developerWorks: Breath New Life Into an Old Machine

"When people talk about Linux on old hardware, they generally mean hardware a year or two old, stuff that is still pretty useful. The hardware in question is in good shape, reasonably well maintained, and possesses decent specs--perhaps it's even an old server. For this series, however, we'll be setting our sights a little lower.

"Enter, stage left, an old Gateway box (I mean no disrespect for Gateway). In October of 1997, I spent nearly $3,000 on what was at the time a top-of-the-line laptop. Boasting a Pentium 133, 32 MB of high-speed SDRAM, and an 800x600 TFT LCD display, the machine had 1.15 MB of video memory--just enough to allow 16-bit color at the 800x600 resolution of its on-screen display..."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• developerWorks: Lightweight Linux, Part 1(Nov 12, 2002)
• GNULinux.com: Rebuilding the Linux Kernel for Complete Newbies(May 30, 2000)
• VNU Net: Life in the old systems yet(Apr 04, 2000)