MetaChat - Ask Mecha: Looking a gift laptop in the mouth

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

07 May 2007

Ask Mecha: Looking a gift laptop in the mouth Someone just gave me an IBM Thinkpad 380-XD. I haven’t had a chance to inspect it too closely, but I do know that it works. Yay! →[More:] Given that it’s running Windows 95, I’m guessing that it’s on the old side, yes? This is fine, as I’m mostly going to be using it as a word processor. If I can get it onto teh intarweb, so much the better. (It’s got some form of IE on it, so there may be hope there.)

My question: What am I actually going to be able to do with this thing? Is it worthwhile to try to upgrade, uh, stuff? Would I be wasting my time having XP put on there?

Note: I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, what you might call “tech-savvy”. “Dumber than a sack of wet mice” would be much more accurate. Please word any advice you might have accordingly.

post by: bmarkey at: 22:44 | 8 comments

Hmm, with a maximum supported RAM size of 160Mb, I wouldn't recommend putting XP on it unless you like glacial screen refreshes and thrashing. The OS would also eat up a good quarter of your disk space if you have the 4Gb drive.

But Win95 is poorly protected against modern intarwebnasties, so you had best acquire a good firewall/virus scanner and get Firefox post-haste, like the first thing you do.

posted by stilicho 07 May | 22:57

Win2k would be a good choice of OS. Do a minimal install. If that means nothing ask a computer savvy friend for help. Do all the MS updates and add a virus scanner and firewall and you have a fine word processing, Internet ready, machine.

posted by arse_hat 07 May | 23:06

OK, XP is out, Win2K is in (in theory). Do I need to add more memory (he asked, expecting the answer "YES!")?

posted by bmarkey 08 May | 03:50

How much is already on there?

posted by Smart Dalek 08 May | 08:22

i'd max the ram out (if you can find legacy ram - memoryx is a good place to look) and try something not as bloated and unstable as windows. if all you need is basic office stuff, web and e-mail, try ubuntu. it runs well on older laptops (although it really needs a max of 256mb - it'll still run faster than any recent windows install), and it's free.

posted by syntax 08 May | 10:28

Thanks for your suggestions, everybody. Right now there's 64 Mb of RAM. Given that it supposedly maxes out at 160, my guess would be that ubuntu is out. Also, I don't know shit about linux. :)

posted by bmarkey 08 May | 15:03

If you're thinking of going that direction, xubuntu is a distro variation specifically designed for computers under 192Mb of RAM. It will still take up 1.5 gigs of your drive, though.

Windows 2000 won't be any nicer on those system requirements, yet it's still getting security updates, at least. Win95 or even the best pre-XP version, Win98 SE, isn't supported anymore at all.

Personally, I'd go xubuntu unless I had specific need to run Windows, e.g. work compatibility.

posted by stilicho 09 May | 02:42

Yeah, I've seen some references to xubuntu that make it seem worthwhile. I am in no way married to Windows, but I am leery of getting in over my head with regard to dealing with software I don't understand. Seeing as that includes just about everything, though, I may just make the leap. Is xubuntu really as idiot-proof as it's being made out to be?

posted by bmarkey 09 May | 03:27

← "Have you looked at the internet? I'll send you some links" || San Fran mini-meetup, Friday June 15th? →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN