Palemoon simply does not load

[thegreekzeek]

Celeron 700 mhz
8 mb Video Trident
256 mb ram
Windows Xp Sp3

Im trying to set up an ancient computer I salvaged and I want the most lightweight software available for basic internet surfing.

I installed the latest palemoon, it gave me the only option, Winxp Atom for slow machines. Installed it, but when I try to run it, nothing happens. Palemoon doesnt even register in my processes tab.

Any suggestions?

[Tharn]

That Celeron doesn't support Palemoon's instruction set, I think. Pentium 4's the minimum for SSE2.

Anyway, for an old machine like that, I'd go with Opera 12.17 anyway. It'll run better.

[roytam1]

OT: you might try K-Meleon for such computer spec.

[thegreekzeek]

I love you and want to give birth to our retarded children...Ok back to business. The celeron is from an ancient martian space craft, trust me, its got balls.

Clearly im joking. Now what about the specs I listed, and other O/s? Like Linus for example....are they light weight?

[Tharn]

Linux can be made much lighter than Windows XP. I have a laptop with a 1000 MHz Pentium 3 that ran Arch Linux and others much better than XP, especially because old integrated graphic chipset drivers on XP were buggy while they worked much better on Linux. It did require some fitting by hand though. Linux is never guaranteed to work 'out of the box'.

For a 'quick and easy' Linux install you can give Manjaro Linux, Debian or Crunchbang a try. I recommend Openbox / LXDE as a window manager, JFS as a file system and Opera as a browser, with a secondary text-only browser like Links 2.9 because it will remain lightning fast. Good luck.

[thegreekzeek]

OK so back to Linux being a good light weight system. I am not super well versed with how an O/S works but i know I just naturally understand. Ex: Windows uses an open register/process hog that loads it all at once IE your startup tools and required windows frameworks. Now the purpose of the O/S is to reconnize and properly instruct the hardware, like drivers in windows. Windows uses a GUI interface. Point and click. So now if I want to try something differnt like linux. What am I going to expect to have to do? Do i need special drivers, will I not have a GUI. Is it more "command line command prompt" and if so, is it possible to use a linux system in a friendly GUI way, and run software. Now regarding software, alot of things simply are not compatable with Linux, from my knowledge. I know people run...windows emulators, doesnt that defeat the purpose of ditching windows? Anywy, I hope you know where Im coming from in regards to how I would process this tranistion with no previous attempts

[Tharn]

I suggest you first make a backup of the current OS on the computer you're looking to run Linux on, in case things don't work out. The Linux distros I posted all have graphical installers and GUIs. Polished distros will automatically detect your hardware and have the drivers ready. In some cases you might have to hunt down the proper package, like xf86-video-trident for your graphics card. But older hardware is generally better supported than on Windows (the opposite is true for newer hardware). Most issues can be resolved with some basic Googling.

Windows-exclusive programs will only work with an emulator, cross-platform programs will run fine. Since all you're going to do is internet surfing and Palemoon is available on Linux, you should be fine.

When you've backed up your OS, just download some Linux install media, boot it and give it a go.

[thegreekzeek]

I shot the sheriff, but i swear, I swear to GOD. I did NOT shoot the deputy. I dont know how his head got blown off, but I only had one shot in the chamber, and I shot the sheriff but i didnt shoot the deputy.

Perfect, thanks for the linux advice, all though "backup my current OS?" I have nothing to back up, and if i reformat it, I will just reinstall XP black

[ikar-us]

The Linux distros I posted all have graphical installers and GUIs.

Is Linux with GUI still better for slow computers?
Should at least choose a lightweight GUI.

[trava90]

Is Linux with GUI still better for slow computers?
Should at least choose a lightweight GUI.

In my experience yes, Linux with a lightweight desktop manager runs excellent on older/slow hardware. I'd agree with Tharn, Openbox / LXDE are the lightest. XFCE is fairly lightweight as well, although not as light at the other 2.

