Whats the best OS for a 266MHZ laptop

[i1zombie]

I my friend just installed windows 2000 on Dell Latitude, which came with win98, and she was having a few problems with it. She asked me to take a look at it and I fixed her little problem with it. The problem is that it took me 9 billion hours to fix it because this is the slowest 266MHX PII I've ever worked with. So I ask the opinion of you experts. What would be better windows 2000 or windows ME?
Here are the specs
PII 266MHZ
Intel Mobile 440BX PCIset
64MB EDO memory
4GB hard drive
I have another 64 MB to make it 128MB. I don't know if the extra memory will make enough of a difference.

[BipolarBill]

Windows 98 would be best. You don't have enough memory for Win2K and Millenium runs sloooow on that hardware.

[izombie]

I agree, but it is not an option for her. She feels it's primitive and wants a 21st century OS. I know both will be slow with this hard ware but which wil be less painfull?

[BipolarBill]

Windows 2000 will.

[leprechaun_40]

Win 98 would be your best bet.:D

[BipolarBill]

If she's gonna be demanding, demand that she get modern hardware. :rolleyes:

[i1zombie]

Interesting!
I thought for sure windows ME would work better then Win 2000 if I upgraded to 128MB.
I personally use a dual boot win 98SE and win 2000 on my PIII 933MHZ tower, and it's been good so far. Win ME was never a consideration for me.
However, this young lady claims to have had nothing but problems with win98SE and she does not want to go back to it.

[mireland]

All I know is Avoid ME at all costs, It sucks as a desktop OS and I'm sure it sucks as a laptop OS. I'd say go Win2k:t

[dragflameson]

Same here, I use to have many problems with WinME, mostly locking up and acting retarded (no offence to anyone). Most unstable OS I have ever used!

Drag

[lptech]

You should install more memory on the laptop because you need at least 256MB of RAM in order to run the newer OSes like Windows XP or Windows 2000! Windows 98 doesn't manage memory as well as previously mentioned OSes.

Actually, you need both the memory upgrade as well as the newer OS for the laptop. I said both because one would not work well without the other. Microsoft's minimum requirement is actually not correct, you need actually 4 times the minimum in order for the laptop to operate well! Running on the minimum suggested is like self-torture! If you enjoy waiting and the possibility of lockups due to insufficient memory and other assorted memory related error messages, then go ahead and setup it up with minimum memory. But if you are not into self-torture then I suggest that you follow what I've prescribed! Good luck.:)

[gjimene2]

Originally posted by BipolarBill
Windows 98 would be best. You don't have enough memory for Win2K and Millenium runs sloooow on that hardware.


BS!!!!

I got windows 2000 advanced server runningon a 300mhz laptop with only 96mb of ram!!!

[BipolarBill]

:rolleyes:

[arisaa]

Originally posted by gjimene2



BS!!!!

I got windows 2000 advanced server runningon a 300mhz laptop with only 96mb of ram!!!


BS is not a very friendly expression.
98SE is the best choice for this hardware.

:t

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Definitley gotta be win98, 2k runs (just about) on my 450 celeron 64mb but its so slow its painful. Go with 98 or uprgade the system as suggested

--Jakk:t

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by gjimene2

I got windows 2000 advanced server runningon a 300mhz laptop with only 96mb of ram!!! ..and I've gotten 6 pounds of poop in a 5 pound sack. Trouble is that no one will go near it. :eek:

[bassman]

I'd install Win98SE. Why does she want the latest OS? She should be considering using the latest application that suits her needs; as far as it's her concern, the OS is only there to manage hardware/app/user interaction.

Security should be considered when choosing the OS for a laptop (I'd go for WinNT, but may be a little too far out for a "regular user" - check it's BIOS (and it's BIOS upgrades) to see if there is a HD Lock option. If you password protect at boot time, someone is gonna have a hard time getting the data out of it ;))

Anyway, you can always get it running a state of the art OS: Red Hat Linux 8.0 on command line mode :D

[mireland]

Win2K CAN run with 64MB of ram, though at least 128MB would be better:t

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by mireland
Win2K CAN run with 64MB of ram, though at least 128MB would be better:t The normal background apps and services in Win2K consume 100MB RAM. Add a few others and you're over 128MB. Most clean Win2K setups at 256B use the page file extensively. Although Win2K handles paging very well, anything less than about 200MB will page like crazy and be slow as molasses.

[Optimus Prime]

Originally posted by arisaa



BS is not a very friendly expression.
98SE is the best choice for this hardware.

:t

Corfu is a nice place, i went there 2 years ago.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

..and I've gotten 6 pounds of poop in a 5 pound sack. Trouble is that no one will go near it

ROFLMAO!!!!

:D

--Jakk:t

[gjimene2]

Originally posted by BipolarBill
..and I've gotten 6 pounds of poop in a 5 pound sack. Trouble is that no one will go near it. :eek:


alright buddy. I'll be back with a picture to prove it!!!

