Jump to content

Multi-boot Windows 9x with current GNU/Linux


Recommended Posts

Hi @Gansangriff. Just trying to clarify misconceptions and help out. Every user runs what they want but when i see hundreds of forum members attempting to keep expired >10 year old (operating) systems alive, seems prudent to find alternatives. If my effort keeps a few systems out of landfill that's good and recycling doesn't do a full and proper job either.

GNU/Linux uses less energy, again it would depend how it's configured. My basic window manager (not Desktop Environment) systems are calm, Windows XP tends to thrash more even after leaning out services. With Windows installs, most energy is spent trying to minimize services and bloat. In GNU/Linux i do a netinstall, bare bones minimum to get a text boot, then hand pick packages, very lean. There are users here complaining about poor GNU/Linux performance, then it's discovered they run fully loaded Ubuntu or Mint or use heavy Desktop Environments like Gnome or KDE. If you consider yourself intermediate or expert, do yourself a favour and trial a minimal, lean GNU/Linux install with only a Window Manager, the performance rewards are worth the effort. The system is modular, you can still pull in your favourite applications.

There is no 'luck' with hardware, computers are concrete and follow instructions. A Debian-based distribution is recommended for the vast number of pre-compiled packages. There are differences in package 'packaging' but anyway based on Wiki link below, Slackware or Slitaz has 2000 - 3000 packages compared to almost 90,000 in Debian. Unless you're an expert, getting hardware running in Slackware will be more difficult. If you're a new GNU/Linux user, don't set yourself up for failure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Linux_distributions#Package_management_and_installation

In Debian-based, 'Synaptic' is a good GUI for querying repositories for packages or adding repositories, such as non-free, in case non-free drivers are required for your particular hardware.

Old or new hardware doesn't matter, most anything more than one year old should work quite well. For the record, Debian-based installs here on any system have never failed in over 15 years. At present this house has 6 Debian-based systems running modern GNU/Linux (Fluxbox, Openbox, LXDE, MATE), 5 of them multi-boot old Windows, ranging from 2000 - 2010 era. The hardware (drivers) work fine on all 6 installs, including ethernet, wifi, touchpad, sound, graphics. Setting up two new systems in the last three years, it was necessary to swap out one graphic card (GNU/Linux issue) and two network cards (Windows 98 and 2000 issues).

The double-standard with drivers is perplexing. Windows users complain when a network or graphic card needs to get swapped. Yet it's business as usual when their entire hardware setup needs upgrading (replacing) every 3-5 years to run updated Windows. For example, i have a 2009 era netbook that runs modern GNU/Linux fine. There are only official drivers for Windows XP. If i were a Windows-only user i couldn't run Windows 9x on the hardware and may have 'upgraded' (replaced) the hardware up to 4 times to keep running latest Windows (XP, 7, 8, 10).

So when Windows XP expired did i have a 'driver problem'? Of course yes, every component on the system is now considerd by Windows to be obsolete (motherboard, graphics, sound, wifi, ethernet, etc). Do users complain, maybe but most just go shopping. Having to swap out a single component, like a network or graphic card is trivial in comparison. It's like getting a free car as a gift then complaining that a punctured tire needed to be replaced - no gratitude.

Here LibreOffice v6 (2018) runs fine in modern GNU/Linux on the same old hardware (800 MHz) that runs Windows 98. There is no delay in keystrokes and tasks like cut/paste work fine. Of course it runs heavier than Word 97, it's more than 20 years newer, more added features (and bloat) and is an entire office suite. Personally i usually open *.doc files in Pluma but sometimes a full featured editor or spreadsheet application is needed. Using the same 20 year spread, i could state 'DOS uses less memory than Windows 10', but hey.
Link to comment
Share on other sites


Hehe, well... a certain amount of "luck" is necessary to have all the hardware at home being Linux-compatible, I'd say. One could look it up beforehand... but let's get fictional to show up a problem of hardware detection.

There are these revisions having similar names like T80, T80A, T80B, T80v2, T80v2.5, T80v2.5-2008, T80v2.5-2009, of which half was being being produced in China, and the other half was being prouced in Taiwan, but the the Taiwan model had a replaced chip that has no Linux driver, while the China model had the good chip until a certain year...
It can get incredbly confusing to look these things up for Linux compatibilty.

