AB> Hello John,

  JC>> ...if it's just email and light surfing linux on your
    >> old box will work. I run Ubuntu on a PIII 866 with 768
    >> megs ram and can even run flash video.

 AB>     Right, but 866 MHz is significantly faster than 500 MHz
 AB> and it would have cost me US$ 90 to upgrade to 768M RAM, so
 AB> I decided instead to put that money towards a new
 AB> mainboard, microprocessor and RAM.

 Not to deny that is a good idea...

 I used to watch TV, record Mpeg VHS quality videos and edit
 them, on a 500mhz Emachine, with a couple hundred megs ram.
 True, I did step up to a 1.6gig Dell with, now, 1.5gigs ram, and
 a very large HD, to make the video editing faster. But it did
 work ok on the Emachine.

   JC>> But you likely need a OS upgrade too and if you use
     >> Windows, it's going to be cheaper to buy a ready unit
     >> than putting a system together.

 AB>     My wife runs MS Windows on her own machine, but I mostly
 AB> run NetBSD and occasionally Linux.

 I am also working with a lot of slower computers, an old Armada
 laptop originally 366MHZ P2, now 500mhz P3, and a very old
 Pentium 133mhz that doesn't even have cardbus.

 I had Win 98 on a 486sx-100mhz, but I changed it last night to
 Rom-Dos. Just starting with that.

 You can do a lot with a slower machine, though I am still doing
 this on my faster one.



BOB KLAHN bob.klahn{at}sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

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