[BipolarBill]

BAHAHA! :p

[gjimene2]

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/gjimene2/proof.jpg



So tell me, what did you do so the bag wouldn't tear when you added six pounds of sh|t in it?

[BipolarBill]

How long did it take to cache that screenshot? :p

[gjimene2]

not that long. if you see, it took me about 12 mins to do every I did. and you don't count that I had to install Yahoo messenger and then stransfer the file to the machine that I am on, take out some info out of the system properties upload it to my isp, and then post it here.

now like i asked.

what did you do to the bag so that it wouldn't tear when you added the six pounds of sh|t in it?:p

and I bet that you wouldn't believe that you can run windows 98 on a machine that has 96mb of ram and runs at 75mhz:rolleyes: but you can.

[ConfusedAlien]

hows this, i have the same computer with the same specs...except its a cpmpaq and its so much sexual than yours. lol

anyway, win2k on a p2 laptop is going to be useless. go with 98se. it has good support for firewire, etc. unlike 98.

why does she believe she needs advanced software? does she want to haul that six year old truck to work and say, "hey! look! I have a crappy *** computer with win2k on it. so it is now so much faster than your xp 2600???"

obviously shes mental. I have a compaq with p2 300 MMX pro. is basically the same thing as your friend's. win2k just sorta...doesnt run lol

I use 98se and i have for the last 6 years. its not like she'll be runing unreal 2k3 okay? tell her, "lets be honest here...your computer is too slow to run heavy apps at speeds you are dreaming of. A computer doesnt necessarily get faster because of a software change."
get her a new computer for 300bucks or just give her the 98se. SE! not FE lol

By the way, give her the extra ram. it definately inproved my system from 64.

[gjimene2]

well, you see with the picture above that it does run it!

I just slapped that os on there because I wanted to see if it would run or not. And it did :D I'm going to take it off because I see no point in having a laptop as a server :rolleyes: But I am going to install Win2k Pro in it.


As for the lady who has her lappy and she wants to install an os on it. I would honestly recomend win98se. it's not like she's going to do some heavy work in it.

I bet it's a laptop that she will just do word docs, and just play around with like I do with mine.


And BPB, if you make a wise crack about what kind of games you can play with this slow pc, just think about it, back when this computer was made, it was one of the top of the line!

[krusty]

Easy...You already have 2000 set up... Plug in the memory & see what it runs like. Tell her that is as fast as it gets without spending more money(i.e a new laptop) or using win 98.
Don't try to make the decision for her because then it will be your fault

[krusty]

Hey I have an even better idea. Set up Win98se but replace the 98 bootup screen with a Win 2000 screen & she wil be happY!!!

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by gjimene2
And BPB, if you make a wise crack about what kind of games you can play with this slow pc, just think about it, back when this computer was made, it was one of the top of the line! I bet it's blazing at Solitaire! :D

[gjimene2]

roflmao, Krusty.


hey, why do I have the feeling that people here think that I'm the one slapping 98 on it? :confused: :confused: :confused:

brain **** :)

[gjimene2]

Originally posted by BipolarBill
I bet it's blazing at Solitaire! :D

hahaha. Yea it's blazing at solitare. But honesty Bill, do you honestly think that a machine this slow will be good for graphics and seti? Comon' dude. You know this pc is only good for netbrowsing, e-mailing, and word proccessing (spelling?).


But I did prove that it ran Windows 2000 Advanced Server. and if you look at it, it also shows that it runs NIS 2003, and NAV Corp 7.5 :)

[BipolarBill]

Let's see you put Datacenter on an iPaq! :r

[gjimene2]

roflmao!!!! YEA,,, RIGHT.

but comon' tell me, what did you to do that sack of sh|t so it wouldn't tear?:r

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by gjimene2

But I did prove that it ran Windows 2000 Advanced Server. and if you look at it, it also shows that it runs NIS 2003, and NAV Corp 7.5 :) Get real - it's unusable!

[gjimene2]

no YOU get real! I proved you wrong that you could run win2k adv serv on a laptop that ran at 300mhz with only 96mb of ram.

Just because you can't do it, doesn't mean that everyone else can't!

[BipolarBill]

You proved diddly, tenderfoot! You wouldn't want to use that thing. No one else would either. If I had a shovel and a trenching tool, I wouldn't use that folding, dinky POS to dig a trench! :rolleyes:

Besides, don't put words in my mouth. I never said it couldn't be done. I said that you shouldn't.

[gjimene2]

you made it sound like it couldn't be done and that it was useless.

And it's not useless. You can do plenty of work on a slow laptop.

if you want to see old computers being put to good use, go to Neiman Marcus, and see what they have behind thier desks for their employees to use. They still use pc's that run at 75mhz for their sales department.


Bill, the point that I got across was that you can slap on win2k advances server on a slow laptop. And that it wasn't useless.

Now I agree that you don't need to put win2k adv serv because a laptop isn't a place for it to be. Windows 98 is good for the slower ones. Win2k Pro for me is recomended for a laptop. It's simple and easy to use. XP Pro is just a fancier client with built in PPPoE in my own words. Win95 just plain sucks.

