Need Windows 98 like WM for slow computer

[Orchard Leaf]

Hey all!

We are donating an old computer of ours to a charitable institution. It's a Pentium 133, 32MB Ram, SiS video card, 1.1GB hard drive.

All they really need to do are write some documents (word processing) and some spreadsheet stuff. They are not in any way computer savvy (and neither am I).

They are familiar with Microsoft Office, so I thought that OpenOffice might be all right for them.

The problem is the computer is really slow. Since I have the CDs on hand, I tried to install Mandrake (latest version). With Gnome, it was way too slow (I think Win98SE was even a bit faster! Or am I wrong?). With KDE, it was more tolerable, but it was still slow.

I tried IceWM, and though it was pretty fast, it's still not as user friendly as KDE or Gnome.

Will I be better off just installing Win98SE? Remember, ease of use is the most important thing, and then of course, speed.

If I go the route of Win98SE, which is faster: OpenOffice or Microsoft Office 2000?

I'm actually looking for a copy of Win95...

Suggestions?

--Orchard

[kc8hr]

Hi,

I used Gnome on a Pentium 200, and the secret to using it on a slow machine is to [avoid Nautilus!!!] It is a real RAM hog. Use good old gmc for your filemanager needs. Your users will be happy with it.

I also like icewm, and had no problems with it.

Good Luck!
Tim

[hop-frog]

Qvwm looks just like windows. It would require some little setting up to make it easy for newbie.

http://www.qvwm.org/

Fvwm looks a lot like windows. I've never tried though, so I don't know how easy it is to setup.

http://www.foxproject.org/xclass/fvwm95.html

XFce doens't look like windows, but the interface really isn't all that complicated, it is easy to setup, and it is a lot faster than kde and gnome.

http://www.xfce.org/

[Orchard Leaf]

Can someone enlighten me on enlightenment?

Qvwm requires some little setting up, so one post said. I guess that's out of the question for this newbie!

(Remember, though I may do a little research, the computer will be donated to a charity and THEY won't be doing any research).

Anyone have anything against just setting up Win98SE and OpenOffice?

--Orchard

[scanez]

If you just want to setup win98 and openoffice then go for it ;)

As for lightweight window managers, have you looked into window maker, blackbox, and fluxbox? There are pretty light and fast, although there are no icons/menus usually unless you put them there. Enlightenment is IMHO the best window manager around, it's light and fast, but probably not as light as blackbox/fluxbox, but I ran it on my 150mhz laptop perfectly fine with no problems whatsoever :) Check it out too.

[gentgeen]

As for the Window manager, the earlier posts have said it. As for Open Office, FORGET IT. If you want to install it in Win9x, you need 64MB ram according to the site. I tried running OpenOffice on a 32MB ram Linux box (using Blackbox WM) and had no luck (it sat at the splash screen for hours)

You will probably want to stick with Win9x (go to ebay and get Win95 if you want) for both speed and ease of use for the Organization (sp?) your giving it to. Install AbiWord for the documents. And I am not sure, but I know that there are some freeware spreedsheet programs out there.

[hop-frog]

Originally posted by scanez
If you just want to setup win98 and openoffice then go for it ;)I'll agree with this, but windows 98 `lite' might be faster. Both windows 95 and 98 crash a lot as you probably know. My knowledge of 98 lite is only from hearsay so you might want to find out what other people have to say about it.

As for lightweight window managers, have you looked into window maker, blackbox, and fluxbox? There are pretty light and fast, although there are no icons/menus usually unless you put them there. Enlightenment is IMHO the best window manager around, it's light and fast, but probably not as light as blackbox/fluxbox, but I ran it on my 150mhz laptop perfectly fine with no problems whatsoever :) Check it out too. I am very sorry, but I have to bluntly refute all of what scanez has said here.

You are giving this computer to non-comp-savvy individuals? Enlightenment IME is the worst window manager around for newbies. It is far from light and fast.

One must assume then that the reciever(s) who want to use this computer for practical uses and do not want to read a bunch and geek out. Enlightenment just does not have a practical interface. It would be very slow on the system you listed. I would only recommend it to twelve year old kids who only want the eye-candy and flashy wank and a list of cr/hacker programs. Yes, you can change the interface a lot to make it easy, but hiding the loose ends isn't practical.

Blackbox and fluxbox are also for people that freak out over fancy graphics, virtual desktops, and transparent x terminal emus. Normal individuals look at these window managers (even set up without these features) and they see a blur of confusion and they find window management to be very difficult.

You should set up the easiest interface you can find. Then let the individual(s) who are recieving the computer change the window manager/configuration on their own time.

[Orchard Leaf]

Ok, to recap, we needed something working for a slow computer (Pentium 133, 32 MB RAM, 1.1 G Hard Drive, SiS video card).

Thinking that Linux doesn't hog as much resources as Windows98SE, we thought it would be faster overall.

After installing Mandrake 8.2, I installed Gnome. Waaaay too slow.

Re-installed Linux, this time with KDE. A little more tolerable than Gnome.

Tried to run OpenOffice with KDE... forget it. Probably took 10 minutes before the splash screen even disappeared.

So, I thought it was the window manager. Re-booted, but this time with IceWM. Cool: a bit faster. Tried to run OpenOffice again.

After 5 minutes of waiting, decided to just kill it.

At this point in time, I'm looking at two (or three) options.

Option 1.A: KDE and the bundled KOffice (actually, just need KWord and KSpread).

Option 1.B: IceWM and KWord+KSpread.

Option 2: Win98SE.

The fastest is Option 1B, but I'll have to see how they take to it (the end users are a from a charitable institution this computer is being donated to, and they are not in any way computer savvy).

Option 1A, hopefully, will be fine. But it practically runs as slow as Win98SE and Microsoft Office in this slow computer. Except, of course, that it will be more stable.

Option 2 (Win98SE route) might be tolerable, despite the crashes.

I'm hoping they get by with IceWM already so at least the computer has some speed in it.

--Orchard

[smokybobo]

My suggestion is to go with fluxbox, the gnome panel, and abiword.

Fluxbox because it's one of the lightest window managers around.

Gnome panel with maybe three buttons (word processor, spread sheet, shutdown computer)

abiword if tables/frames aren't important (abiword doesn't support em yet) for word processing.

Maybe gnumeric for a spreadsheet.

Set up the system to boot right into X and use some login program and set it to auto login (or not if you think logging in might not be a problem).

Notice I'm staying away from kde apps. kde likes to load all libraries at the get-go in order to gain speed increase when opening an app. But on a low resource machine, it may be better to go with gtk/gnome (though not the complete gnome desktop) since they tend to only load what they need when they need it.

I've set up a system like this for my mom and I haven't needed to do any maintenance or anything. She just clicks on the pretty buttons and goes web browsing, then another click and the computer shuts down. And she can't change anything permanently on her desktop since I've set the immutable bit on a few choice files in her home directory...

[jglen490]

Use either IceWM or XFCE for your window manager. Then use Abiword for word processing and gnumeric as the spreadsheet.

OpenOffice.org is a great product, but way to heavy for impatient users. Both abiword and gnumeric are very complete and should integrate well either Ice or XFCE.

[glussier]

If it is to be installed on a computer to be donated to a charitable donation, you should install win95. On a 1.1gB drive it doesn't take much space, the win95 full install is around 70mB. The people receiving this computer, probably don't know notting about computers, it will make it easier for them to find a printer which works or eventually go on the internet. And, win95/98 doesn't crash as much as one poster said, if properly installed. Win95 on a machine of that type would be snappy and fast.