No, I'm done with this hide and seek. Of course this is an exaggeration of the problem of not properly naming devices. And it was an exception happening with rather cheap hardware. Maybe proper companies behave more consistent?

Solution for scanners: Get 3 old scanners for nothing from somewhere, one will be likely to do the job.

I want a solution that works all the time! And that's the brute force method of hardware choice.

Fortuneatly my first scanner was a good one, so the procedure could be stopped after one scanner, but WLAN cards, as I said, have some in stock for your upcoming laptops.

I'd suggest to new Linux users to use the Xfce desktop at first, and if that runs super perfectly smooth and becomes to look "boring" or "eeek, 90s" then try out more ressource-heavy environments like KDE or similar. Or experimental stuff like Ubuntu and Fedora. Testing a lot is important!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi @Gansangriff. I don't know what 'let's get fictional' means. If you're still referring to luck, then i must be the luckest guy on the planet, which for sure isn't true. If these statements come across as bragging, please don't interpret this way, it is my actual experience. I'm no computer expert any more than most others here.

Is all your work Slackware-based? Again not bragging, here a printer, 3-in-1 printer or dedicated scanner have never failed to run in GNU/Linux. Primarily HP and Canon, think there was a Brother too. This is going back to old Ubuntu, Debian (proper) and now Devuan. Granted it's just basic printer drivers, not a 'software suite' that likes to tell me the ink is almost empty then phones home every 5 minutes to offer an online purchase.

I've spent plenty of time over the years studying physical hardware, looking for stickers and stamps on circuit boards, then back to the internet. It's usually, however, to figure out what Windows drivers i need to download. For GNU/Linux i don't bother with this, as most hardware is plug and play. If it doesn't work then use 'lshw | less', 'lspci -v', 'lsusb -v' or 'inxi' to identify the hardware, or at least how that particular GNU/Linux system has identified the hardware. Then it's usually just a matter of installing the correct driver package from the repository, sometimes enabling non-free drivers, rarely kernel module manipulation, rarely some forum searching.

Funny how we view experiences differently. In old Windows it's sometimes hard to find the correct driver online, then it may just work with XP, not 9x. To me this is much more frustrating. Plus really, unless you're a vendor, setup the hardware once then use it for 10 years. In Windows you may need to repeat this process every 3-5 years, in GNU/Linux 'dist-upgrades' rarely trigger hardware issues.

To me it sounds like you're bitter or frustrated with GNU/Linux, or you need a break, that's okay. Definitely not for everyone. Not meant to be harsh but if you want a 'solution that works all the time' then computers are the wrong hobby or profession. After all, this is a forum largely dedicated to users having Windows issues.

I think Xfce may be the closest to the traditional Windows feel, not too heavy, IIRC even has a 'control panel'.

Anyway, hope you have a good computing day regardless what you run.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aye! The two Salix-machines are running well and setting sail for... well, whatever there is to reach. No other Linux ships in my fleet. They sunk on the way here or were put out of order.

On 11/14/2021 at 9:00 PM, Wunderbar98 said:

in GNU/Linux 'dist-upgrades' rarely trigger hardware issues.

Oh. That lights up the question, why I switched to a Slackware-based system. Salix, once set up, that's pretty much "the solution that works all the time".

Changes always have a possibility of failure. And they can't be tested 100% for everyone and everything. No matter of patches being made by a big company or a heap of individual programmers, scattered over the world. And I've seen Linux computers failing to boot after updates. Surprise! That happens! So don't try to sell me this as gold, because it isn't. However in comparison every Windows when it's new and needs constant updates has the stability of ooze to be honest.

On 11/14/2021 at 9:00 PM, Wunderbar98 said:

Granted it's just basic printer drivers, not a 'software suite'

Let me play an angry customer: Whoa! Are you selling me this as gold now? Here is my Epson D92. Linux driver installed, prints, happy happy. Until one of the inks was finished. Now which one, tell me! 'cause this printer of around 2008 has no display. The Windows program did tell me that. On Linux, there is a command line utility, which has to be researched first. And doesn't look good. And is complicated. I just want to print! Now!
(Angry Customer mode off)

By the way, the Epson D92 was one of the last ink printers with Windows 98 drivers. A difficult recommendation, because it occasionally failed to recognise single ink cartridges, which had to be replaced then (expensively). I think the evil printer did this deliberatlely...

