Windows 98 Internet Connection Help?

[Badger]

Although win2k is probably not an option with 48MB of ram...

You'd be surprised...  2K is nowhere near as bad as XP.  Plus, 2K gives you the option to shut unused parts of the OS off, unlike 98.

64mb is core req for 2000 and XP.  Processor speed req went up for XP (I think 133 for 2K and 233 for XP).  Considering a min spec machine is going to be a dog anyway, 48MB is probably a non-starter.

[Badger]

install linux.. will work wonders!

So...which current linux distribution is going to run a desktop with 48MB?  I expect the pc's owner is going to want more than a console and a telnet client.  You want a gui shell?  A web browser?  48MB falls well below the minimums for most (if not all) of the current mainstream distros.  Take RedHat9: 64MB will get you text only, 128 (min) for graphical mode, or 192 (recommended, graphical mode)...the current RedHat desktop requires 256MB...just like SUSE 10 (256MB required/512 reccommended)...you can get away will less on Linspire, but it's still 128MB min/256 recommended.

Sure, you can get the kernel running on older hardware...but so what?

Not trying to start an OS flame war (/. is the place for that)...but "linux runs on old hardware" is quite a tired exaggeration in the consumer desktop arena.

[Phaedrus]

Not only that, but the owner has a hard enough time with Windows and she is used to it. Linux is another world.  If it were my laptop, and I wanted to keep it for email or word processing, I probably WOULD install Linux on it. Just to add a little flavor to my computing life  But I've used it before and I am familiar with it.

The laptop is at an odd moment in time, really. She doesn't want to just "throw it away", because it can still technically do it's job (if it was working right) but yet it is worth nothing, and isn't worth putting any money into. It's in the twilight of technology 

[Badger]

The laptop is at an odd moment in time, really. She doesn't want to just "throw it away", because it can still technically do it's job (if it was working right) but yet it is worth nothing, and isn't worth putting any money into. It's in the twilight of technology 

Face it...it's a boat anchor. 

[RVertigo]

Upgrade the RAM to 64 MB and install Win2K.

[Badger]

Upgrade the RAM to 64 MB and install Win2K.

Antique laptop == unlikely to find ram module.  But it's worth a shot, I suppose.  If it were a desktop, no problem...you could dump a half gig of PC133 in there for short money.

Still, at 64MB the experience is probably going to leave a lot to be desired.

[RVertigo]

Ebay for the RAM...  Or hit up the PC recycle places... could prolly find some for cheap.

[yamahonkawazuki]

Upgrade the RAM to 64 MB and install Win2K.

Antique laptop == unlikely to find ram module.  But it's worth a shot, I suppose.  If it were a desktop, no problem...you could dump a half gig of PC133 in there for short money.

Still, at 64MB the experience is probably going to leave a lot to be desired.

ebay

[Badger]

Ebay for the RAM...  Or hit up the PC recycle places... could prolly find some for cheap.

Right...assuming that there was -ever- an option for a 64MB module in that particular laptop (older laptops were notorious for having non-standard memory sockets and anemic capacity).  It's not like you can just drop any old 1GB module into a laptop from 1992...  I've certainly owned laptops that did not have such grand capacity. 

Then again, I've owned laptops (well, "portables") that didn't have hard drives that big.

[RVertigo]

I'm sure 64MB is realistic...  And an ebay search wouldn't take much effort.

I wasn't saying to drop a gig in it...  Most desktop PCs don't have a gig... Even these days.

[Badger]

I wasn't saying to drop a gig in it...

Right...I was just making the point that computers (especially old laptops) do not have arbitrary capacity.  Putting a gig in it seems almost rediculous, and it wasn't really that long ago that putting 128MB in anything seemed rediculous.  My current laptop has 2GB in it and regularly runs 3 OS's at the same time...people seem to take such things for granted these days.

We've had machines in our lab that have 128GB+ of memory in them...it's probably not going to be too much longer before that doesn't seem like a lot. :shrug:

[john]

Try downloading DSL (Demn Small Linux), it boots from a CD and you'll find out if it will work with the modem and other goodies.  If she's just going to use it for browsing then you could test, see if it works, and then install onto the HD if you desire.  Or she could just boot it from the CD when she wants to browse.  It boots pretty fast and I use it on an old laptop I have with no HD  to browse and connect to work with rdesktop.

Try it.  It won't hurt anything.