300a nicely and stabily.

If you want to test out Linux then post back with the laptops system specs.

[Talas]

dist = abb for distrubution, i.e RedHat, SuSe, Slackware, Gentoo etc

abb is short for abbrevition :P

Aaaah ok. But I hoped someone of you could tell me which Linux is best suited for my laptop, so that I dont have to read through all the stuff. :holiday:

[Talas]

Talas.::. I would suggest installing Linux on a laptop unless you can get me the exact specs.

The Win2k alternative would be your best option if you don't want to experiment with Linux/BSD. Win2k runs on my PII 300a nicely and stabily.

If you want to test out Linux then post back with the laptops system specs.

Hm... it truly seems as if Win2K is the best solution. However I´ll give you the exact specs tomorrow, dont have time right now. But thanks to all for the info.

Can I use all those alternative freeware progs on with Win2K? And can I use Emus? :batman:


Talas.::.

And btw, what do those dots means beside my nick? :cowboy:

[jollyrancher]

Why not just stick with XP and add 128 MB of RAM for $50? You should be able to add memory on that computer.

[Talas]

Alright then, I have installed Win2000. So far, it works great, its really much faster. My question now is: What freeware can u guys recommend? I still am looking for an alternative to WinRAR. Any suggestions or must-haves?

[flow``]

alternative to winrar? why?!

winrar is the greatest prog ever ;)

[Matata]

Yeah, much better than Winzip and WinACE (for my experience of course).

[Talas]

Yeah, much better than Winzip and WinACE (for my experience of course).

You guys are right of course. But WinRAR is Shareware and can be used only for 40 days, I want Freeware, so that I can use it as log as I want. :shaun:

[Matata]

crack it! :devil:

[Talas]

crack it! :devil:

Yea, I guess so, but I wanted to know whether there are any alternatives. :wolverine

[Matata]

Go to www.download.com and look for somrhting there.