Posted by Jurassosaurus [129.138.2.172 - speare9-1-1.nmt.edu] on 31 March 2004 at 18.17.34 ZuluTime:

In Reply to: Tech Help posted by Morphia on 31 March 2004 at 14.48.15 ZuluTime:

If you're up for a bit of a challenge, you could always switch to a Linux operating system (e.g. Fedora). Most are free, and all run far more efficiently than anything Gates and company have come up with. It is also more stable, and doesn't suffer from bit rot (a nasty little "bug" in Windoze 95/98).

You'd have to learn some new commands, and deal with a lot of programs that end in "zilla," but other than that, it's not a bad choice.

As for a Windoze alternative, I agree with Gremlin. XP is the first genuinely good OS from Microsoft (which isn't to say it still isn't a pig that crashes from time to time). If you have a student account, there are companies that will offer XP for a pretty cheap price. It is a worthy upgrade.

Now that I think about it, I probably should ask exactly what you mean by speed up. What exactly are you trying to speed up? I mean a Linux system will run more efficiently (and free up a lot of disk space), but if you have a slow hard drive, or small bus, then it won't run much faster.

How much RAM do you have on the computer? If it's only 64, or 256 MB then I'd definitely suggest upgrading to at least 512. That alone will make a big difference in performance (Windoze loves RAM).

     If all else fails, there's always Tech TV. They always have plenty of tips on optimizing and upgrading stuff.

Case in point:

Seven Tricks to Make Windows Fly
     
     It's geared towards XP, but all the tips should work with 98 as well.