> > Windows 3.11
> 1. Replace Windows with an operating system. E.g. Linux or NetBSD.
> (Especially the later runs very well on older hardware with non-GHz CPUs
> and only a few MB RAM.)
> You may skip this step if you are not willing to wrap your head around
> Unix.
Ahh, been there though. I did run Linux on this very same laptop for a while -
I believe it was AbiWord I used as a basic GUI-based wordprocessor for my
scribbles.
At the time, one problem was the lack of CDROM drive on the machine for getting
any large software onto it. The only parallel-port drive I had access to was a
Microsolutions Backpack, and no matter what I tried it refused to work with
Linux. No problems there under DOS / Win311.
Second problem was one of performance - the linux distributions that were
around a couple of years ago tended to be aimed at slightly faster hardware. I
do still have old distributions lying around back to around 1994 or so (I
remember the days of SLS on 50 or so floppies - it was always guaranteed *one*
of the disks would be dead, usually near the end of the pile :) but then I'd
have all sorts of compatibility problems with any modern software. Alternately
I could trim down a more modern version of Linux - but that's a lot of effort
for something that just gets used for casual note-taking now and then.
Third problem is also performance-related, and down to the time it takes Linux
- or any modern MS operating system - to start up and shut down. If I just want
to spend a couple of minutes typing some notes, I don't want to be taking the
same length of time waiting for the machine to boot and then shut down again at
the end. With DOS / Win311 the startup and shutdown is extremely quick.
Maybe there's a version of NetBSD that gets round the second problem, but I bet
it still takes a lot longer than DOS/Windows does to boot and shut down.
> I used several WYSIWYG text processing software at that time
> (WordPerfect, AmiPro, StarWriter, ...) and they all sucked.
Wordperfect 6.0 I assume, 5.1 not being particularly WYSIWYG as I recall :-)
And yes, from memory 6.0 did suck; all these posts have reminded me of all the
wordprocessing software I'd forgotten about. I used to use 5.1 a *lot* under
DOS until I started running Windows 3 on the PC I had back then.
I have a horrible feeling the negative thing I vaguely recall about Ami Pro was
its stability, at least in the version I had :-( Maybe there were later
releases with the problems ironed out, or it was just some odd problem with the
machine I had back then. If I can trace a copy then I'll find out I suppose...
Someone mentioned DisplayWrite too - arghh! That had totally faded from my
memory. My father's work made it their standard for a while; I should have
access to a copy in theory but I have no plans to try and track that one
down... :-)
cheers
Jules
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Received on Wed Jul 09 2003 - 18:02:00 BST