[COLUG] Seeking recommendations for Linux distro for ancient laptop

[Ethan Dicks]

On 3/29/07, Thomas W. Cranston <cranston_tom at asapchoice.com> wrote:
> Ethan Dicks wrote:
> > Hi, all,
> >
> > I have this ancient Dell laptop... maxed out at 256MB of RAM...

> What kind of Dell is it?

CPi 300MHz.

> What kind of memory does it use?

EDO SO-DIMMs?  It really doesn't matter - the max it can take is 256MB
and that's already installed.

> I have several
> old Dell's, form a 486 machine, a GX1 220mmx w/256 MB RAM (slow
> w/browser), and several GX110, 600MHz P111, 256 MB RAM. The GX110 runs
> Firefox quite well.

Those sound like desktop models.

> Be careful about new laptops(& PC's), especially ones preloaded w/Vista.
> I am hearing rumors that MS has convinced manufacturers to use chipsets
> that will only work w/Vista. Would appreciate confirmation of said rumor.

I am not in a position to confirm nor deny such rumors.  I will not
likely be replacing this with a *new* laptop, as I still require
features such as serial ports (not USB-serial dongles), parallel
ports, and PCMCIA/CARDBUS slots.  I think I'm kinda frozen in about
the 2005-2006 timeframe for hardware for the forseeable future.  There
are plenty of 2GHz+ and 1GB+ laptops that still fit my bill; but they
aren't the currently-available models.  I realize I don't represent
the "typical consumer", but I really don't care what they are selling
now.  If it doesn't do what I need, I'm not going to buy it, no matter
how well it works for other people.

-ethan