[DuoList] Best OS for my PB2400?

[Gene Osburn]

Gary,

> Greetings. The PowerBook 2400c I am getting is currently configured 
> with 2GB hard drive, 80MB RAM, and running System 7.6, <snip> will 
> likely live with the existing 80MB RAM. I am thinking about an OS 
> upgrade and would be interested in your advice regarding the best OS 
> to run under this configuration. Oh, I am definitely interested in 
> getting a wireless pc card, and may eventually get a USB pc card (if 
> the 2400 is truly CardBus compliant). Thoughts?

I like OS 8.6 for any PPC PowerBook with less than 96 MB RAM.  Fairly 
small RAM footprint, and it's even better if you can trim the install 
as much as possible.  A "slim" install of OS 9.1 would be my second 
choice; if you know what to trim from the install you can get the RAM 
requirement down into the 12-15 MB range.  RAM Doubler 9 will make a 
significant difference as well.  Keep an eye peeled for one of the 96 
MB RAM modules; bumping up your RAM by another 32 MB will be a 
significant boost.

For wi-fi I'm in awe of my MacSense AeroCard Plus; best reception I've 
seen in a 802.11b card.  It also includes drivers for OS 8.6-9.x and OS 
X.  You can also find inexpensive Lucent/Farallon/Proxim Orinoco cards 
on ebay and/or the LEM Swaplist.  Lucent licensed the technology to any 
and all comers, so there's a lot of re-branded Orinoco cards out there; 
you can find new stock Gold cards (128 bit encryption) for under $30.  
No OS X drivers except the sourceforge.net open source drivers (which 
is only good through 10.2 Jaguar AFAIK), but I've heard claims they'll 
work with AirPort (in 10.3 and later?).  Don't spend any extra money on 
802.11g unless you have multiple Macs online at one time and really 
need that extra bandwidth.


Pax,

Gene Osburn
Common sense...isn't

PS:  Your AC adapter, battery and floppy should go out tomorrow.