laptop at launches

Gary, Put the pink book on it as well for contests ! You can be the pink book judge then, he he.

Contest manager is Java based I think and I don't know if java ever had a

Art

Try installing a 32 bit OS on it like win9x, but if it's an old computer like you said its going to very slow/unstable, and I wont recommend you to install windows 2000/xp because it has a high system requiremet. Since you mentioned windows 3.1 im going to assume your computer is probably either a

Java is supposed to be cross-platform, means it should run in all platforms, however if you are talking about JavaScript (which is not the same as Java) then it should run assuming that you have the right browser (like netscape

I have no intention of doing any such thing. Merely trying to help the OP.

There are distributions that are small. One of my favorites is Knoppix, fits on one self booting CD(no need to install on HD) but it still needs a little space on your HD for there version of virtual memory and a couple other things. One thing I like is that it recognizes FAT32 and NTFS files systems. There are still older versions out there that will run on floppy drives. But you lose a lot of functionality. One thing to remember with the distrobutions. When you download mandrake, red hat, slackware, etc. you are not just getting a OS. You are getting a fairly large software bundle along with it and a lot of different desktops, server applications, programming applications, etc. I do agree that it is difficult to properly setup but it has improved considerably in the last few years.

its stable (as in no more freezes, blue screens, and

. Plus you got to be

Java works on 'all platforms' because the os publisher writes/supports a Java Virtual Machine(JVM). Since MS has no incentive to write/support a JVM for Win 3.1, your best bet would be W95 (and I am a Linux Geek)

Linux is a good os, but the newer distributions are what would be more appropriate for novices. If you never worked with linux or unix, you would have real culture shock putting a distributon on an older laptop The latest GUI's would be slow, so you would have to go with one of the leaner GUIs and that would take a decent amount of retraining.

That said, Linux is a free operating system (free as in beer) which can be legally downloaded, installed and used without paying anyone (other than your normal isp charge). It is also free (as in freedom) in that you can look at the source code and make changes to the operating system to make it work the way you want.

There are literally thousands of programs available for linux, including very good office suites (I'll put Openoffice/StarOffice up against MS Office any day), graphical programs (the photo gurus I know swear by two programs, Photoshop and the GIMP. The GIMP is free), Server programs (Apache is the web server that is on 62% of the worlds web servers. A number that is growing) ect, ect. If you are into computers at all, linux can be very worthwhile to learn.

On the other hand, for what you are doing, it may be overkill. Your original plan with Win31 (or modified to Win 95) is probably better.

Lastly, here is a trick to make the laptop last longer. Since it is routine to have 12 v car batteries available at club launches, bring an extra car battery, plug it into an inverter, and now you have enough battery power to last 12+ hours. (not very practical for air travel)

tai fu wrote:

If you want to play without paying or risking look for Knoppix.

when you burn to a CD you have an ENTIRE finctional OS you do not have to install. you just need the ability to Boot from a cd.

pop in the CD and it "boots" to linux without installing anything to your hard drives (no risk)

Pretty nice if you want to play around with it.

also nothing to install. it autodetects pretty much everything (all my stuff except the audigy)

Chris Taylor

"tai fu" wrote in news:bl6bps$b3d$ snipped-for-privacy@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu:

Java will run on any platform onto which someone has ported the Java virtual machine. Win 3.1 is so old I wouldn't be surprised if nobody had bothered.

Tai Fu, I have widnows 2000 professional on a Pentium 166 with only 48meg of ram. takes 5 mins to boot, but once up it runs ok and works fine. I just never shut it down, only hibernate.

Thanks for all the ideas. It's a Compaq Elite 4/75cx, 486, 32 megs of memory, I guess that's ram. 510 meg HD. 3.5 floppy. The docking station has a CD drive(thank goodness) and 1 gig HD( I think). Battery lasts about 2 hours. The power inverter is a great idea. Win32s didn't help. I'm thinking if I can strip down win95 I may try it. Is it complicated? Something like 'custom setup'? I hope?

da rmr plumber Gary R Goldenbaum NAR #73669 L1 Northwest Florida remove 'nichspam' to reply

Upgrade the dock HD.

Double boot the machine into DOS unix

for lower resource usage.

actually, if you get win95, you won't have to strip anything. Win95 with a full install is about 100 mb. That gives you 400 left, still plenty for the other software you wanted to load.

Software to avoid for this > Thanks for all the ideas. It's a Compaq Elite 4/75cx, 486, 32 megs of memory,

that should be more than sufficient to run windows 95 (A version preferably)

many say it is unstable but NOT USUALLY on integrated very tightly nit system like a laptop. I have many 486's running 95.

the reason you want the A version is that you can MOVE the windows CD files (only the ones needed) to the hard drive at a cost of 40meg.

then the final install will take bout 60 meg. with some viscious cutting of everything not needed (all txt bmp jpg gif wri zip cab etc.. files you can wittle windows 95 A down to 37 megabytes. (have not done this in some time)

Full version is better since you will not have to worry about proving upgrade but you already have win3x so that should not be a problem.

this way you will have well over 450meg of free space to play with.

and that 75mhz system is MORE than enough for it. if you can upgrade the ram that would be nice but 32 meg is ok if that is all it can take.

this thing is fast enough to be a nice wireless web station at home too especially with the 2hr capacity.

you should be able to make a wireless LUCENT card work fine. and definately as he suggested NO IE.

not only will it eat up space but it will slow things down including the rest of the OS

Install Opera.

Or install Mozilla. Running it on a P75 Prolinea with w95B and 32 megs and it runs fairly quick.

Ted Novak TRA#5512