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can't pick which os to put on my laptop.

Alabamaboy106Alabamaboy106
edited September 2015 in Software
I have a gateway m520 or i think it is. on the bottom it says it is a gateway 7305
the crazy part is the the serial code on the bottom, gateway can't find software/drivers for it.
this machine doesn't even exist.
the drivers for gateway M520 works for this machine.
with 512 gb of ram
Pentium 4
32 Bit
ATI Mobility Radeon 9600/9700 series Graphics card
currently running Microsoft Windows XP SP3 with the Embedded POS Rdy 2009 Reg hack.
i can't decide which os that will be reliable to use on this old machine.
i used win 98 SE,me,XP,Vista,& 7. work fine.
windows 95,nt's,2000,& linux's will not work.
vista & 7 are very slow.
i was wondering if i could possibly put windows 10 of not windows 8.1 on this machine.
Thanks,
Alabamaboy106

Comments

  • garirrygarirry
    XP if you're fine having less security and compatibility or 7 if you're fine with it being slow. Don't bother with Windows 8 or 10.
  • SomeGuySomeGuy
    Sticking with Windows XP would be your best bet. Does it really have drivers for Windows 98?

    The main bottleneck in this kind of system is the slow-ass laptop hard drives they put in them. And that is probably IDE, which means you won't be able to put a much faster hard drive in it because you can't fit an SATA adapter in most laptops.
  • birdybirdy
    Well since you are running an older machine I would say that you should try to run windows 2000, or Linux. I have a Pentium 4 running Zorin LTS 6 OS, and it runs like a charm, but I would recommend downloading a new version of Zorin if you choose that route. Also you should take a look at some of the other Linux distributions that are geared towards older computers.
  • Doqtor KirbyDoqtor Kirby
    If you're a Linux newbie, Zorin or Puppy would be your best bet (especially Puppy for old hardware).

    If you have remotely some sort of savvyness, I'd recommend Fedora 22 XFCE; however you may get (slightly) better performance from the LXDE spin.

    Actually you have enough specs to get away with running KDE. Maybe.

    Also lol at 512GB RAM.
  • Bry89Bry89
    Either XP or 2000 I would think, but it's really up to you.
  • DallasCHVNDallasCHVN
    Install Windows ME!!! :lol:
  • Alabamaboy106Alabamaboy106
    edited September 2015
    SomeGuy wrote:
    Sticking with Windows XP would be your best bet. Does it really have drivers for Windows 98?

    The main bottleneck in this kind of system is the slow-ass laptop hard drives they put in them. And that is probably IDE, which means you won't be able to put a much faster hard drive in it because you can't fit an SATA adapter in most laptops.

    yea it does support the drivers i have for xp. some of the drivers support 95,98,me,nt,2000,xp,vista,7. 8 & 10 i do not know.
    yea i have IDE. wish i can put SATA in this machine, i got like 3 laptop hard drives lying around plus a desktop SATA drive lying around.
  • Alabamaboy106Alabamaboy106
    birdy wrote:
    Well since you are running an older machine I would say that you should try to run windows 2000, or Linux. I have a Pentium 4 running Zorin LTS 6 OS, and it runs like a charm, but I would recommend downloading a new version of Zorin if you choose that route. Also you should take a look at some of the other Linux distributions that are geared towards older computers.
    i can't put any versions of linux on it like mint and ubuntu. i used them on other pc's before. windows 2000 installs fine but when it comes to booting into the os its self it freezes right there.
    Zorin you say? i haven't heard of it, i'll check it out.
  • Alabamaboy106Alabamaboy106
    DallasCHVN wrote:
    Install Windows ME!!! :lol:

    the cd that my aunt gave to me that she thought that came with this pc, turns out it was for my rair pc that i had. i ran ME for a year till i found my DELL Windows XP Home Edition cd. i use me and the older os's on microsoft virtual pc.
  • garirrygarirry
    Alabamaboy106 wrote:
    birdy wrote:
    Well since you are running an older machine I would say that you should try to run windows 2000, or Linux. I have a Pentium 4 running Zorin LTS 6 OS, and it runs like a charm, but I would recommend downloading a new version of Zorin if you choose that route. Also you should take a look at some of the other Linux distributions that are geared towards older computers.
    i can't put any versions of linux on it like mint and ubuntu. i used them on other pc's before. windows 2000 installs fine but when it comes to booting into the os its self it freezes right there.
    Zorin you say? i haven't heard of it, i'll check it out.
    Zorin is a really sweet OS that has a Windows 7-like design. I really like the sci-fi theme they went with. There's also Elementary, which is heavily based on Mac OS X, but I like it a bit less. Also, Dallas's saying of installing Windows ME was probably a joke. Don't install it. As many have said, XP or Linux.
  • birdybirdy
    garirry wrote:
    Zorin is a really sweet OS that has a Windows 7-like design. I really like the sci-fi theme they went with. There's also Elementary, which is heavily based on Mac OS X, but I like it a bit less. Also, Dallas's saying of installing Windows ME was probably a joke. Don't install it. As many have said, XP or Linux.
    I don't think Elementary will run quite good with only 512mb of ram and a P4 processor. I tried to install Elementary os via flash drive but it was slow and I believe it froze.
    Alabamaboy106 wrote:
    i can't put any versions of linux on it like mint and ubuntu. i used them on other pc's before. windows 2000 installs fine but when it comes to booting into the os its self it freezes right there.
    Zorin you say? i haven't heard of it, i'll check it out.
    Well mint and Ubuntu require better hardware to run. Here are some other distro's that you should check out and or consider...
    bodhi linux
    Pepermint os
    sparky linux
    Absolute
    HandyLinux
    and in case you want to turn your computer into an android you can try android 86x
  • KCompRoom2000KCompRoom2000
    If you're using this for compatibility purposes then use either Windows 98SE or Windows XP depending on which one is the most compatible with your old applications and/or games, But if you're using this as a temporary main laptop until you can afford a new one then keep XP Embedded or upgrade the ram to 2GB and install 7. Most Pentium 4 laptops can be upgraded to 2GB of RAM even if the maximum specified by the OEM is 1GB.

