minimal internet/home system

I just got a 2nd hand PII and I'm surfing the internet with few
problems. It's got me wondering what minimum system you need if you
want to go online--in theory it can be a very slow, old computer (PI or
below), if the internet connection is a real bottleneck (esp. dialup)?
However I'm seeing more and more websites that absolutely refuse to run
if you don't have flash support, in which case I'd think a PII is the
minimum you need. I also do lightweight multimedia (playing MP3s and
MPEGs) and use USB storage devices (for which I use WinME, although I
know Win98SE also supports them) so I would think a PII system is
necessary. Even with my system I get a bit of jerkiness with
multiple-frame pages or switching quickly between pages on the taskbar.
Has anyone used less powerful systems to surf successfully?

Seb

In article <(E-Mail Removed) .com>,
says...
> I just got a 2nd hand PII and I'm surfing the internet with few
> problems. It's got me wondering what minimum system you need if you
> want to go online--in theory it can be a very slow, old computer (PI or
> below), if the internet connection is a real bottleneck (esp. dialup)?
> However I'm seeing more and more websites that absolutely refuse to run
> if you don't have flash support, in which case I'd think a PII is the
> minimum you need. I also do lightweight multimedia (playing MP3s and
> MPEGs) and use USB storage devices (for which I use WinME, although I
> know Win98SE also supports them) so I would think a PII system is
> necessary. Even with my system I get a bit of jerkiness with
> multiple-frame pages or switching quickly between pages on the taskbar.
> Has anyone used less powerful systems to surf successfully?
>
You can use a 486/386 if you find the right software. There's nothing
special about browsing the internet and Windows 3.x had browsers
available for it.


--
Conor

-You wanted an argument? Oh I'm sorry, but this is abuse. You want room
K5, just along the corridor. Stupid git. (Monty Python)

On 24 Jun 2005 10:02:15 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>I just got a 2nd hand PII and I'm surfing the internet with few
>problems. It's got me wondering what minimum system you need if you
>want to go online--in theory it can be a very slow, old computer (PI or

If you want to run a recent version of Windows the latest version of
IE with the most up-to-date Flash plugins, you should be looking at
something like an 800MHz computer with 128MB RAM, 10GB HD and an XGA
graphics (1024x768 in thousands or millions of colours).

You *can* get away with a lot less, especially if you use an
alternative operating system. For really low/old-spec machines
consider a suitable "live CD" version of Linux. A "live CD" is an
operating system which runs entirely (or almost entirely) from the CD,
with little or no need for a hard drive at all. There are many
different ones for different levels of "old", from cutting edge modern
going right back to text-only machines without graphics. Search Google
for: "live cd" linux


--
Andrew Oakley