Ubuntu & Win98 Debate

[Matt1eD]

I'm gonna eBay a laptop in the region of 650MHz for internet and WP in the garden. I will also take it into school just to do some programming. I am not adverse to unninstalling ubuntu and installing Win98 at the beginning and end of holidays. Win98 @ school (so I can have VB6) and Ubuntu @ home. The HDD can't cope with dual boot - small drive. I'll probably only get 64MB RAM.

Does one need AV, firewall and anti-malware on Linux? How compatible with wireless is Ubuntu and similarly Win98?

cheers

[Daymonkey]

well i think ubuntu depending on kernel and things should be able to get onto a wireless connection (linux boffs will be here in a minute to tell you that) but windows 98 thats going to be a pain i dont know but i can tell tbh.

[Norky]

WiFi availability will depend solely on the card. There are numerous options available for different chipsets, from native Linux modules to Windows driver emulation.

Get the model name of the laptop and google for it + wifi.

[Matt1eD]

thanks - will do, haven't got the laptop yet but when i do ill look.

[directhex]

64mb is not enough to run ubuntu. that's it, really. i wouldn't feel comfortable using gnome on less than 256mb, it's pretty iffy on 128mb

[Matt1eD]

ok

howz 98s wireless support (apart from stoneage)!

[directhex]

you may be lucky. 98se more luck than 98 first ed.

[Firebar]

You could always install icewm or something similar on a machine with small amounts of ram, could you not?

[Matt1eD]

could youe explain about it, their website isnt v. helpful and Im a linux noo8

[directhex]

ubuntu is fairly wedded to the idea of gnome, but firebar is right.

in theory, "sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list", change "main" to "main universe multiverse restricted", then "sudo apt-get update", "sudo apt-get install icewm"

or you can carry out (some) of the above in Synaptic (just don't ask me how)

[Firebar]

You could always install icewm or something similar on a machine with small amounts of ram, could you not?

^ To put it simply its like a change in theme. Not flashy, not fun, but fast. KDE and Gnome use up quite a bit of memory (Gnome less I believe).

[directhex]

gnome is more memory hungry than kde. both guzzle it compared to a minimal window manager

[Matt1eD]

After all my previous live CD attempts failed I ordered a live CD (or rather several and some 64 bit and Mac ones). All I can say is I love it.

Anywho... I willprobably be getting a laptop in the summer holidays but a new decent one. Just to run .NET on at school. (better keep it clean, they're already convinced im going to take down the network {very seriously})

[dgr]

64mb is not enough to run ubuntu. that's it, really. i wouldn't feel comfortable using gnome on less than 256mb, it's pretty iffy on 128mb

try xfce - built using gtk, so it looks a little like gnome - only doesn't use as much RAM

[directhex]

try xfce - built using gtk, so it looks a little like gnome - only doesn't use as much RAM

i've used xfce4 for over a year - but for novice users, gnome & kde offer more general system control (gnome-control-center, kcontrol) than the more window-manager-ish xfce4

[Jonny M]

Why Win98 rather than 2000?

Unless you have 98 already of course.