Is this a hobby?

Christina's old laptop computer has a shiny new OS installed on it, and it isn't SliTaz. On Tina's suggestion I attempted SliTaz 3.0, but the 30 MB OS that could didn't have the drivers for her her USB 10/100 Ethernet adaptor. Yes, the one USB 1.0 port is taken up by the network cable if you want to connect to an internets.

Once again I chose Puppy as the GNU/Linux distro with the best chances of having drivers in its kernel while still keeping a small footprint (130 MB compressed). Guess what? Internets without a hitch! I tried Macpup 4.11 and Lucid Puppy 5.1.1, and decided to go with the LuPup. Everything works like a charm, and I can now use a modern web browser on that computer (Firefox 3.6.6 vs. IE6 on Windows 98), as well as The GIMP and everything else I like to do with these darn computer machines. Hell, CUPS came installed on it so I could instantly access my networked printer. There wasn't even enough disk space on it before to install HP's bloatware for Windows for my printer (you have to install it to get the drivers!), though the assumption that HP even supports Windows 98 might not be a good one. I just checked...they don't support Windows pre-XP.

I'm convinced that I can make a computer last as long (or longer!) than its hardware components, thanks to GNU/Linux. Yay, Puppy!

Update: I'm playing Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" on the old laptop now, but over my home network from my desktop computer. Effing sweet.