“486’s, Pentium I’s, and II’s ran Windows 3.1, 95, 98, 98SE, ME,
and 2000. The trouble with refurbishing any of these older versions
of Windows is that you can’t securely connect them to the Internet.
Microsoft doesn’t supply security fixes and they’re long out of
support. Most anti-malware vendors don’t support them. If you find
an anti-malware product that runs on them, it overwhelms the CPU.
It’s no longer practical to run internet-connected, pre-XP versions
of Windows.“Damn Small Linux is a “turnkey” distro. It’s convenient because
it bundles everything you need right in the initial install.
Another way to go is to take a bare-bones Linux distro like Tiny
Core and build it up into the system you want. This takes more
effort but ensures that only apps you need consume resources. The
choice is yours.”
Editors’ Note: This post was written on a Pentium II 266
running DSL, just because.