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Hiya Tex.

I have a few really old systems (286, 486, P-II, P-III, P-IV, AMD Athlon) that I might crank up if I can get them configured correctly. I don't want to use Windows because they can't run XP. On the one of them, I plan to run Win 2K as a server (unless I can figure how to set up a server in Linux), and I'd like to use Linux on the others.

The problem is that when I played around with Linux a few years ago, I couldn't find drivers for all the old stuff - lic nic & video cards and don't have time to find them all now (that's why I never really got into Linux).

So, my question to you (and any Penquins out there) is this: What is the latest greatest flavor of Linux (Red Hat, etc) that can recognize and auto load drivers? What simple applications or Lindows will that OS run? Are there any auto scripts available to install? What firewalls and antivirus programs are available for Linux (especially the recommended flavor)?

Oh, yeah - I really don't want to subscribe to any version (like Red Hat requires) - I prefer freeware or shareware (no cost or one time fee).

I don't really have a lot of time to relearn it all, lol, and I don't want to use Win 95 or 98 because of security. (I will network these on a separate node from my everyday systems.)

Thanks for any info that you or anyone else can provide. (Keep in mind that this is a spare time project which may take weeks to complete.)

RT

Download and burn onto a CD rom the live CD version of Mepis from http://www.mepis.org Then boot each of the PCs using the disk - if it finds everything, install it onto the hard drive (or just run it from the CD and use a USB dongle to store the F@H software/files.)

I've resurrected old laptops using this method and it has found virtually every device driver needed, a feat that not even Windows XP SP2 seemed to be able to do.

There are plenty of variations out there, and others might suggest other versions, but that one has worked for me. Actually, I gotta get another copy myself - I just gave away my last live disk to someone who was trying to recover their pictures and documents off of a virus infected PC.