On Mon, 23 Jan 2017 16:35:24 -0500, Dobbins etc
wrote:

On 01/23/2017 04:18 PM, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:


There's a Linux distro called Damn Small Linux (DSL) that was designed
to work well with Win98 era hardware. It can also be installed to flash
devices in a way that prevents wearing them out by running completely
in RAM, and thereby not performing all the small writes caused by
running an OS on the flash drive itself.

Unfortunately development has ceased and much of the software
available is rather out of date, but it is about as usable as Win98.

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/


Yes, I tried a live CD of it last week after the old laptop's hd failed.
It was the only distro I found that would work. The laptop only has
64 MB RAM, so that automatically disqualified most OS software running
RAM. However, I could see some possible issues on the horizon such as
USB support (or lack thereof) and whether or not I'd ever be able to get
a 98 era webcam functional with it.

I am not a linux user, un fact I really dislike it, but about 2 years
ago, I really tried to make it work, and used my fastest desktop
computer, which was designed for Vista. And it had RAM added to it,
which I think is the limit at 2gb.

I must have tried 14 to 18 distros. I tried to both boot from flash
drives and to install to a spare HDD.

I was amazed that NONE of the newer versions at that time, would even
install. Or they would install and freeze my screen. THe most popular
seems to be Mint. I tried that and several different desktops for it.
That piece of **** eneded up being the most troublesome of all of them.
It would completely lock the computer, and did all sorts of other crap,
and even ruined a flash drive.

However, Damn Small, and Puppy both worked and ran from a flash drive. I
also got my hands on an old version of Pc-Linux from 2007 or 2009
(forgot), and that installed on my HDD and ran well, aside from the fact
that I dont find linux to be useful for very much.

I stopped trying and allowing linux to annoy me. I learned one thing, I
learned that I dont like it, or want to waste anymore time with it.

However I do still have Puppy linux on a flash drive, and when the
motherboard on my laptop failed, I was able to plug in the HDD into
another laptop. but XP would not boot, because of the different
hardware. So, I booted from the Puppy linux flash drive, and was able to
copy all my data on to another flash drive.