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What's the best OS for...

Operating System, Common Application & ThinkPad Utilities Questions...
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Medessec
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What's the best OS for...

#1 Post by Medessec » Mon Dec 09, 2013 9:15 am

Hello! I'm posting this here because I'm an uptight Windows fan... and I'm going to be playing around with older hardware this week and I need to know what you guys think:

What's the best OS to put on a 486? I have a 701C that has 98 on it, although it seems to run okay, it does have it's hiccups.

What's the best OS for a 770(Pentium I/II 300+ MHz?) I usually work up to putting XP, but I'm wondering if people get away with 98/Me without too many troubles with a lack of software.
Trying my hardest to collect Thinkpads, but college and being broke kinda gets in the way. However...
701C, 760, 770, X24, T30, G41, A31p, T43p, T60/61 Frankie, Z61p, X60 SXGA+, W700ds
MEDESSEC

and yes. I am a bit of a lunatic.

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Re: What's the best OS for...

#2 Post by edragon » Mon Dec 09, 2013 7:23 pm

I have one running Windows 2000 and it works well.

ajkula66
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Re: What's the best OS for...

#3 Post by ajkula66 » Mon Dec 09, 2013 9:16 pm

Medessec wrote:
What's the best OS to put on a 486? I have a 701C that has 98 on it, although it seems to run okay, it does have it's hiccups.
Win 95. These machines will run 98 just fine with 40MB RAM in my recollection, though.
What's the best OS for a 770(Pentium I/II 300+ MHz?) I usually work up to putting XP, but I'm wondering if people get away with 98/Me without too many troubles with a lack of software.
I'd say Windows 2000. While I've never owned a 770, the hardware from that era plays well with W2K.

My $0.02 only...
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

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Re: What's the best OS for...

#4 Post by RealBlackStuff » Tue Dec 10, 2013 8:13 am

Hunt (deeply) around for Windows XP-FLP.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Fu ... Legacy_PCs
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Re: What's the best OS for...

#5 Post by A31 » Fri Dec 13, 2013 2:10 am

Or make your own 'cut down' version of XP using nLite. :) http://www.nliteos.com/
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Re: What's the best OS for...

#6 Post by TRS-80 » Fri Feb 14, 2014 10:38 pm

RealBlackStuff wrote:Hunt (deeply) around for Windows XP-FLP.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Fu ... Legacy_PCs
Wow, that is interesting. I had never heard of that until just now.

And everyone thinks the sky is falling with the end of "official" support for XP...

M$ has always gone out of their way to support older hardware.
All good things are Wild and Free.

What is free software and why is it so important for society?

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Re: What's the best OS for...

#7 Post by ajkula66 » Fri Feb 14, 2014 10:57 pm

TRS-80 wrote: Wow, that is interesting. I had never heard of that until just now.
A great little OS if you like XP. Speaking from experience here.
And everyone thinks the sky is falling with the end of "official" support for XP...

M$ has always gone out of their way to support older hardware.
Well, the sky isn't falling, but XP should be retired for a plethora of reasons.

As for supporting older hardware, Vista pretty much killed all of it...on purpose, I'd say.

What M$ wasn't counting on was the amount of people who decided that they would rather stick to XP than buy new hardware to match the latest OS...but I digress.
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

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Re: What's the best OS for...

#8 Post by pianowizard » Sat Feb 15, 2014 9:36 am

Medessec wrote:What's the best OS for a 770(Pentium I/II 300+ MHz?) I usually work up to putting XP
If you just install Windows XP, without any Service Pack, updates or virus scanner, XP is actually quite acceptable even for 233MHz Pentium MMX and only 128MB of RAM, i.e. Microsoft's official minimum system requirements for the original XP. I ran XP Pro on an ancient Packard Bell desktop with 233MHz and 128MB for couple years before the Service Packs and the ever-growing virus definitions started to slow things down too much.
ajkula66 wrote:As for supporting older hardware, Vista pretty much killed all of it...on purpose, I'd say. What M$ wasn't counting on was the amount of people who decided that they would rather stick to XP than buy new hardware to match the latest OS...but I digress.
Forcing consumers to upgrade their hardware would benefit hardware manufacturers, not Microsoft. I have always suspected that Microsoft had some sort of a secret pact with the hardware manufacturers, which backfired, of course.
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Re: What's the best OS for...

#9 Post by ajkula66 » Sat Feb 15, 2014 11:13 am

pianowizard wrote:
Forcing consumers to upgrade their hardware would benefit hardware manufacturers, not Microsoft.
Not directly, but I would argue that M$ had expected more people to upgrade to Vista from XP therefore selling more licenses. Now that one didn't fly too well. Not at all.
I have always suspected that Microsoft had some sort of a secret pact with the hardware manufacturers, which backfired, of course.
My thoughts exactly.
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

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