On 18 Aug 2004 at 3:53, Cathy Pierce wrote:

> I have been offered one "Pentium 1 range (90-180)" from a government
> office.  I was told it has no operating system.  I was cautioned that
> while I may SOMEHOW be able to obtain (they didn't know how) an
> operating system for this computer, I may have trouble getting most
> software to work with this older system.  Some of the pre-school
> software I have states on the label that it will work with "Windows
> 3.1 or higher"; another set states it will work with "486MHz or
> better".

  Although some major recent software may not run particularly WELL on such
an old.slow machine, it should be adequate for most simple web browsing and
emailing.
  Legitimate copies of Windows versions designed for hardware of this
vintage could be a little hard to come by, although you might ask around to
see if there's a "computer surplus" store in your area.  They often have
stuff for not much more than spare change, just because it's a few years out
of date.

  Several people have suggested Linux as an alternative to Windows, and
that's an option worth considering.  Specifically, there's a Linux package
named "Knoppix", which will run directly from a CD-ROM -- and there's a
version of Knoppix specifically intended for children.  (You haven't
mentioned whether this machine includes a CD-ROM drive, and you may need to
find someone who can download Knoppix and burn it to a CD for you....)

David Gillett

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