Linux OR WinME for low spec PC email/net machine?

gsf600y · 8 Nov 2002 at 12:43

I have got hold of an old PC.
Its a pentium 166 or 233 or something around that area. 96mb ram. About 4gb HDD. No soundcard. Old motherboard. Not ATX i think.....I couldnt see an AGP slot on it.

I want to turn it into a machine that can solely be used for emailing, and surfing the internet.
Also it will given to a PC novice.

I have got Mandrake 8.1 installed on it at the moment, but it runs like an absolute dog.

I wanted to know if I would be better of streamlining/configuring/tuning Mandrake, or just binning it and going with WinME?

Basically, all I need is a desktop with 3 icons on it.
1 - "Connect to net"
2 - "Email"
3 - "Internet Browser"

Any thoughts?

thanks

gsf600y · 8 Nov 2002 at 12:53

Problem with an OS like W95 is that it might have problems with the latest browsers, and therefore viewing some websites?

Although it is to be used by a novice, I suppose there would not be much difference to learning how to use a Linux browser/email client than a Windows Browser/Email client.

I see Fluxbox is a window manager....would that be a better option that KDE/Gnome?

Any recommendations for a less resource hungry distrubution, something that will run a bit faster than Mandrake maybe?

gsf600y · 8 Nov 2002 at 13:59

I know Opera can be set to 'mimick' other browsers, so that shouldnt be a problem.

gsf600y · 8 Nov 2002 at 16:50

No modem in the PC as yet, but I wont be getting a winmodem as I know they dont work with Linux. I have an external hardware modem on my main PC I can test with.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

One last question though - should I use the above software with Mandrake currently installed, or install another distrubution?