Curious as to why W95, W98, W2000 seem to fly on OLD OLD hdwr? (Pentium, Pentium MMX). I have read that it is because the desktop/WM was compiled into the kernel, whereas in Linux this function is run as an app on top of the kernel.

I have been given several old PCs (Pentiums or Celerons w/64 mb EDO RAM) and a Toshiba 266mhz laptop w/64 mb RAM to setup for folks at the retirement community and have tried Puppy and DSL and they run very well, but they are too different from what these older folks are used to.

I am well aware that if you load up W95 or 98 with lots of apps, internet, etc. then you get slow performance and BSOD, but on a fresh install with only FireFox, MS Works, Word and Adobe Reader, nothing goes faster and unfortunately, people seem to "look" at this as an indicator. I have gotten very respectable performance with Kanotix on a Celeron 300 w/192 mb RAM, but I'm talking about reviving hdwr with 64 or 128 mb RAM.

I am MS free for 2 years now, and it would be nice to know how to revive OLD hdwr using Linux so I don't have to resort to MS products. Can the desktop/wm (KDE or other lighter WMs be compiled into the kernel, would it help, and if so are there any links to info on how that could be accomplished?

Thanks

You yourself said

Now the question is, are you going to give them what they _think_ is good, or are you going to give them what you _know_ is good?

You can't compile window managers into the kernal but why not just add a bit more ram? You'll easily recoup the costs by not paying for anti-virus subscriptions.

P.S. Don't use Kantoix, last thing I heard the distro was in total meltdown.