Now you can run XP on 350mhz because I had it runing on one before I upgraded the cpu to a 500mhz k6-2.

Now I'm going to slap on win2k pro becuase I simply don't like 95 nor 98, and I can strip win2k pro down a bit to make it run smoother.

[ConfusedAlien]

is it just me, or people not care about my posts lol

[gjimene2]

lmao, I do

[BipolarBill]

It's just that gjimene2 sucked all of the air out of this thread - and replaced it with bean leftovers :mad:

*sigh*

[ukulele]

She feels it's primitive and wants a 21st century OS. I know both will be slow with this hard ware but which wil be less painfull?

WinME is a 20th century afterbirth. :p

[Rugor]

Looking at the hardware Win98SE is the obvious best choice. I don't think there's anyone here who would really disagree.

However, having said that I would say the better of the two choices is Win2K with an upgrade to as much RAM as the system can take.

WinME is to be avoided at all costs.

[elroy]

My first choice would be Win98SE and add the extra ram. If you want to ME would be ok too but disable the restore feature. I don't know why so many people **** on ME, works fine for me.

[GeeketteWannabe]

Shakes her head...why suffer through with win2k .....if you can find all the drivers for all the hardware...no wonder it took you forever. I still cant understand why she would insist on win2k unless there was a viable reason. If all she is going to do is chat and send emails and maybe make a few docs go with the 98SE. Wait to see what happens after you start installing the service packs :)

BTW why does she want win2k just to say she has win2k? Is that like saying I have snow boots but I live in Fla. ?

[izombie]

I'm not quite sure why everybody hates windows ME. Althought I never used it myself for my computers I have installed it on others with out a problem. For example when I built my brothers computer almost 2 years ago I set him up with Win ME. He had a 733MHZ and it ran fine for a year untill his hard drive suddenly died. My brother liked winME. He never had a problem with it.
Now he has win2000 and of course he likes it better.
Understadn that I'm not a fan of winME but I never thought it was terrible.

bay the way speaking of 6 LBS of poop in a 5 pound bag, I once installed win98SE on my old 486 33MHZ Dell. It ran ! painfully slow. Then I dispossed of it.

[mireland]

ya know what, to Hell with her, put win3.11 on her stupid laptop!

Just kidding:rolleyes:

oh! oh! I know..put OS2 on it..yea!:D

[gjimene2]

Originally posted by BipolarBill
It's just that gjimene2 sucked all of the air out of this thread - and replaced it with bean leftovers :mad:

*sigh*


I just tried to prove a point :) besides, I said that her best bet would be win98se. just strip it down a bit.

[gjimene2]

you want to bug her? give me your email addy and I will give you windows .01 or 1.01 to be nice. then she'll be pissed :)

or the first os/2 warp or the first linux there was, HAHAHA

[jetdriven]

i got that same dell D266XT latitude laptop you have. I got windows 98 for the past year and it works excellent. I should mention I have 128 MB ram. It was actually faster than my old emachines 400 celeron desktop.

I just recently went dual-boot with redhat linux 8.0 and I dont recommend it. The redhat is about twice as slow as the win98.

i love this laptop. cheap and does everything you ask of it.

BOL

[BipolarBill]

14,999...

[gjimene2]

post your 15000 in my thread for my stuff for sale :D

[Swordfish]

i agree...gotta be 98se

[stix_kua]

why can't we all just be friends...?

Win ME, realy really bad..

2K will do fine on that laptop....

hey CA, no one looks at ur posts becuase somethings they means nothing...just kidding...:D

this is the funniset thread I have read in a while....hehehe...my sides still hurt...

while reading this, I was in a computer lab and becuase i couldn't conatin myself, people were staring at me as if I were a lunatic...but then maybe I am....

I like the fact the in order to get his 14,999th post, Bill posted exactly that...hehehe...

yes RH 8.0 is a slow mofo but hey it is FREE....

[stix_kua]

300...hehehe....hahaha...hehehe....BPB all the way...

[AllGamer]

Linux any flavor will and is the best choice for these low end machines

:t

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by stix_kua
300...hehehe....hahaha...hehehe....BPB all the way... By the way - you can change your avatar there, stix_kua.

[rraehal]

I have about 9 of those exact laptops at work.

I think Win98SE would be the best choice for that laptop. You can get all the drivers from Dell to support all the functions of the laptop. Since 98 is not an option I would still check out dell for drivers. They may have the bay manager and drivers optimised for WinME. I am currently running WinME on a 233Mhz laptop with 98 MB RAM and it is only choppy on loading MP3's. Win98 was not choppy on the same laptop.

Win2000 runs perfectly fine but a little slow with 64MB of RAM; if you go with 2000 then you should update to 128MB RAM but I think 256MB RAM is better, in my opinion. All of our laptops have 128 MB RAM and Windows2000 at work. They workperfect. We have been running 2000 on them since July 2001. The only reason we have replaced these laptops is because the users install furniture and crack the casing a lot.