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 !

[howefield]

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 !

You may take as much umbrage as you like, however that won't change the fact that pretty much everything in your original post suggests that you would be better off with XP, which incidentally is about 12 years old. I'd guess that a similarly 12 year old Linux system would outperform XP on your hardware. It is a bit of a myth that modern linux desktop systems perform well on computing antiques, you might want to look at the recommended hardware requirements for Lubuntu.

I would concur that Bhodi Linux may be a good fit for you, even then your cpu may be a bottleneck.

System Requirements
What do I need to run Bodhi?
The minimum requirements to run Bodhi Linux are only: 300+MHz CPU, 128MB RAM, and 2.5GB hard drive space!

Slitaz is also pretty good and has a low hardware entry point.

[Mark Scott]

Thanks for that. I will wander off and have a closer look at your sugestions. I fully understand the shortcommings of this hardware and was pleasantly suprised when I got it to boot up and the general O/S performance is really quite good. It is only the Abi Word problem that is frustrating. I have successfuly used the chrome browser and it was useable to surf the web. The windows are snappy and as I said it looks good too. I am sorry if you thought I took umbrage but I do not see why I should pay Microsoft again for a product that I have already purchased. I did originally ask if I was going down the correct route and until now nobody has really tried to help !

Like I said I could (should) perhaps take it to the re-cycling centre but after the initial success of even getting the thing to function I just thought it may be fairly easy to get where I want to be. I am not expecting it to be an XP machine or for it to do anything other then act as a word processor (I've said all this once). I agree XP is 12 years old but it has been continually updated and is still used many many users. I am not a Microsoft lover and am prepared to experiment with any suggestions. Perhaps an older Linux O/S would be a good idea. I just want my wife to be able use it as word processor after all !

I did read the hardware requirements before attempting to have a go ! As the O/S seems function really well perhaps I just need a less capeable word processing app?

Is installing Wine and running Word from Office 2000 a possibility?

Can anyone help with getting the Network connection back please? It was working perfectly.

(BTW it has 328mb of RAM so did exceed the minmum spec for RAM) It also has a dedicated video card which I think helps with the general performance of the O/S.

I know it is an antique ! But is is fun to play. I am not expecting miracles just some advice from people who have experience with flavours of Linux.

Perhaps I should ask elsewhere I only started asking on here because I had installed Lubuntu based on all the reviews on the web.