    Windows 8.0 can run if you hack the kernel so it doesn't require NX bit, Not sure about 8.1, Windows 10 will not work at all since that doesn't support any type of Pentium 4, So you need at least a Core 2 Duo for that.
  • Alabamaboy106Alabamaboy106
    garirry wrote:
    Alabamaboy106 wrote:
    birdy wrote:
    Well since you are running an older machine I would say that you should try to run windows 2000, or Linux. I have a Pentium 4 running Zorin LTS 6 OS, and it runs like a charm, but I would recommend downloading a new version of Zorin if you choose that route. Also you should take a look at some of the other Linux distributions that are geared towards older computers.
    i can't put any versions of linux on it like mint and ubuntu. i used them on other pc's before. windows 2000 installs fine but when it comes to booting into the os its self it freezes right there.
    Zorin you say? i haven't heard of it, i'll check it out.
    Zorin is a really sweet OS that has a Windows 7-like design. I really like the sci-fi theme they went with. There's also Elementary, which is heavily based on Mac OS X, but I like it a bit less. Also, Dallas's saying of installing Windows ME was probably a joke. Don't install it. As many have said, XP or Linux.
    ill check it out. is there a official website that i can get the os for free?
  • Alabamaboy106Alabamaboy106
    birdy wrote:
    garirry wrote:
    Zorin is a really sweet OS that has a Windows 7-like design. I really like the sci-fi theme they went with. There's also Elementary, which is heavily based on Mac OS X, but I like it a bit less. Also, Dallas's saying of installing Windows ME was probably a joke. Don't install it. As many have said, XP or Linux.
    I don't think Elementary will run quite good with only 512mb of ram and a P4 processor. I tried to install Elementary os via flash drive but it was slow and I believe it froze.
    Alabamaboy106 wrote:
    i can't put any versions of linux on it like mint and ubuntu. i used them on other pc's before. windows 2000 installs fine but when it comes to booting into the os its self it freezes right there.
    Zorin you say? i haven't heard of it, i'll check it out.
    Well mint and Ubuntu require better hardware to run. Here are some other distro's that you should check out and or consider...
    bodhi linux
    Pepermint os
    sparky linux
    Absolute
    HandyLinux
    and in case you want to turn your computer into an android you can try android 86x
    i tried to put elementary os in here but i couldn't get it to boot off of the USB and CD.
    ill test those os's on Microsoft virtual machine and see if i like them or not.
  • Alabamaboy106Alabamaboy106
    The problem will be if i do upgrade to Linux will i be able to install all of my Windows 3.1-10 software on any of the versions of Linux that i may upgrade to?
    What I mean Windows 3.1-10 software you may ask?
    I have software from Windows 3.1,95,98,me,nt's,2000,xp,vista,7,8,8.1 &,10 software.
    Will i be able to upgrade to whatever os i chose to install or will I half to do a clean install of the os that i chose to have since im on XP?
    will i be able to install zorin os 9 or 10 on my laptop?
    when i seen the pictures of the os i said "HEY!! that looks just like Windows 10 :) "
    which one should i install? for now im going to download both of them.
  • garirrygarirry
    If you need Windows-only apps, your best bet is to install Windows XP. Otherwise, Zorin OS. Your computer is nowhere near powerful enough to virtualize Windows.
  • BlueSunBlueSun
    I used to run VMs on a P4. Performance sucked... a lot. But still, it was possible. You would need more RAM to do anything useful though.
  • birdybirdy
    Alabamaboy106 wrote:
    ill check it out. is there a official website that i can get the os for free?
    For your spec's I would say go for the a version that says LITE.
    http://zorinos.com/download10.html
    http://zorinos.com/download9.html
  • dosboxdosbox
    BlueSun wrote:
    I used to run VMs on a P4. Performance sucked... a lot. But still, it was possible. You would need more RAM to do anything useful though.

    Running a windows 7 VM on a Windows 7 host with VirtuaBox on my P4 tower was painful, but I did it a couple times.
  • BlueSunBlueSun
    I never ran anything higher than XP on mine and even that was painful.
  • dosboxdosbox
    I once even ran successfully 2 VMs at the same time on a P4. I ran TinyXP in one VM and Salix OS 14.1 XFCE in the 2nd one.
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