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Tech Man · Nov 3, 2004, 07:32 AM

I have a PII 400MHz PC with 64MB RAM. What Operating system would you run on this machine. Is WIN98 still supported?

Thanks,
Tech Man

psi42 · Nov 3, 2004, 06:02 PM

... linux

Tech Man · Nov 4, 2004, 06:26 AM

I installed WIN98 and I can't do a windows update. The link has been removed because I guess they don't support 98SE. So if I don't install internet explorer how do I update windows. Any software I try to install doesn't work even though the software supports WIN98SE. Is that because the updates are not installed? - Long after I installed WIN98 it was still trying to install the motherboard resourses. Could it be that not all the devices are installed into windows and therefore you can't install any software?

Any thoughts? Thank you for your help...

P.S. I have never used Linux, can I use all the windows programs out there and how is the interface?

psi42 · Nov 5, 2004, 04:36 PM

Originally Posted by Tech Man

I installed WIN98 and I can't do a windows update. The link has been removed because I guess they don't support 98SE.

If they have, then, well, I guess you'll need to upgrade.

Any software I try to install doesn't work even though the software supports WIN98SE.

What happens when it "doesn't work"... are there any error messages?

Any thoughts? Thank you for your help...

If you're going to go with windows, you should get a newer version based on the NT kernel, like 2000 or XP...

P.S. I have never used Linux, can I use all the windows programs out there and how is the interface?

Well, as far as windows programs go, some work and some don't, and some work only partially. A lot of work has been done to reverse-engineer parts of the Win32 API so you can run some windows programs. This is done with wine and projects based on it, such as crossover office (commercial) and cedega/winex (also commercial).

Alternatively, you could install windows on an x86 emulator like VMWare...

As far as the interface goes, well, linux is much more modular than windows, so there is no "the interface." There are many to choose from, so you basically get to try out a bunch and find one that fits your taste. The big "desktop environment" offerings are GNOME, KDE and XFCE. I use Fluxbox.

One of the biggest "interface" differences you will definitely run into is this: on windows, you are expected to (or must) use graphical configuration tools, with DOS commandline utilities pretty much a throwback to older versions. On linux, the commandline has not been neglected and it is the primary way to configure your system. Of course, graphical configuration utilities also exist.

~psi42