My computers are needed for creative processes of all kind. The result counts and easy ways up to that are preferred. Some workflows are easier with Linux, some are better with Windows. I want to say, that I don't look after computers only for the reason of looking after computers. They are workhorses in a stable. Or ships in a fleet.

Let's look back to the original question. Why there is a certain grumpyness about Linux here. Well, were those some examples? And again, you should consider yourself lucky with the hardware, that works well for you. I have made probably 50 Linux installations for me and other people and have dozens of examples, where things didn't work as well as with Windows. And that's why people are getting grumpy with Linux on the desktop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi @Gansangriff. With stable releases update surprises are rare, in my experience Windows updates cause more grief. Can't recall when one of my GNU/Linux systems failed to boot, aside from hardware breakage, even following updates. For extra stability use OldStable: lighter, no more updates, rock solid, software current enough for 3 more years (ca-certificates, browsers).

Regardless there are many troubleshooting options for boot issues (example uses Debian-based with GRUB2 boot loader):

- Boot an older kernel from boot loader (regular graphic mode, keep old kernels just in case)
- Append boot code 'text' to boot loader (regular user, text mode)
- Select 'Recovery Mode' from boot loader (root user, text mode)
- Multi-boot from another operating system to fix configurations [1]
- Boot from LiveCD or USB to fix configurations [1]
- Use Plop to bypass broken MBR, boot any OS, fix breakage or reconfigure boot loader [1]

[1] These methods also help with Windows issues

All printers owned here since 1999 had either LED indicators and/or information panels. I troubleshoot most printer problems without a computer booted. The issue is usually straightforward, usually paper jam or ink delivery. If it's colour out, review last printouts or attempt a test page. If printer lockout prevents a test page print and it uses liquid cartridges (no sponge), pull them out and use the transparency window (if present) or give them a shake test. If the cartridges have built-in printheads, a dab test. I personally avoid printers that don't have printheads on the cartridges. Although more expensive, once the cartridge is replaced the printer works like new again.

IMHO the customer's grumpiness is misplaced. Blame Epson for not providing GNU/Linux software. Blame Epson for not providing updated Windows drivers. Blame Microsoft for so quickly phasing out hardware. Blame the customer for not learning basic troubleshooting. If grumpy-pants had enough patience to read a manual page and use the command line utility there wouldn't be an issue. A .bashrc alias could be added for the most relevant command(s) (eg 'printer_ink' output ink levels). Don't blame GNU/Linux, who has already provided a working driver, for a printer Epson and Windows abandoned more than 10 years ago.

In most cases it would be trivial for the vendor to provide updated driver and print software for the next Windows release, but they don't as this would affect printer sales. IMHO most printer issues are deliberately engineered. It shouldn't be this difficult or expensive to get ink onto paper. The corporate solution is buy new cartridges every 6-12 months and new printers every 3-5 years. I've fought this for years with refills and it's caused much grief and inky fingers. Blaming GNU/Linux for this mess never occured to me.

People get grumpy about everything, especially if their workflow is interrupted. To me software is a learning curve, which can be frustrating. I finally spent time learning more DOS, although simpler not all commands and configurations are intuitive. For the most part they just need to be learned and experienced. Most everthing worth learning is not mastered overnight.

Personally i think it's good to learn as many operating systems as possible, for fun and to reduce dependency on proprietary systems. GNU/Linux is not a drop in replacement for Windows, it's Unix roots were growing before Microsoft existed. A new user should understand that or it will just be one frustration after another. That's why to me multi-boot is still the best alternative.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/13/2021 at 8:41 PM, Wunderbar98 said:

There are users here complaining about poor GNU/Linux performance, then it's discovered they run fully loaded Ubuntu or Mint or use heavy Desktop Environments like Gnome or KDE.

On 11/14/2021 at 9:00 PM, Wunderbar98 said:

I think Xfce may be the closest to the traditional Windows feel, not too heavy, IIRC even has a 'control panel'.

On 11/14/2021 at 9:04 AM, Gansangriff said:

I'd suggest to new Linux users to use the Xfce desktop at first, and if that runs super perfectly smooth and becomes to look "boring" or "eeek, 90s" then try out more ressource-heavy environments like KDE or similar.

