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 800×600 TFT LCD display, the machine had
1.15 MB of video memory–just enough to allow 16-bit color at the
800×600 resolution of its on-screen display…”

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