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TheoGB
23-09-2004, 16:38
Hi,

I'm going to be giving my mum my old PC - a PIII 800 with 256MB RAM so she can 56k :eek: to the internet if she wants.

She's useless at PCs so I think I'll go with Win 98 SE rather than Win 2K right now (it's faster on that machine anyhow).

However, to improve her security I'm thinking of installing the whole Mozilla system for email and internet.

I use Firefox to test compatibility right now, but since I like to view all content I don't stray from IE, since it's still what the majority of the web is wrtten for. Similarly, I don't use preview pane and such in Outlook so I stick with that for ease. *shrug*

But my mum, even with AVG, is obviously going to be at risk so I thought it would make more sense to make Firefox the default browser, etc. But I was wondering how often regular users found Firefox was failing to be able to be compatible with websites? How likely is it my mum'll get to a site which won't work and she won't have a clue what to do about it?

Or does anyone have any suggestions for stuff I should put on there to protect her from 'issues'?

Cheers
DeadKenny
23-09-2004, 17:00
Only thing I use IE for is Windows Update. Everything else is fine on Firefox.

However you will have to install the Flash & Shockwave plugins for some sites as these are not part of Firefox (easy though, when one is required you click on the image to install it and follow the instructions).
Refrenz
23-09-2004, 17:17
And for the (few) websites that insist people use IE, a Firefox extention exists that appears when a link is right-clicked and it lets you open the link in IE.
TheoGB
23-09-2004, 18:23
Okay, cheers. I Think she'll be okay then. :)

Now I just have to teach her not to be afraid of the darn thing :suspect:
Dan
23-09-2004, 18:29
Stick XP with SP2 on it. :D
kcxdev
23-09-2004, 18:30
Install all the plugins (flash, shockwave, etc) before passing it onto her as well. Spyware prevention such as SpywareGuard and SpywareBlaster perhaps.
TheoGB
23-09-2004, 19:07
Stick XP with SP2 on it. :D

Yeah right. Like I'm going to put XP on that machine. Anyhow, I'm not paying for a new copy of it! :D
Dan
23-09-2004, 19:17
Yeah right. Like I'm going to put XP on that machine. Anyhow, I'm not paying for a new copy of it! :D

XP will run fine on a machine of that spec.
DM
23-09-2004, 19:54
Anyhow, I'm not paying for a new copy of it! :D

Like that ever stopped anyone! :p
TheoGB
23-09-2004, 20:11
XP will run fine on a machine of that spec.

Really? Okay, well 2K runs like a dog on it so I presumed XP would be as bad. It seems to have difficulty dealing with my P4 2.4GHz at work only having 512MB RAM so I reckoned 800 MHz PIII with 256 would just die. :lol:

Anyhow, still not buying it.

And Dave: I never never risk a hooky OS. ;)
DM
23-09-2004, 20:20
Used to run xp fine on my p3 700 with 128 ram. Wooooo!!! that baby flew.
Dan
23-09-2004, 20:32
Had XP running fine on my old PII 400MHz with 256MB of ram.
craigizmo2k2
23-09-2004, 20:52
Xp with sp2 is running fine on my pentium 3 500mhz 256mb ram setup.

Pc100 ram too so you should be fine !
DeadKenny
23-09-2004, 21:02
Depends what you do with it and what you compare it too. I used to think my 2Ghz machine was speedy running XP, but these days I find it slow and clunky compared to my parent's budget 3Ghz Dell.

It was definitely too slow on my old 900Mhz system though and I had to turn off most of the UI enhancements, and there's no way I'd try on a system lower than that, not unless my only use was for browsing (even then I find starting up IE can take ages).
TheoGB
23-09-2004, 21:10
Blimey. Well I wonder what's eating all the speed with Win 2K. To be fair it's a 133 MHz FSB and when its loaded Win 2K does actually run pretty well I guess, but booting the machine up takes a zillion years.

Win 98 SE will do fine, I'm sure. At least I know it can handle the machine as that's what I ran on it for years. :D
Cheers
Karl
23-09-2004, 22:05
Install all the plugins (flash, shockwave, etc) before passing it onto her as well. Spyware prevention such as SpywareGuard and SpywareBlaster perhaps.

Slightly OT. I switched permanently to Firefox yesterday (I've sort of been using it for ages but not as my default browser). I must be missing something because I can't play a .swf file in Firefox. I've downloaded the plugin and installed it but whenever I try to run it it asks for the program again. Any ideas?
kcxdev
23-09-2004, 22:40
I;ve not had a problem with installing flash, if you install the latest version of firefox (1.0PR) the flash install is semi automatic.
Karl
23-09-2004, 23:16
I already have got 1.0PR. Just tried a different .swf file and it worked okay so I guess it must be the file I was trying to access. Thanks anyway.