I remember this article from 2019 comparing KDE and Xfce on performance front: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2019/10/23/bold-prediction-kde-will-steal-the-lightweight-linux-desktop-crown-in-2020/

22 hours ago, Wunderbar98 said:

Don't blame GNU/Linux, who has already provided a working driver, for a printer Epson and Windows abandoned more than 10 years ago.

I have an old HP printer in the basement (DeskJet 3550) that works all the way from Windows 98 to Windows 10 (64-bit) and Linux, not sure if there's a way to check ink on the latter though.

Edited by UCyborg
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi @UCyborg. KDE made some nice recent improvements then, older data (2014) was similar to below.
https://flexion.org/posts/2014-03-memory-consumption-of-linux-desktop-environments/

Desktop Environment ---> Memory Used

Enlightenment 0.18.8 --> 83.8 MiB
LXDE 0.5.5 ------------> 87.0 MiB
XFCE 4.10.2 ----------> 110.0 MiB
LXQt 0.7.0 -----------> 113.0 MiB
MATE 1.8.1 -----------> 123.0 MiB
Cinnamon 2.2.13 ------> 176.3 MiB
GNOME3 3.12.2 --------> 245.3 MiB
KDE 4.13.1 -----------> 302.6 MiB
Unity 7.2.0.14 -------> 312.5 MiB

My Windows 98 era hardware (384 MB RAM) prefers Window Managers. Although not the lightest, Openbox comes in at about 7 MB.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_X_window_managers

For anyone Desktop Environment shopping.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_X_Window_System_desktop_environments

RetroZilla can't properly research all sites, such as HP official. Two sources indicated HP DeskJet 3550 from Windows XP onward but if you say Windows 98 then bonus. Maybe i've been too harsh on printer manufacturers or maybe things are slowly improving. I read last week Apple is loosening up with 'right to repair'. Although it seems more of a forced change (court action), it's welcome.

Quick searching, not important here, one package is 'ink' (tool for checking the ink level of your local printer), available direct from repository. It's dependency 'libinklevel' supports many printers, including Epson Stylus D92 (@Gansangriff) and HP DeskJet 3550 (@UCyborg). My two printers are not listed as supported (HP 4480, Canon MX310) but the site has disclaimers:
http://libinklevel.sourceforge.net/

---
A note about Canon printers
Some Canon printers transmit their ink levels as a binary value. They report only that there is enough ink or not enough ink for a particular cartridge. Libinklevel then reports 100% or 20% respectively.

A note about Epson printers
Under some circumstances, especially when one ink catridge is completely empty, it may take about 20 to 30 seconds to detect the ink level. Please take this into account before submitting a bug report. When you query the ink levels before the printer is fully initialized a sheet of paper will be drawn in. But nothing will be printed. To avoid this do not query the ink levels before the printer is fully initialized.

A note about unsupported printers
Support for most HP and Epson printers which transmit their ink level should now be included. Just give it a try and let me know the result so that I can add your printer to the appropiate list. Printers of other manufacturers will be supported when I can get information on how to retrieve their inklevel. If you have information on how to retrieve the ink level of a not yet supported printer, let me know.
---

There are graphic front-ends for at least Gnome and KDE. A screenshot of the commandline output is linked below. The commands and output look basic but functional.
http://ink.sourceforge.net/#supported

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/12/2021 at 2:54 AM, Wunderbar98 said:

Video acceleration, can't comment, to use YouTube?

It's a nice-to-have since GPUs are naturally good at decoding videos and it frees CPU for other tasks. Some also notice better battery life on laptops and reduced fan noise. Firefox had some VA-API support years ago, then they dropped it because it supposedly wasn't implemented optimally. Still, it made a difference on my low-end laptop (lagging 720p playback vs smooth 720p playback).

Chromium had VA-API support patch available for some time (going back to at least 2016), it seems it made it to upstream in recent time and Firefox also re-implemented it. Can't use it on my desktop since NVIDIA only implements VDPAU in their drivers and VA-API->VDPAU converter library doesn't work. VA-API is most widely supported, but according to Arch Wiki, other non-browser software dealing with videos tend to support VDPAU as well.

Surprised GPU decoding of H.264 4K (3840x2160) 60 FPS videos work here even though vdpauinfo declares 5.1 as max supported level, the mentioned resolution and frame-rate combo is supposed to be 5.2. That wasn't the case few years back when the limit was 4.1 if I remember correctly and there was an error message about unsupported level when trying to play video above that.

