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Member since:
2005-08-21
FreeDOS is not a shabby alternative. Linux or OpenBSD are not either, but as time goes on, they both accumulate more and more features and use more and more disk space. It's still possible to install both on less than a first-generation Pentium, but it may not be trivial.
I have used Slackware 10 on a 486 laptop with 8 MB of RAM comfortably -- but installing it took a couple of days, some null modem cable magic, and a special boot floppy, not to mention a custom kernel image. If you can live with old software, you can certainly use something from the same age as the hardware. In my case, that would be Slackware 3.4.
The problem with old software is that it may be full of security holes. This is not always true, as many security holes are created by adding features, but I think it is a concern, especially if you decide to put into use dozens of old machines as, say, network terminals. Personally, I don't mind old software at all, because it's usually sleeker and even faster than more feature rich one, and it still gets the job done marvellously.
If it were not for my DVD movies and FLAC collection, I could downgrade to a 486 any day. Sure, it might take longer to compile a program, but I'm not in a hurry.