New to Linux - BIOS before 2000?

[Patrick Bartek]

--- On Fri, 5/21/10, Alan Cox <alan at lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> wrote:

> On Fri, 21 May 2010 19:00:10 +0930
> Tim <ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au>
> wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, 2010-05-20 at 11:20 -0700, Mercury Rising
> wrote:
> > > it give me an error saying my BIOS was 1997 and I
> needed a a 2000 BIOS
> > > or better.  The machine has a Pentium 3 with
> 550 MHz CPU with over 700
> > > Megs memory but a small hard drive of just 10
> Gigs
> > 
> > To be honest, I think the CPU slowness, perhaps the
> RAM, and drive size
> > are probably going to be a big problem, too.
> > 
> > I've got servers with similar specs, and they run
> fine.  But a for a
> > workstation generating a video display, low specced
> computers get a bit
> > painfully slow.
> 
> You want plenty of RAM and a sensible desktop. There are
> several ways to
> run Linux on small platforms and removing all the crud some
> of the
> desktop people have written is an enormous improvement.
> 
> XFCE + claws is snappy on old machines.

Or LXDE (http://www.lxde.org/).

B