I've got an IBM 390x ThinkPad, Celeron 400 with a 4.5gig HD and 192megs of
ram.

I put WinXP on it and its, as expected, sluggish to say the least. I prefer
XP over 98, anyone have any comments on the amount of performance increase I
might see if I go back to 98 on this machine.

Thanks

98 will be a better match to that hardware as it's presently configured.
However, if you could increase the RAM and the hard drive size, XP's
performance might improve a lot. The hard drive size is easy, but on
some laptops 192 meg was as high as you could go (while on others, you
might be able to get to 256, 320, 392 or 512 megs).



David wrote:

If U are using laptop only as a typing machine and Internet browser then
I would strongly recommend Linux.
On your laptop Linux Mandriva should work fine even with runing KDE.
There is also a Linux specialy designed for laptops like DSL Linux
(it takes only 16MB or RAM and 50MB on HDD).

If U are really addicted to Window$ then Windows 2000 Pro should
be fine.
I have older "emergency" laptop then your and Windows 2000 & DSL LInux
work on it OK.

Forget about WinXP - it is not for this laptop.

GA.



David wrote:

Gomez Adams let us know:
....

FACK - I tried WinXP on my TP 390 (PI 233 MHz, 128 MB RAM) but that
was less than snail's speed. So I switched to W2K SP4 - but that is
slooow... nothing for practical work.

Roy


--
SALVE O NAVIGATOR O NAVIGATRIX IN SPATIO CIBERNAUTICO

My guess is that you don't want to put more money into this machine, so
going back to 98 would yeild a better suttied operating system.
Operating systems are released with current and future copmuters in
mind. So XP obviusly was not designed for your old machine. However If
you are set on using this computer with Xp you will be forced to some
money into it. First I would recommend upgrading the hard drive. Todays
computers relie highly on data transwer, so the old hard drive in the
laptop probally has 4500 rpm drive in with low buffer size ie: 2 mb. by
installing a newer drive it will increase the harddrive transfer rate
and windows will boot faster, and having the larger cache size like
8mb, will make a huge difference! Becareful though because old
computers have a hard time reconize todays monsterous drives, so a
comprimise will have to be meet. Also installing more ram will make a
night and day difference as well, but again old machines have small cap
offs for memory. I would imagine that this laptop will not support
larger than 512mb, so two 256 chips could be purschased. If you bring
your machine into a local computer shop, they should throw some memory
in to ensure purschasing ram would be worth it. You also inquire about
the HD. Good Luck!

How could you in good conscience recommend Linux as a desktop machine?
And especially on this hardware?

Use win98 on this hardware and don't look back.

jimbo

Gomez Adams wrote:

On Fri, 10 Mar 2006 17:18:19 -0700, jimbo <jimbo62@spamex.com> wrote:

and you will be surprised at how it will work.

I've used it on my own OLD laptop and it was surprisingly responsive -
of course I didn't watch videos or do gaming...

I am running XP fine (no fancy video or pictures editing) on Pentium II 300
with 8 MB video, 20 Gig and 320 MB RAM
"David" <davidt@persona.ca> wrote in message
news:ezgQf.41372$VV4.606503@ursa-nb00 s0.nbnet.nb.ca...

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Bob_M wrote:
I recommend getting the latest version (3.0.2) of the OCE version of
Xandros, especially if you have an HSF winmodem. I have an HSF winmodem
on my laptop, and with Xandros 3.0.2 OCE, all I have to do is go into
the console and run hsfconfig and enter in my license info, and the
modem works perfectly. And it comes pre-installed with Mozilla Firefox
and Mozilla Thunderbird (of course you can download the latest Firefox
tarball (1.5.0.1) and copy the directory inside the tarball over the
Firefox program's directory (should be /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox) and
that is an easy way of upgrading Firefox (the latest Xandros version,
IIRC, is 1.0.7)...Thunderbird should be upgradable in the same way.

Well it works great with my year-old laptop (1.4GHz with 512MB RAM and
a 60GB HDD and 32MB/64MB video RAM), and once I install the WiFi
drivers from my Windows drivers DVD, the built-in WiFi works...and
version 3.0.2 of Xandros gives you a better access point chooser than
regular 3.0, of course I would like to have seen Xandros put a WiFi
chooser thing in the taskbar.

David wrote:
I almost forgot. I have two identical Sony PCG-F420 laptops, 450 MHz,
6 GB and 128 MB. One has WinXP Home, one has Win98se. I use the Win98
around the house for experimenting. I use the WinXP when I travel. The
WinXP works just fine, a little slow to boot up. The Win98se boots
faster, and seems a little faster surfing the web. But as I said, the
WinXP works OK for a road machine.

Good luck, jimbo

On Fri, 10 Mar 2006 23:58:56 +0100, Roy Coorne <roy.spam.coorne@gmx.net> wrote:
Well, there are alway FreeBSD and IBM OS/2, or its successor eComStation
(www.ecomstation.com).