19 hours ago, Wunderbar98 said:

RetroZilla can't properly research all sites, such as HP official. Two sources indicated HP DeskJet 3550 from Windows XP onward but if you say Windows 98 then bonus. Maybe i've been too harsh on printer manufacturers or maybe things are slowly improving.

Well, that printer is from another era. Seems there's no support page anymore. I remember reading on their site to get the driver on Windows Update for recent Windows versions few years ago. Vista is the only MS OS that includes driver for this printer out-of-the-box. I found original cartridges still for sale on HP site. Anyway, the close-in photo of the text on the included driver CD:

spacer.png

Off-topic remark, but I'm really not a fan of printing and printers. These days, it's needed here once in a blue moon for some stupid real-life bureaucracy. There's no point in owning a printer for printing once in a blue moon, especially not this kind since apparently cartridges don't react well to being unused for extended periods of time.

But the family wanted a new printer (ended up getting a multi-function device) when catridges for the old one weren't found in a nearby shop and gotta have these things at home when needed rather than having to visit a post-office. So a thing was used for scanning a document or two and printing a thing or two and this time it barely prints, so ended up printing that thing at workplace.

Maybe cleaning cartridges and contacts would help, but I'm almost certain nobody will need to print anything the next year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi @UCyborg. I believed you on the Windows 98 drivers but thanks for taking the time to upload the picture. It very much looks like a Windows 98/ME era printer. RetroZilla with msfn.org domain allowed via NoScript still didn't load the printer picture above. Needed to multi-boot to newer OS to view, how handy-dandy.

To you i'm back in the stone age, 19" CRT monitor with 1152 x 864 resolution. Your comment regarding 3840 x 2160 is off the chart. Here a 720p video would not play back smoothly at all, i need 640 x 360.

Printing was important here years ago when my business required taking actual paperwork into the field. Now it's still used weekly, though sometimes just for make work projects like calendar pages, to keep the printer active. If it were solely up to me i would ditch printers forever.

At the office 10 years ago, working for 'the man', it was hoped printing and paperwork would no longer be required. That never happened and it seemed we were consuming almost as much paper than ever, despite shifting towards electronic documents. I'm no longer there, hopefully it was just a transition period and their procedures have modernized.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Wunderbar98 said:

RetroZilla with msfn.org domain allowed via NoScript still didn't load the printer picture above. Needed to multi-boot to newer OS to view, how handy-dandy.

I have an old account on Imgur. Links 2.25 on Linux displays it fine though, so no JavaScript actually needed. Does RetroZilla have a problem with the image itself? :dubbio: Direct link to test: https://i.imgur.com/Nxe2lmA.jpg (needs TLS 1.2, but so does MSFN if I'm not mistaken). And a smaller one: https://i.imgur.com/Nxe2lmAm.jpg

6 hours ago, Wunderbar98 said:

To you i'm back in the stone age, 19" CRT monitor with 1152 x 864 resolution. Your comment regarding 3840 x 2160 is off the chart. Here a 720p video would not play back smoothly at all, i need 640 x 360.

Heh, I know you're also still rolling with 800 MHz CPU. Hardware was rapidly advancing back then, the box of Asus P4B533 motherboard from 2002 boasts about 3+ GHz support.

Interestingly, I haven't read about anyone here with a computer of the similar specs that my family's first PC had, so 133 MHz Pentium, 16 MB of RAM, 2D only graphics card and a sound card with a proper FM tuner. Those were the times. Wonder what period incorrect software we could find for those specs.

On 11/20/2021 at 7:24 AM, Wunderbar98 said:

Quick searching, not important here, one package is 'ink' (tool for checking the ink level of your local printer), available direct from repository. It's dependency 'libinklevel' supports many printers, including Epson Stylus D92 (@Gansangriff) and HP DeskJet 3550 (@UCyborg). My two printers are not listed as supported (HP 4480, Canon MX310) but the site has disclaimers:
http://libinklevel.sourceforge.net/

Great, that was easy to get going. In Arch world, it's available in AUR, so at least with pamac available out-of-the-box on Manjaro, it's as simple as running:

pamac build ink

 

On 11/20/2021 at 7:24 AM, Wunderbar98 said:

There are graphic front-ends for at least Gnome and KDE.

