[ale] open source solutions for Win 98 on an old laptop

[Daniel Howard]

OK, I know this is going to lead to some interesting responses, but it's 
actually a serious question.  I've got a donated Toshiba Satellite Pro 
225CDS (Pentium CPU, 80MB RAM, 1 GB HDD) I'm working with again because 
I have a needy person who would like to sell some of their stuff on 
eBay.  I can't seem to turn it into a thin client (no built in Ethernet, 
no CD ROM drive, only USB 1.1 and a floppy drive), and I've tried Puppy 
Linux and DSL (Damn Small Linux) on it with a variety of issues in both: 
Puppy can't launch X on the screen (and I've tried every combination of 
xorg.conf fixes I could find), and DSL is really slow on the Dillo web 
browser, word processor and spreadsheet (believe it or not, MS Office 97 
loads pretty fast and runs well on this machine), plus DSL also freezes 
up after a few hours of being left on.  As a stand alone machine for 
this person, I'm really tempted to leave it as a Win98 platform with an 
earlier version of Opera as web browser (say 6.0), and ClamAV and/or 
Avast antivirus, both of which still run in 98, and just put newer USB 
drivers on it so new USB memory sticks can be used.  The intended user 
is likely to use an ad-supported dialup service with their handful of 
free hours per month until she gets enough money to upgrade Internet 
access and/or the PC.  But this would be a start for her to get some 
revenue flowing, and you guys know I hate to toss one that could be put 
to use.

With 80 MB RAM and only 1 GB HDD, any other suggestions of Linux 
versions to try on it?  If I do leave it Win98, any other other open 
source or other recommendations to protect it (e.g., shutting down any 
specific TCP/IP ports, etc.)  I think if she could go to Google for 
gmail and eBay to sell stuff, as well as write letters for job 
interviews, and do spreadsheets for budget minding, it'd be very useful.

Thanks, Daniel

-- 
Daniel Howard
President and CEO
Georgia Open Source Education Foundation