Free OS

Joeface

Oh Wise and mysterious ppl of boards.

I have crappy old laptop(its a pentium nothing) , my neice wants it , so recomend a OS for it , a small OS , im not too familuar with Linux range, so i need someone to point one out too me that I can down load . She wants to use it for play music and as note book or something .Since it powers up I may as well use it


Thanks
joeface

OctavarIan

I'd recommend Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/

or if you want the smallest one possible (AFAIK)

http://www.puppylinux.org/user/viewpage.php?page_id=1

Joeface

Thanks OctavarIan
I shall give them a go. How are they too configure ? easy enough ?

SouperComputer

lookup Dawm Small Linux too AKA DSL Linux.

Failing that Windows95 might be worth looking into. All depends on the spec of the machine. Windows 98 is still useful and tolerable.

tba

Ubuntu is a good one tbh

Thomas_S_Hunterson

SouperComputer wrote:

Failing that Windows95 might be worth looking into. All depends on the spec of the machine. Windows 98 is still useful and tolerable.

Don't you still have to pay for a licence for them

Joeface

Thanks For the replys so far , Im going to try these and see which I like best. Def not putting win 95 or win 98.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Joeface wrote:

Thanks For the replys so far , Im going to try these and see which I like best. Def not putting win 95 or win 98.

good call

weeder

Joeface wrote:

Thanks For the replys so far , Im going to try these and see which I like best. Def not putting win 95 or win 98.

maybe try windows nt4 workstation i dunno it might be worth it since its an nt based os

Joeface

Again NT is microsoft , and I not putting any thing illegal on it just really lookin for a small os , that looks good ,and she will pick up easily.


looked up that Damnsmall linux............50megs omg this could be perfect , Screen shots look pretty good aswell

majiktripp

Correct me if im wrong (and Im sure someone will..) But i do believe windows 95 and 98 are now abandonware thus free to use?I believe since they are unsupported and no longer for sale you can download and use them free?

aidan_walsh

majiktripp wrote:

Correct me if im wrong (and Im sure someone will..) But i do believe windows 95 and 98 are now abandonware thus free to use?I believe since they are unsupported and no longer for sale you can download and use them free?

You're wrong. Software only becomes abandonware with the express permission of the author/copyright holder.

ambro25

DOS 5/6 and Win 3.1 + Calmira, tbh - works wonders on 486s with 8MB RAM.

Bang a 16-bit 802.11b Orinocco Silver/Gold/WaveLAN in it, pay a visit to OldVersion dot com and you're away: fully-functional, virus-protected, media-playing, web-surfing, 15-year old Centrino

(don't forget to buy a Centrino badge on eBay, but lay off the nVidia or ATi Radeon Mobility ones )

I very much doubt M$ will hound you about decidedly-obsolete OSes.

As for win95/win98, I can't believe on one hand you'd consider giving your niece a laptop, but on the other have issues with forking out a €5er to just buy a genuine CD/disk set to go with it :rolleyes: - hey, each to their own anyway...

Joeface

well all this just went out the window ...... I droped the laptop and it bounced like an egg, so I will have too wait till i find another one


Thanks , for the help guys

tba

snigger

Tobias Greeshman

Butterfingers

Joeface

hey the laptop is like 3inchs thick and weighs a quater of a tonne .

its not funny I hurt me toe


whats wrong with giving her a laptop , I have no use for it , i just dont want to use Ms Stuff for a change thats the only reason I asked what Free OS to use. I taught it would be nice to experience something else

28064212

majiktripp wrote:

Correct me if im wrong (and Im sure someone will..) But i do believe windows 95 and 98 are now abandonware thus free to use?I believe since they are unsupported and no longer for sale you can download and use them free?

I thought abandonware was just a concept i.e. if a company no longer develops or sells a product, then there's a good chance you won't get prosecuted for distributing it (although legally you still could). If the company actually give permission for it to become freely available, it's then public domain software, and not abandonware

28064212

Joeface wrote:

whats wrong with giving her a laptop

Nothing. So long as she isn't allowed access the internet unsupervised (assuming she's under the age of about 16)

ambro25

Joeface wrote:

whats wrong with giving her a laptop , I have no use for it , i just dont want to use Ms Stuff for a change thats the only reason I asked what Free OS to use. I taught it would be nice to experience something else

Hey Joe,

Nothing wrong at all. Read my post (if the above was in reply to it ): I'm merely saying that if you can 'push the boat out' so far as to give your niece a lappy (good for you and for her), you could just 'push the boat (that little bit further) out' and get her a legit win95/98 CD/floppy set as well.

It's laudable to want to introduce youngsters to the joys of command line OSs, boot disks, etc. very early on. But I'm just being realistic (on your behalf ): who's the favourite uncle?

* Him who gives her a 'turnkey lappy' with Winamp etc. ready to run?
* Or him who gives her a 'broken lappy that I don't know how to work'?

[And do you really want to be "24/7-old-lappy-support-on-the-phone, how may I help you?" ]

Thomas_S_Hunterson

ambro25 wrote:

Hey Joe,

Nothing wrong at all. Read my post (if the above was in reply to it ): I'm merely saying that if you can 'push the boat out' so far as to give your niece a lappy (good for you and for her), you could just 'push the boat (that little bit further) out' and get her a legit win95/98 CD/floppy set as well.

It's laudable to want to introduce youngsters to the joys of command line OSs, boot disks, etc. very early on. But I'm just being realistic (on your behalf ): who's the favourite uncle?

* Him who gives her a 'turnkey lappy' with Winamp etc. ready to run?
* Or him who gives her a 'broken lappy that I don't know how to work'?

[And do you really want to be "24/7-old-lappy-support-on-the-phone, how may I help you?" ]

you don't get much more "turnkey" than ubuntu

Joeface

Well At the mo since I dropped the laptop and as I said it bounced like a raw egg I have nothing too give Her .

The reasons behind using something other that MS stuff was because they all ready have a PC in the house using windows Xp , its a Decent enoungh machine.
But im tired of lookin at Xp , Win98 ,NT , 2000 there all boring and WIN95 should be banned .( and dont say Win 3.11 thats actually running on a auto load machine here at work ....horrible horrilbe evil OS lol)
I just want them to have something different. Whats that sayin ...variety is the spice of life. And also it would mean I would become more familiar with different software . I dont mind getting asked if they have aproblem , currently if PC , DVD player , Sky , Chours , Eircom BB , dont work properly I get a call from every one in a ten mile radius. Lookin at Linux might be nice for a change .

As soon I source a P11 laptop with a CD or DVD drive , a Screen a CPU and HD that all work , I will setup something again for her .Oh and no She will not have the Internet, im not a complete idiot .

( hmmmm a free laptop with a free OS , for my neice who should be free to do as she pleases)

Thanks For the input guys .