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Topic: compaq armada w/64MB ram

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AndrewTheArt Offline

Group: Members
Posts: 1
Joined: Feb. 2007

Posted: Feb. 18 2007,20:19

Hey guys-

I'm considering buying a laptop with the following specs -

compaq armada
celeron 400mhz (based on a pentium 2)
working cd drive
64mb of ram
modem
4 gb Hd windows 98 fresh install.
nic card in the pcmcia slot

Here are my questions:

(1) Will the DSL installer recognize the Win98 install and appopriatley kill it?
(2) How fast will DSL be on this machine?
(3) Does DSL come with an implementation of Wine?
(4) Will DSL run OpenOffice *well* on this machine? If not, what productivity software does DSL come packaged with (primarily I need Word and Powerpoint alternatives?
(5) Is it worth scraping the Win98 install for DSL, and if so, why exactly? (in your opinion)
(6) Will the JRE/JDK probably run well under such restrictive RAM?

Thanks for answering my annoying questions!!!

~Andrew

beep_gr

Group: Awaiting Authorisation
Posts: 8
Joined: Feb. 2007

Posted: Feb. 19 2007,09:24

Well, I can give you some answers but not many details.

(1) Will the DSL installer recognize the Win98 install and appopriatley kill it?

It depends from how many partitions you have on your drive. If you have only one, you have to make two or three partitions, one for the system, one for memory swap and finally one for your home directory. The last one is not important but in case that one day you have to upgrade your system, don't lose your home's files.
In case that you want to remove your Win system from your drive, you can choose to install DSL into the Win's partition

(2) How fast will DSL be on this machine?

Yap, it is ideal... it is not 'heavy' system

(3) Does DSL come with an implementation of Wine?

As I see in the repositories, there is an Wine emulator...

(4) Will DSL run OpenOffice *well* on this machine? If not, what productivity software does DSL come packaged with(primarily I need Word and Powerpoint alternatives?

Everything looks fine. You can take a shot...
Except in case you have to write non-English keyboard. For my Greek language, I have to configure some things but I'm not sure if I can make it. I didn't try it yet... Take a look in forums for that...

(5) Is it worth scraping the Win98 install for DSL, and if so, why exactly? (in your opinion)

Well, if you want to be safe from viruses and spy-ware, and if you want to learn an alternative OS, you can try. It depends from how much familiar are you with Linux OS. Dsl is powerful system but you have to learn some things.

(6) Will the JRE/JDK probably run well under such restrictive RAM?

I think that in case that you will not have enough memory DIMM, system will use swap memory and you will have no problem.
Maybe your CPU die but you can try...

rja

Group: Members
Posts: 46
Joined: Jan. 2005

Posted: Feb. 20 2007,04:07

I have DSL running on a Compaq Armada SB

266Mhz Pentium MMX
CD
floppy
64MB memory, upgraded to 96MB which is maximum allowed for that model
Winmodem (Lucent?) that I don't even try to use
4GB hd originally with Win95, upgraded to Win98SE
3Com 3CXFE575BT pcmcia network card

DSL will run with 64MB, but huge applications, like openoffice will be very slow. Upgrade the memory to the maximum that your model will allow and you will be much happier.

1. The disk will probably be partitioned with a single partition that has Win98 on it. You can use a program to shrink the Win98 partition and then add partitions for swap, root, and maybe another one for data. Then, you can install DSL and be able to dual-boot either DSL or Win98. That way, you can try DSL out and still have Windows to fall back on if you are more familiar with that. Search the forums for "dual and boot". Of course, you can wipe out Win98 entirely and install DSL all by itself if you wish.

2. DSL will probably feel faster than Win98 on that hardware, but that is all subjective. DSL is one of the best choices for older hardware like that laptop.

3. There is a Wine MyDSL extension, but I have never tried it. You might be better off keeping the Win98 partition instead of trying to use Wine. DSL will be able to access files on a Win98 partition.

4. With only 64MB, Word or Powerpoint under Win98 will be slow. Same for OpenOffice under DSL with 64MB of memory.

5. See #1. I dual-booted my Armada for years just to play Windows games until I built a dedicated gamer PC. Then I wiped out the Win98SE and only ran Linux on the Armada.

If you don't want to worry about re-partitioning, you can just run DSL from the live-cd and backup your files to the Win98 partition. That is described here:

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Persistence

This WIKI describes how to wipe out Win98 and install DSL over it:

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki....rd_Disk

6. You can try it with 64MB, but more memory will make it more pleasant. You didn't list the exact model of Armada, but it probably uses a SODIMM. I got a 64MB add on SODIMM at:

http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom....=Search

but that part is discontinued now.

2 replies since Feb. 18 2007,20:19

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