Thread: Need some computer help (mabe linux??)

I was going through some of my Dad's stuff. Been a few years and Mom decided to clean out the Ham radio stuff. While going through the stuff I run across a little laptop. The brand is Palmax PD-1000A and it is not much bigger than a vhs tape.
The specs:
Cyrix 166 CPU
32MB DRAM
1.6 GB hard drive
running windows 98

I would like to use this with a wireless card to surf the net at coffee shops and around the house. All the software I have found requires XP or newer. The little thing has no floppy or CD drive but has a USB and a PCMCIA. I know nothing about linux but would learn if it would let me use this on high speed internet.
Thanks for any help or advice.

Don

Damn Small Linux or Puppy Linux. go to Distrowatch.org to find out more about that. I hope that you are good with using a wall adapter. Good luck having that battery hold a charge for more that a few minutes, if that.

BTW - A cyrix processor! Wow... I used to build computers and do on-site work and networking back in 97, and was a dealer for Cyrix. They folded pretty early in the game. Are you sure it's a USB port? If so, it's probably USB 1.0, I'd imagine. Check the buid date. if it's 1998 or later, then it's USB 2.0 and that's good - about 40 times faster than 1.0.

Well found the specs and someone who put linux on one. I don't know if I am dedicated enough to do the linux install.

Here is the Palmax - Mini Notebook

Might just get one of the new dell mini's

Don

There are a couple of options for you. Try and Google "Damn Small Linux from usb"and "Puppy Linux from usb" they are the most popular for low hardware req. then you will need to find a combatible card and drivers. You should be able to stay with win98 it take will a little more looking. After getting a pcmcia, The hardest part will be loading the drivers without the cd drive.

If you get linux to work it will be a lot faster than win98

i'd say it's not worth your time getting it to work, go the dell route.
if you decide to go for it, you should budget no less than 15 hours may be quite a bit more, depending how technically minded you are.