Is it worth it for me?

[purplegreendave]

Would it be worth installing linux/something similar on my pc?
It is quite slow on running any more than two/three programs (eg gimp, wmp, firefox)
Pc specs

OS Name	Microsoft Windows
Version	4.90.3000   Build 3000
OS Manufacturer	Microsoft Corporation
System Name	*****
System Manufacturer	Gateway                        
System Model	G6-200                         
System Type	X86-based PC
Processor	AMD Athlon(tm) Processor AuthenticAMD ~1002 Mhz
BIOS Version	AMIBIOS (C)1999 American Megatrends Inc., Version 07.00.xx     
Windows Directory	C:\WINDOWS
Locale	****
Time Zone	****
Total Physical Memory	127.38 MB
Available Physical Memory	300.00 KB
Total Virtual Memory	843.41 MB
Available Virtual Memory	554.04 MB
Page File Space	716.03 MB

The only programs id want are ffox, something to run my iPod off + play music, a torrent program and gimp, possibly all at the same time.
I know id have to do a lot of reading, but if there was readme's that'd be enough- i can handle that.
I can also install on an old (win98 ) machine to test it out beforehand.

Alternatively, are there any WinMe compatible progs i can use to put music on my iPod + listen to music yet takes up v. little of my comps resources?

[tech_man]

IMHO it would be worth it.

[purplegreendave]

IMHO it would be worth it.

thanks, any ideas how much though?
can i get some other opinions too?

also something i forgot to add was that i need an external hard drive (usb) to work as well as a wireless (wifi) usb dongle, is that a problem?

[antidrugue]

This machine looks quite nice to me.

If you can lay your hands on some extra RAM, it could really be a speedster under the right Linux distribution.

All the applications you mentioned are part of any recent Linux distro, so no problem there.

also something i forgot to add was that i need an external hard drive (usb) to work as well as a wireless (wifi) usb dongle, is that a problem?

No problem for the drive. As for the wifi USB adapter, it depends on the model. Can you be more precise?

[purplegreendave]

This machine looks quite nice to me.

If you can lay your hands on some extra RAM, it could really be a speedster under the right Linux distribution.

All the applications you mentioned are part of any recent Linux distro, so no problem there.



No problem for the drive. As for the wifi USB adapter, it depends on the model. Can you be more precise?

yes its a grey one
lol jk, its a Cable & Wireless Lan Mini USB Adaptor, USBA10CW3

[IsaacKuo]

Looking at that text output, it's obvious the reason your computer is sluggish is that it's running out of RAM. 300 KILObytes free out of 128megabytes? That's a RAM usage of over 99%!

You might be able to slim down your Windows install, although a Linux install can be leaner. The big thing you'll want to do either way is configure the GIMP to use a smaller than default "tile" size (or whatever exactly they call it). Basically, the GIMP gobbles up a certain amount of RAM to do fast image data manipulation on. If an image fits entirely within this "tile", image editing can be very fast. Otherwise, it will swap out bits of image data to the hard drive in a temporary file as necessary.

So, you can see there's obviously a benefit to having a large "tile" size, but the tradeoff is that this RAM is reserved by the GIMP at the expense of anything else which might need that RAM. I think the default "tile" size is 128megs of RAM, which is obviously too big for a computer with only 128megs of RAM to begin with, regardless of OS!

[purplegreendave]

i wasnt running gimp :P
however maybe if i can get that sorted it will help enough for now, this is what ctrl+alt+delete shows up, with only ffox in the taskbar:

[antidrugue]

yes its a grey one
lol jk, its a Cable & Wireless Lan Mini USB Adaptor, USBA10CW3

Yes, that should work.

See this thread for more info. It is a bit outdated however, and I fairly certain that you don't need to do any of this configuration anymore to get it working.

Unfortunately, I am afraid you will hit a wall if you try to ask Windows related questions here.

[purplegreendave]

ok thanks, il se if i can solve that elsewhere and return if not