Installing on old hardware

[Mark Scott]

O.K. after a few hours messing about I am up and running Lubuntu 13.04. (I have never used anything except Windows for the last 30 years).
When I first signed in it connected via Wi-Fi to my home network perfectly and I ran the suggested updates. I then moved the PC to it's required location and the Wi Fi reception is poor. I started getting authentication requests asking for passwords and read some stuff about passwords and updating key rings. It said to "sync" the passwords via an option I cannot see in Lubuntu ! Is there some kind of administrator sign in that I can access?? If so how on earth do you get into it? When it boots it wants the user I set up when installing to sign in and there are no other options or users ! I do not want to start editing command lines and all that ! For me this was starting to get too complicated so I ditched the Wi-Fi dongle and started trying to edit a document in Abiword. (Which is all I really wanted it to do in the first place !)

That's when the trouble really started !

It is so unresponsive it is totally unusable. Lubuntu and everything else is great! really quick and snappy and I feel it will be O.K. for the Pentium 266 it is running on. The machine was capable of running XP and was good enough. I want the machine to be a dedicated word processor for my wife and want to be able to copy her docs to a USB flash drive and print them off on another machine running word on XP. Is there perhaps another variation of Linux or another OS which will allow me to

1. make it simple and seamless for her and
2. make it simple and seamless for me wothout having to do anything other than installing a bit of software?

I started looking at Linux Puppy. Could this be a better simpler option ? We have a licensed copy of MS office and this is all she really needs. (No multi-media, no internet, no bells and whistles, no updates over the web etc) Loking at Abiword I am sure she will find it perfectly acceptable so it does not have to MS Office capable. I am not sure I want to start getting into wine etc. (unless, of course it comes in a bottle)

Any suggestions as to the best way forward would be greatly helpful. I just do not have time in my life to learn a whole new way of computing ! (I did enjoy fiddling about and getting it to work though)

[Cheesemill]

Can you post the specs of the machine you are trying to use please.

[Mark Scott]

I am at work ! From memory it is a 266MHz pentium processor with only about 256mb of RAM. 440LX motherboard chip set and graphics card of some sort. I do not want to ditch it when I know it will do what we need !.

Just going to look at Tiny XP and Linux #!

Like I said I just want it to be simple for us both !

[Mark Scott]

Oh I forgot to mention the H.D. is only 6.5GB

[snowpine]

I recommend to upgrade your hardware if you hope to have a remotely pleasant computing experience in 2013. The absolute bare minimum I will even touch is 1ghz processor and 1gb RAM; anything less is a doorstop. You should be able to find a better computer low-cost or free using Craigslist, Freecycle, Goodwill, local classifieds, friends, co-workers, etc.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2130640

[Mark Scott]

I recommend to upgrade your hardware if you hope to have a remotely pleasant computing experience in 2013. The absolute bare minimum I will even touch is 1ghz processor and 1gb RAM; anything less is a doorstop. You should be able to find a better computer low-cost or free using Craigslist, Freecycle, Goodwill, local classifieds, friends, co-workers, etc.

That's not the point! If I wanted to get another machine I would have done. I do not want a pleasant computing experience in 2013 (I can do that on my own machine thanks) I want a machine to run a word processor at a decent speed with the capability to plug in a USB stick to transfer files. The person using this machine thinks an IBM Golfball typewriter (Google it) is cool. The last word processing she did was on a something like a 386 compueter before networks even existed !

BTW I just checked and there is a massive 328 mb of RAM !

[howefield]

The machine was capable of running XP and was good enough.

Why not use XP ?

[Mark Scott]

I have lost the access key so although I have a disk and can install it, it (XP) will need activating after 30 days. I do not want or need SP2 or SP3 so to save time and efffort I thought I would try something different.

Also I believe a Linux style O/S will out perform XP on this hardware.

I would have kept Windows 95 on it but it has no Wi-Fi or USB support. (It has two usb ports which under Lubuntu I can use (and have already used) for Wi-Fi and a USB stick.

I have the machine booted up at the moment and I do like the look and feel of Lubuntu. Like I said I have NO experience of Linux and reading reviews etc. it seems like the right O/S for my requirements.

If the only help I am going to get is ditch the hardware or go back to Bill Gates I think I'll go elsewhere !

[mastablasta]

Why not use XP ?

+1

the problem here is not that you wont' be able to find an operating system that will work on that mashcine. the bigger issue is that programmes - wordprocessors that are made in 2013 tend to have certain hardware requirement that might be above the ones that you have.

ofcourse if user doesn't mind having some old worprocessor then win98+word97 should be ok.

the hardware will struggle with modern wordprocessors.

otherwise DSl, puppy, slitaz, tinycore are a few options for old mashicnes.


also try Bodhi linux (ubuntu based) and Antix (debian based with icewm).

[Mark Scott]

+1

the problem here is not that you wont' be able to find an operating system that will work on that mashcine. the bigger issue is that programmes - wordprocessors that are made in 2013 tend to have certain hardware requirement that might be above the ones that you have.

ofcourse if user doesn't mind having some old worprocessor then win98+word97 should be ok.

the hardware will struggle with modern wordprocessors.

otherwise DSl, puppy, slitaz, tinycore are a few options for old mashicnes.


also try Bodhi linux (ubuntu based) and Antix (debian based with icewm).

Yes thanks for that. I just had a look in task manager whilst using Abiword and it is pushing the CPU up to 93%. (that seems a lot to me as when it was running XP MS word 2000 performed flawlessly). I understood the aps that come with Lubuntu and other slimmed down O/S are designed to be compatible with older hardware and therefore find the fact that it is grabbing all the processor capability odd !

Can anyone help with my initial question about signing into the system.

When I first signed into Lunbutu the wireles connection was still there from when I ran it live mode. Since then it went out of range and when I try to connect it wants a password that I do not have. I apparently do not have the privileges to do this !

It says "System policy prevents modification of network settings for all users" and then asks for a password. Like I said before I have only ever created one password and that is for the account I am signed in as !