Found QInk, though it remains to be seen if there are incompatibilities with Qt5 libraries other than altering path to some #includes since this is Qt4 era program. Seems there's also non-existent #include in the code pointing to presumably local header bundled with the code, but maybe it's auto-generated by a different build procedure than the classic ./configure && make. Qt stuff definitely seems to have some specifics when it comes to building. Might research more at another point in time and possibly learn something new along the way, but otherwise happy with cmd-line ink tool.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi @UCyborg. That's because Links2 is awesome. Seems old browsers, or newer browsers with JavaScript disabled, can't get passed the embedded JavaScript placeholder throbber (spacer.png) in the image tag. Your actual imgur[dot]com image loads fine. Why the placeholder, too complicated, the image already has a new line spacer.

Test summary for printer CD image provided by @UCyborg 3 posts up:
DOS Links v2.25 - yes
GNU/Linux Dillo - no
GNU/Linux Firefox v78 - only after NoScript allows 'msfn.org'
GNU/Linux Links - yes
GNU/Linux SeaMonkey v2.49.4 - only after NoScript allows 'msfn.org'
Win98 K-Meleon v1.5.4 - no
Win98 RetroZilla v2.2 - no even after NoScript allows 'msfn.org'

Changing source to bypass the embedded placeholder throbber works fine. Can't get the code properly pasted below, brackets removed but you get the idea. Next time instead of rebooting Windows 98 i will just get the image URL from the HTML source, though still a hassle.

diff msfn.org.b1_ORIG.htm msfn.org.b2.htm
3684c3684
img alt="spacer.png" class="ipsImage" data-ratio="75.08" height="750" style="height:auto;" width="562" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/Nxe2lmA.jpg" src="https://msfn.org/board/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"
---
img class="ipsImage" data-ratio="75.08" height="750" style="height:auto;" width="562" src="https://i.imgur.com/Nxe2lmA.jpg"

Regarding hardware, i'm amazed at the technological bump from late 1990s to 2010. I know progress keeps churning but during this time period things changed considerably. There must be something to ancient alien theory, man isn't that smart. How did we get from wooden wagon wheels to networking the world in less than 150 years. Your original family computer (Pentium 133) would make a very nice retro build.

For me a mix of command line and GUI is preferred. In this case it seems 'ink' via command line is easy enough. Simple GUI helpers are a nuisance to maintain (eg gtk -> gtk2 -> gtk3). The maintainers, often volunteer, already have enough work maintaining the actual printer code. I was happy enough with GTK2 and QT4 applications, things change too fast.
Edited by Wunderbar98
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
Office Suite comparison on an old 800 MHz, 384 MB RAM system. Modern GNU/Linux has become bloated too, need to be careful what's installed and how it's configured. Having said that, it can help keep old hardware functional.

Both office suites below are full-featured, bloatware that run heavy on their respective operating system. In GNU/Linux i prefer Pluma for *.doc files (tabbed documents) and in Windows 98 it's usually Wordpad.

Launch times are from a fresh boot after the system is calm to a new text document. Memory footprint is the initial load of the office suite to a new text document, which includes it's associated helper files (DLL, lib*). Memory footprint was calculated in Windows 98 using System Monitor and in GNU/Linux the 'free' command.

Note initial launch times were essentially the same (slow). Both office suites have minor configuration changes, such as disabling Java Runtime. Additional configuration may help but for this quick comparison good enough. Since office suites aren't used here daily, 'quick launch' features are also disabled.

Windows 98 SE
Open Office v2.4.3 (2008)
Launch time: 45 seconds
Memory footprint: 88 MB

GNU/Linux (Devuan Beowulf)
LibreOffice v6.1.5.2 (2018)
Launch time: 45 seconds
Memory footprint: 33 MB
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi @jaclaz, thanks for the link. Apparently Spread32 works in GNU/Linux with Wine (not tested). Why no GNU/Linux release, maybe in the future, would you stop using it then - lol.
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/spreadce/linux-version-t73.html

There are lightweight alternatives for almost anything in GNU/Linux, spreadsheet and word processors included. Above was a more apples to apples comparison of a full office suite, commonly installed software, demonstrating Windows 98 era hardware need not be limited to older software or the lightest software that can be found.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...