I run OS/2 Warp 4 on a ten year old Thinkpad 365xd with a 120 MHz
Pentium (no L2 cache), 72 MB of RAM and 12 GB hard disk. Just fine for
email, text processing, web browsing, news, pascal, C and fortran
programming etc.

Of course, the four year old Thinkpad X21 (700MHz, 384 MB RAM, 40 GB
disk) I am moving to now is significantly nicer and faster. Interaction
feels faster than my Thinkpad T40 with Pentium M 1.6 GHz running on
Windoze XP in 1 GB of RAM. Amazing how the choice of OS can cripple a
machine.

In any case, the old machine was very usable, and still is.

If, however, you are set on Windoze, then you need to pay, or to be
patient.


Cheers, Stefan

jimbo wrote:
I has been working for ~10 years on Linux (Windows is used only for
software that has not been ported on Linux yet).
I tried many different distros and I can say that Linux is very good
alternative for Window$.

Just try tom be more open minded, try to look around, beyond M$ logo.
There are more and more tasks U can do in Linux.

Your laptop is still very usefull.
Just U have to choose a right OS fot it.

GA.

Gomez Adams wrote:
Well I have tried about 6-8 Linux distros over the last year. If all
you want to do is e-mail, web surf, and type an occasional letter,
Linux is OK. Anything more and you are out of luck. I would guess that
even something simple like setting up a printer is beyond the average
user. Linux has gotten better since my first attempt about 6-7 years
ago, but it is still an OS for geeks, not the vast majority of average
PC users.

Good luck, jimbo

Don't guess, try to do it

KDE has very nice user-friendly tool for for printer setup
(remote and local). Automatic searching in ports and network,
recognition and drivers for most common brands.

My successfull experience with Linux (not only web + email):
Office tools:
- Open Office (alternative for M$ Office)
- Corel Draw
Develpment tools:
- iCC compiler
- Borland J Builder
- Kylix
Highly specialized software:
- Matlab
- Mathematica
- Opnet
- Texas Instruments controllers
- Altera board design
- CAD
- Optical bandwidth switch controller
- Raytracing soft
- Aembedded ATM switch
Networking tools:
- MPLS
- services (SMB, printing, firewall)

The list of software ported on Linux (and any generic Unix)
is long and it gets longer every year.
Window$ is really not the only choice

GA.

Gomez Adams wrote:
I have tried it with KDE. Yes, I was able to get a printer working,
but as I said it is most likely beyond the average users capabilities.

Well, I have a Garmin GPS for my car. There is a program that runs
under Windows that I can use to set routes, waypoints, etc and
download them to the car unit. I have a HP all in one
printer/scanner/copier that I have setup as a network printer shared
by three other home computers. I have a TV tuner card. I have an
Olympus camera that connects to my PC via a USB port. Find a linux
application that will handle any of these things.

Linux has a place in the world, but not as a desktop computer for
anyone but geeks. I think your list of Linux software makes my point.

jimbo

jimbo wrote:

gpstrans, CUPS, mythtv, mount, to name one for each category.

Your inability to enter a search into google is not a shortcoming of Linux.

There are things that Linux doesn't do but the ones you list aren't them.

The ease of installation and configuration is another story--that IMO still
has a way to go.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Linux is useful for text writing and web browsing in the same way as
MS Office and IE in Windows (it is more safe because of lack of viruses
for Linux).
U complain that those are the only advanteges - simple twext writing and
internet, so I put examples of advanced software runing properly on
Linux - U call it geeks.
So according to U: everything what is more advanced than text writing
and interbnet browsing is for geeks.

Linux has also a nice and user-friendly installation procedures.

GA.

jimbo wrote:
You Linux geeks just don't get it. If I buy some hardware, I want to
put the included CD in a drive and click "install". I don't want to
Google for some software that someone, somewhere, on some distro, got
to work. And maybe it will work on my distro and on my hardware in
almost the way the manufacturer intended. And if I have a problem I
want to call the 800 number and get tech support. I don't want to
Google for a solution to a problem that is almost what my problem is,
that someone, somewhere on some distro cobbled together.

If Linux works for you, good for you. But for the rest of us
non-geeks, Windows is still the OS of choice.

Good luck, jimbo

jimbo wrote:

You don't always get what you want. Learn to deal with it.

Personally I use Windows and I use Linux and I've found that calling 800
numbers for support for either is a waste of time. But if you want to call
an 800 number and get tech support on Linux then BUY AN EFFING SUPPORT
CONTRACT. Red Hat will be happy to sell you one. So will Novell. So will
a number of other vendors. And their 800 support is every bit as bad as
Microsoft's.

If you insist on having a religion, take up Islam or something, holding
Windows or Linux or MacOS or BeOS or whatever to be the highest good is
just plain stupid.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

jimbo <jimbo62@spamex.com> writes:
Seems to me that Linux is fine for hardcore geeks. And for entry
level users, who just want to do some word processing/email/web
surfing, Linux is also fine. It's the users in the middle, who want
to run a fairly wide range of applications and do complex things with
them, but who aren't geeks, that are going to be the biggest mismatch
for Linux.