Is Puppy Linux my Solution

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kittysacattack

New Member
I want to split the internet bill (cable internet) with my landlord, but she has a mid to late 90's mac, w USB 1, and no CD drive. Im assuming the computer will not recognize an external USB wireless adapter. Is it possible i can temporarily install an IDE cd drive (because it wont physically fit), install puppy linux, partiton the hard drive (to keept the mac os just in case) and install an USB 2 wireless device on this ancient computer? Thanks for any suggestions. I think she has the external writing pad that is specific to the mac, thats why Id like to keep both OS's.
 
If it was made in the 1990s there's a good chance that the ports are wired for solely 1.0 or 1.1 USB. Software will not overcome any of the hardware issues.
 
Are USB 2 devices backwards compatible. I saw a USB 1.1/2 wireless adapter. Is this special, or are they all USB 1.1 but just dont say it. Whats the difference between USB 1 and USB 1.1. Can you suggest any methods by which I can connect this computer to cable internet?
 
USB 1 allows up to 1.5mb/s, while USB 1.1 is 12mb/s, and USB 2.0 is 480mb/s.

If a card does work at 1.1, it will could have poor transfers, since the optimal is 12mb/s, and odds are it won't perform that high.

USB 2.0 aren't all backwards compatible, but all USB are forward compatible (as in 1.0/1.1 works in 2.0)
 
Puppy Linux is, from past experience, a pretty week OS. I actually prefer Damn Small Linux over it, which is going to perform better on such an old system.
But a USB 2.0 Wireless adapter probably won't work. Also you'd be hard pressed to find one that works in linux, a PCI adapter may be a better idea.
 
kittysacattack said:
I want to split the internet bill (cable internet) with my landlord, but she has a mid to late 90's mac, w USB 1, and no CD drive. Im assuming the computer will not recognize an external USB wireless adapter. Is it possible i can temporarily install an IDE cd drive (because it wont physically fit), install puppy linux, partiton the hard drive (to keept the mac os just in case) and install an USB 2 wireless device on this ancient computer? Thanks for any suggestions. I think she has the external writing pad that is specific to the mac, thats why Id like to keep both OS's.
Click to expand...

Puppy Linux won't even run on any PPC based Mac. What model of Mac is it? All OSes for the past decade have supported TCP/IP and if it has an ethernet card you can just buy a wireless over ethernet bridge if you want to go wireless.
 
tlarkin said:
Puppy Linux won't even run on any PPC based Mac. What model of Mac is it? All OSes for the past decade have supported TCP/IP and if it has an ethernet card you can just buy a wireless over ethernet bridge if you want to go wireless.
Click to expand...

True about the ethernet, I didn't even think of that.
I guess cause I've never even seen an ethernet wireless adapter, but I know they're out there.
 
El DJ said:
True about the ethernet, I didn't even think of that.
I guess cause I've never even seen an ethernet wireless adapter, but I know they're out there.
Click to expand...

Well on top of that any older Mac on PPC based hardware will only run PPC based Linux distributions. The only few I know of are solaris, and yellow dog. I think Ubuntu has an older PPC compatible version but I am not sure.
 
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