Blast From the Past
My sister-in-law sent a laptop home with my wife hoping I would fix it since it was a used laptop and they didn’t know the password. I was expecting and easy fix, just resetting a Windows XP password. Unfortunatly when I saw the laptop, it was a 2 inch thick IBM ThinkPad 380D. If your not familiar with the ThinkPad 380D, it is a laptop manufactured in 1997 with a 150 MHz processor and 32MB of RAM, and this one has been upgraded to Windows 98. This thing makes my phone look like a supercomputer in comparison. Of course the “login” problem was with that difficult to bypass Windows 95/98 passwords where the work around is to click cancel(hint: if a login prompt gives you cancel option and you don’t know the password, go ahead and try it). Now I just really have to hope they didn’t actually pay someone money for this thing. I might be able to salavage it with a really lightweight linux distro, but they didn’t much care for Ubuntu, thought I did neglect that whole training thing. I could possible install Windows 2000, but even that would run like a dog. I’ll probably just give it back and try not to laugh too much in front of them.
Hi Brandon,
I recently received this same laptop – as a gift from a friend who knows I like to tinker with “old” computers. My unit came with 80Mb RAM and a battery that still holds a 45-minute charge!
I’ve installed Mandrake Linux 9.2 on it (had to boot off the 2nd CD of the set to start the install process) and it runs passably well using a lightweight window manager such as IceWM or Blackbox. Even had it online via WIFI at the local cafe/hotspot, and am planning to use it as a wardriving machine
It’s still a capable machine if one has a good supply of patience.
Take care,
CJ