What Windows OS to install (specs given)

so with these specs what would i be best at installing it must be windows as these will be used for use with windows applications and i dont want to be installing virtual machines.

AMD Sempron 3400+ 512MB DDR2 RAM 80GB SATA HDD Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150

 

What do you want to do with it?

 

MSN/ Internet

 

I'd install either WinXP or Linux. With out a memory upgrade I wouldn't bother with Windows 7 (you need at least 2GB for 7).

 

512MB RAM = XP or lower. There's no way in hell Vista or 7 are going to work acceptably (if at all) on there.

Or as phate suggested, try Linux - I'm usually using only around 460MB on my main machine, seems like it'd be a perfect fit for yours. And if you don't have any legacy Windows programs you need, there's nothing holding you back, right?

 

I already have a 'Internet browsing machine' With similar specs running ubuntu.

 

How good do you rate yourself with linux?
Gentoo would run great on it.
So would arch.
And slackware.
Forget ubuntu; it's rubbish.

 

You're the first person I've ever seen to say that. Care to qualify that statement?

 

Some variant of linux, if you feel like jumping in the deep end and have some time to kill, but also want to really learn some valuable skills, get gentoo. Otherwise it's Windows XP.

 

If you can get some more DDR2 ram I'd get Windows 7 its the best OS I've used. A lot more reliable than XP I think now.

 

The machines at uni running ubuntu had the worst and shoddiest ATI drivers I've ever seen, buggy as hell, didn't render half the stuff, loads of screen flashing and slow.
Plus with the new base-1000 (everything displayed as MB is not MB. 1MB = 1024b*1024(=KB)*1024(=MB) but now it's 1000b*1000=(KB)*1024=(MB)) which is very dumb.
And alsa was the default too, pfff, what a mistake that is.

 

Not trying to defend Ubuntu here - Personally I dislike it and everything Debian, but at least Ubuntu's a decent starting point for Linux newbies. But your arguments are a little weak:

ATI drivers = not Ubuntu's fault. ATI drivers just plain suck, period. Me, I'm definitely not buying ATI next time I need a graphics card.

MB vs MiB:
MB = "Mega"bytes = 10^6 bytes - This is what HD makers use
MiB = "Mebi"bytes = 2^20 bytes
MB = 2^20 bytes is the most common by far, but still technically wrong. If it bothers you, use a different file manager (i.e. a broken one). Also not Ubuntu's fault (I guess, since I doubt they roll their own FM). Blame KDE or Gnome or whatever they're using.

 

I'd recommend XP for now, but your computer could easily run Windows 7 if you upped the ram.

 

My main goal is getting this stable at the moment. Its a laptop and there isnt much room for improvement.

 

Yeh it's good for starting, but once you've got one PC with it and/or used it a few times; dump it.
The base-1000 was the team's idea, not the file managers.
The ATI drivers that came with it were NOT ATI drivers, I've no idea what drivers they were (having to use nc to access root when you don't have access = annoying at the best of times), but they were incredibly shocking. Personally I've always had ATI for the last 7 years or so, apart from the fans being junk and failing causing a GPU-burnout; I've never had any problems with them.

The nvidia in my laptop though, god, very buggy on linux, windows would not render and even if they did; half the time they'd never update so you'd have to minimise and maximise to see what's changed, and keep doing that. Go 6200 from what I remember.

 

you can find many lightweight versions of windows XP, try of of them.

 

agree!

http://lifehacker.com/374376/trim-down-windows-to-the-bare-essentials - gives a pretty good overview.

Or you could try http://www.litepc.com/xplite.html if you already have xp installed to trim the fat...

 

Okay guys. I installed XP. Can anyone find me a program that will find what drivers im missing? I couldn't back any up as I couldnt get the laptop to boot up to the desktop.

 

Not quite Ubuntu's fault as as previously stated ATi has had shoddy drivers for linux for a very long time. Though from the sound of it your Uni could have picked a better flavor of the drivers for the hardware they are using or given extra credit to the computer engineering department to patch up the problems they are having.

Though ATi linux drivers are getting revamped rather nicely here:
http://www.h-online.com/open/featur...deon-5000-and-new-stable-kernels-1065375.html

Not sure how much improvement this will garner as I haven't checked out where the linux nerds do their cackling but it sounds like good stuff.

 

Id assume thats just the guys that sit about and are in charge of security on the computers.

Im under the impression that those guys just dont give a damn. At my school they sit about and do nothing until they are called out. The school security system is horrible. My home network is better than theres. The wifi can easily be intruded upon (I found the password in under 3 tries.) They relied on Norton to protect it the entire system and I was actually at one point able to end the AB tutor process. Which is what teachers use to view the desktops of the students.