http://groups.google.com/group/micro...62e362ec88f6bf

microsoft.public.windowsme.general

Good Linux alternative for Windows 9x/ME era computers.
1 No Alternative May 4
2 Alias May 4
3 Auric__ May 4
4 Noel Paton May 4
5 No Alternative May 4
6 Alias May 5
7 webster72n May 5

This is a version of linux called u-lite. It is based on ubuntu,
so it is completely updatable, and uses the latest programs
and browsers easily. It can use the latest youtube and
other flash video sites, for instance, because it uses a
recent version of adobe flashplayer with a modern gecko
based browser, like firefox and kazehakase. Win9x won't
do this without some major hacking.

It uses the lxde desktop so it runs on very low resource
computers. You just need about 32mb of ram, and
anything over 486dx with some swap space. That's all.

I dual booted Windows 98 with various linux for a long
time, but I stuck with mainly Win98 for as long as
possible, because many of the linuxes I used just
operated too sluggishly. Unfortunately Win98 got
hosed at some point. I couldn't reinstall it from my
oem compaq restore disk because I had upgraded
the hard drive and it would only install on the original
owing to some copywrite protection code. I had to
resort to linux. This caused me to hunt for lighter
versions of linux. U-lite thus far is the best one
I have used.

Now some info about linux in general. Like alot of
people who resort to old versons of windows, I don't
have alot of money, and linux gives me access to
thousands of good free opensource programs at
the end of my fingertips through synaptic. There
are equivalents to most of the programs I used on
Win98, and when it isn't available I can generally
run my old windows 98 programs through a program
called wine. I use wine mostly for my old games.

http://u-lite.org

I am sure there are others. Anyone else had some
good experiences recently with a version Linux?

Is there an active Linux usenet newsgroup?

I tried a few different Linux distros on various
of my older machines that run between 1 and 2 GHz.

The HARDWARE DETECT auto install stuff in most
Linux distros really impressed me.
Built in sound chips was the part I had trouble with
the most. I was dismayed to learn that even OLD
sound chips were not well supported because
they are considered OBSOLETE.

Disabling ESS or other on board sound chip
and adding in a genuine CREATIVE sound
card seems to be a helpful move.

Linux distros seem to favor Intel
processors and larger RAM than MS Windows.

I appreciated the u-lite info.

Certainly it is worthwhile to enable older
systems (Faster than 1 GHz) to continue
to function as media boxes for playing
DVD's CD's or YouTube .FLV videos
online or off line.

It just seems smart to recycle the computers
that aren't TOO slow! Call it "GREEN" if that helps!

Are there active Linux usenet newsgroups?

Or sites to help with Linux installs?