[thegreekzeek]

ok so linux and windows is like Japanese and English so....can someone tell me how to install this damn thing and where the link is to download it, what s git, whats the sourcecode, and the Openbox yadayda yda dyda................heres where I am. Trying to go super lightweight so my dad can do basic stuff on line.

http://openbox.org/wiki/Openbox:Download

[ron_1]

OpenBox is not an OS . . . it is a window manager. It is the standard window manager in LXDE, which is a desktop environment. So what you need to do is decided which OS that uses LXDE, and hence OpenBox, to use. Here are some Os's that use LXDE (from Wikipedia):

LXDE is the default desktop environment of Knoppix, Lubuntu, LXLE Linux, Peppermint Linux OS and Raspbian, among other distributions.

Personally, I'd suggest Linux Mint, Xfce flavor (Xfce is another desktop environment). I don't know how easy other Linux distros are, but if I can use Linux Mint, anyone can. You simply download the .iso file, burn it to DVD, and install from there. http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

But if you want OpenBox & LXDE, here's a link for Lubuntu: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/GetLubuntu

[half-moon]

OpenBox is not an OS . . . it is a window manager. It is the standard window manager in LXDE, which is a desktop environment. So what you need to do is decided which OS that uses LXDE, and hence OpenBox, to use.

Off-topic:
Technically Openbox is its own project and works well without any lxde software.

[ron_1]

half-moon wrote:
Technically Openbox is its own project and works well without any lxde software.

Hmm, that's interesting, how does that work? But I'd bet it would probably be easier for the OP to just use Lubuntu.

EDIT:
Okay, I see how here (sort of). But it definitely sounds and looks easier to just install Lubuntu.

[Tharn]

Go to DistroWatch, pick a distribution that suits you, go to their homepage and download an .iso image for a boot CD. That's really all there is to it.

[thegreekzeek]

OpenBox is not an OS . . . it is a window manager. It is the standard window manager in LXDE, which is a desktop environment. So what you need to do is decided which OS that uses LXDE, and hence OpenBox, to use. Here are some Os's that use LXDE (from Wikipedia):

LXDE is the default desktop environment of Knoppix, Lubuntu, LXLE Linux, Peppermint Linux OS and Raspbian, among other distributions.

Personally, I'd suggest Linux Mint, Xfce flavor (Xfce is another desktop environment). I don't know how easy other Linux distros are, but if I can use Linux Mint, anyone can. You simply download the .iso file, burn it to DVD, and install from there. http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

But if you want OpenBox & LXDE, here's a link for Lubuntu: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/GetLubuntu

Ohhhh, well see, you linux ppl.....japense vs english i tells ya. lol. Ok so Im gooing to get Linux Mint, its lightweight for a p3 celeron 700mhz 256 ram? And then to get the GUI type thing openbox? and then wat do i use for windows based software

[thegreekzeek]

i know how stupid i sound trust me

[Moonchild]

Just please keep in mind that regardless of operating system in use, 256MB of memory is not much to work with for a modern web browser that needs to support HTML5 and rich media. Your usage will be very limited.

[thegreekzeek]

Just please keep in mind that regardless of operating system in use, 256MB of memory is not much to work with for a modern web browser that needs to support HTML5 and rich media. Your usage will be very limited.

Yea, im just geekin' out, trying to work with the hardware I have. I was practically born inside a 286.....My dad had tons of spare parts for 286;s 386's etc, and so many 50 mb hard drives.....plus the largest most bizzare ram and PCI slots. Oh the days.

So anyway back to my qoute on what you said.....What specs are specfically ment for things like....online board games, like chess and checkers, Flash probably will not function. From what I have read, it most certainly cannot read MP4's with the hardware inside. So yea...HTML5 and rich media? What kind of specs does that need, and what make it so damn special that technology from the year 2000 cant run software and scripts...pfffff like shit me timbers. El Comprendes Senior?

[Moonchild]

Current-day websites make heavy use of css, for starters. That takes a lot of resources (depending on the site, of course). parsing, compositing and rendering css-styled web pages is quite a task that you wouldn't have in 2000-era sites. Then there's the heavy reliance on dom/js to make dynamic pages, as well. Not saying it won't work at all, but it'll be slow, maybe prohibitively so.

If you want, I can make a build that should run on that system, for shits&giggles. No support or guarantees though