"Bill Laing, a General Manager in the Microsoft Windows Server Division, has been quoted as saying that Windows Server 2008 will be the last 32-bit operating system. Bill is a server guy and indeed Windows Server 2008 is the last 32-bit server operating system - all future operating systems for server hardware from Microsoft beyond Windows Server 2008 will be 64-bit. A few folks took Bill's comments on Windows Server and applied them to Windows Client deriving that Windows Vista would be the last 32-bit operating system. That is an incorrect extension. While Windows Vista includes both 32-bit and 64-bit and there is a growing community of drivers for 64-bit Windows Vista we have not decided when Windows Client will follow Windows Server and become 64-bit only."
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Member since:2007-02-11
Member since:2006-08-18
Member since:2005-07-08
Linux and BSD on the other hand can still be made to work on a modest 486 or Pentium 1 system with X11 and a lightweight desktop environment. Without X and a desktop environment, perhaps even a 386 DX.
FUD. I have a P200 here and I installed Slackware on it. I can only use it as a home FTP and CVS server. I tried installing X11 on it. Yes WindowMaker and Fvwm ran fine. However, I could't use any recent GTK/QT apps. Firefox was not usable at all. Same for all gecko-based browsers. Konqueror was really slow too. What can I do with it if I can't run a recent (and secure) web browser to visit simple html pages?
On the other side, Win98SE runs ok on it. I can even browse the web with Internet Explorer 6 (it still gets patches!)
Linux and old hardware is a big mystery for me. It has never been nice. Even Xubuntu on a Celeron 400 with 256mb of ram is too slow.
Member since:2006-08-18
FUD. I have a P200 here and I installed Slackware on it. I can only use it as a home FTP and CVS server. I tried installing X11 on it. Yes WindowMaker and Fvwm ran fine. However, I could't use any recent GTK/QT apps. Firefox was not usable at all. Same for all gecko-based browsers. Konqueror was really slow too. What can I do with it if I can't run a recent (and secure) web browser to visit simple html pages?
Thats not a Linux problem.
Firefox's minimum system requirements are 233 MHz CPU and 64 MB of RAM on all platforms. Konqueror is part of the heaviest *nix desktop environment: KDE. You cannot expect that to run well either.
You have to use lightweight browser like Dillo or Links for web browsing or an old version of Firefox.
On the other side, Win98SE runs ok on it. I can even browse the web with Internet Explorer 6 (it still gets patches!)
Yes, legacy versions of Windows were much lighter than any Unix-like OS. I wont lie and say they aren't. I have Windows 95 on my 386 with 8 MB of RAM. Linux can barely barely boot into the command line with those specs.
You can probably get your Pentium 200 to work fine in the Equinox Desktop Environment. It looks much like Windows 98.
Starting with Vista, however, things have changed. My 2.66 GHz Pentium 4, 1 GB RAM, 128 MB ATI Radeon chokes on Vista and Aero but runs just fine with Linux and Beryl/Compiz. On Vista my system fans are running at full RPM at all times and I worry that some component may fail (system is over 4 years old).
Linux and old hardware is a big mystery for me. It has never been nice. Even Xubuntu on a Celeron 400 with 256mb of ram is too slow.
The latest Xfce isn't much lighter weight than Gnome. 350-400 MHz is probably the least you'd want to run it on.
You can improve performance and reduce virtual memory requirements by disabling unnecessary daemons and services at boot up.
Edited 2007-05-18 19:36
Member since:2007-04-06
Now try Puppy Linux
http://www.puppylinux.org
It is made for old computers basically, and comes with all the software that you will need for basic tasks (Browser, IM, Word processor, Spreadsheet, Media player etc) without any slowdown. In the same vein you can also try DSL.
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
These distros are designed to work with a config as low as 486 with 16 MB RAM. For all the myth bashing just download them (50 to 70 MB), boot them from the CD (if you have 128 MB of RAM else just install), and then come back to post.
Edited 2007-05-18 20:21
Member since:2006-11-19
Linux and BSD on the other hand can still be made to work on a modest 486 or Pentium 1 system with X11 and a lightweight desktop environment. Without X and a desktop environment, perhaps even a 386 DX.
No X11 is a popular configuration on *nix servers. So thats a good way of prolonging the life of very old systems before they are shipped to e-dumps in 3rd world countries
I'm sorry but the "low memory requirement" of Linux is unfortunately a myth. For example, my current Fedora desktop already uses 1.5GB of RAM, and from experience any less than 1GB would trash it. (Well I'm a developer that likes tons of stuff open at the same time).
This is not a new thing: the minimum memory requirement for installation of Fedora Core 2 is 192MB [ http://docs.fedoraproject.org/release-notes/fc2/x86/ ], which is much more than the 64MB of Windows XP.
Yes I know Linux can be made to run on lighter systems [ as in http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Minimum_Hardware_Requi... ], yet Windows can be made to on 486 with 20MB of RAM [ http://www.winhistory.de/more/386/xpmini_eng.htm ] too, yet I would not recommend that either.
On the other hand, I accept that Vista is a really resource hungry system. Although any modern Linux desktop is more or less the same.
Edited 2007-05-18 17:41
Member since:2005-08-17
Member since:
2006-08-18
The way Window's system requirements are heading I believe it. Only 64 bit dual or quad core chips will have enough might to handle the bloat of future Windows OSes.
Linux and BSD on the other hand can still be made to work on a modest 486 or Pentium 1 system with X11 and a lightweight desktop environment. Without X and a desktop environment, perhaps even a 386 DX.
No X11 is a popular configuration on *nix servers. So thats a good way of prolonging the life of very old systems before they are shipped to e-dumps in 3rd world countries.
Edited 2007-05-18 16:11