software options for an ancient system

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Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 18, 2010
Messages
393
hello!

I have no choice but to work in a system like this:
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz Prescott
Total Memory Size: 512 MBytes
100GB HDD

the work I do is:
word processor, text editor, pdf viewing, web browsing (~20 tabs), printing

please recommend me every possible software/driver/OS/whatever-but-hardware aspect I can utilize in order to run it as smoothly as possible

thanks!
 
Changing hardware is your only hope. Add more RAM for the most noticable improvement in speed.
 
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In all honesty the only thing you are lacking in is Ram. But if you ran linux you should be alright with your plans although with the low physical ram it will be a little slow when you hit 20 tabs in a web browser.

Ubuntu
Openoffice/Libre for word processings
Firefox for web browsing

Don't really need anything else software wise.
 
Snowknight26 said:
Changing hardware is your only hope. Add more RAM the most noticable improvement in speed.
Click to expand...

This shit right here. Go with at least 2GB or else 20+ tab web browsing will be an excruciatingly painful experience.

You might wanna also consider a small SSD, maybe 32 or 64GB in size, for your OS and heavily used apps. These things are getting ridiculously cheap nowadays (~$20 for an OCZ 64GB drive, as seen in the HotDeals subforum :eek:).

Unless you cannot afford Windows 7 or 8, go with xubuntu/ubuntu Linux + Draugauth's software suggestions. Windows XP is a decent OS, but ancient with less than two years of support from Microsoft (not to mention many third parties are just starting to drop support for it starting with the next iteration of their software or services).

Keep in mind that if you are planning to do 2012 things with 2012 software on a 2003/2004 hardware setup, you are in for a bad time. Seriously, upgrade whatever hardware you can (especially the aforementioned) before moving on to software.
 
pff, xp pro will run like a boss on that thing, more ram would be better but it'll run just fine as it is + swap. theres no reason to spend any money on that thing, better to just buy a new one instead.
 
As others have said, if you could find 2GB of RAM cheap, it would be more than up the tasks you intend to use it for. 512MB is simply not going to make tabbed browsing anything but painfully slow.
 
If you can find more RAM for cheap I'd go for it. I'd also try a WinXP or a linux distro like Lubuntu/Xubuntu. Standard Ubuntu isnt gonna run great with only 512MB of RAM, Unity is too resource intensive. Lubuntu/Xubuntu will give you the same functionality with a smaller memory footprint.
 
DOS 3.11!

In seriousness though, that machine is better than the first machine I ran XP on. You should be golden.

I agree with upgrading the RAM if possible though, it'll help a lot I bet.
 
Don't bother with anything Ubuntu. That stuff is at least as bad as Windows in the resource-hog dept. Go find a lightweight version of Linux.

DamnSmall (DSL)
Puppy Linux (my favorite -- shoot me a pm and I'll help you get started, if you want to)
Vector Linux
Swift Linux
...etc.
 
I'd also second puppy linux... I've got a Pentium 3 500 w/128MB RAM at home running Puppy. Uses approx. 30MB of RAM at the desktop :)
 
Just curious, Chime, what version of Puppy do you use? There's a lot of 'em!
 
I believe its running lucid puppy 5.2.5 though id have to check to be sure. Its pretty impressive what puppy is able to do on older hardware.
 
Yes, yes it is! :D

I'm running an updated 432 (Puppy 432 v3, it's ttuuxxx's work over on the murga forum) on a Dell Latitude CPi. It's almost useable -- mind you, this is a 300MHz PII laptop with 128mb RAM :eek: I've stuck a CF card "hard drive" in it, very fast but at 4gb, it's a little cramped. I'm pretty sure I can make it better by stripping out what I'm not using and then running a remaster (sc0ttman at the murga forum has a GREAT tool for this, it's called woofy -- check it out sometime).

Great stuff, all round.
 
Alright it is an IDE system with DDR memory.
I upgraded a Compaq SR1230NX Athlon XP 3200+ to 2 GB DDR, it helped a lot.
That said, some P4 boards max out with 512 MB RAM, and 32 bit operating system.
If you are using on motherboard graphics, and can add a video card to elimate sharing the memory you do have will help.

DDR memory, especially used, was getting reasonable, have not looked lately. XP likes at least 1 GB.
AGP cards are getting expensive, something like a used 5200 would likely help.
I updated from the 2003 or 2004 video card I purchased as an upgrade with computer in 2004/2005 to a used card from Sony circa 2008. Much better (before I went crazy with refurbished HD 4650, lol, had to upgrade power supply for that)

interesting
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...C-GoogleAdwords-_-Memory-_-DesktopMemory-_-NA

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-5200-128-GPU/dp/B0001XX0PS
 
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I'm on a similar system right now (xp pro, P4 2.8) with 4gigs ram, and I'm running fine.

I don't usually have that many tabs open though (firefox 15). I use a mix of Office 2002, and open office 3.3 - both run fine. Adobe reader X also. Even 3D CAD.It's also F@H 24-7.

I also have a completely identical system to the one I just mentioned with Windows7 64bit. Also runs fine using the latest Open office, Kingsoft Office, Firefox, Adobe reader X, and 3D CAD.

Max out your ram, and you should be fine.
 
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starhawk said:
Yes, yes it is! :D

I'm running an updated 432 (Puppy 432 v3, it's ttuuxxx's work over on the murga forum) on a Dell Latitude CPi. It's almost useable -- mind you, this is a 300MHz PII laptop with 128mb RAM :eek: I've stuck a CF card "hard drive" in it, very fast but at 4gb, it's a little cramped. I'm pretty sure I can make it better by stripping out what I'm not using and then running a remaster (sc0ttman at the murga forum has a GREAT tool for this, it's called woofy -- check it out sometime).

Great stuff, all round.
Click to expand...

Very nice. I found that Pentium 3 system when helping my brother troubleshoot his CAD workstation. It was tucked in his office closet, the first PC he bought for AutoCAD way back when. At first I wanted to use it for a Pfsense build, but I decided to go with an Atom based system for that to keep the power consumption down since it's on 24/7. Thats when I decided to play around with Puppy on it. Got everything set up and working perfectly, including the newest version of Firefox to see if it was possible. While I wont try to say Firefox was at all speedy, it ran without a problem.
 
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