wrote:
On Feb 13, 11:40 am, Grinder wrote:
My local public library has a pile of antiquated PCs. There might be a
couple of 486s in the pile, but suspect most are 386s. Since no one has
the courage to just discard these crappers, we've managed to find a
charity that will take any PC, "as long as it works."

Where are you located? There are a number of computer recyclers around
the country.

I'm in the middle of Illinois. Previously I obtained information about
recyclers, but the library board has been unenthusiastic about that
approach, for reasons unknown to me. They have, though, generally
agreed that offloading them to a nearby charity is acceptable. I'm just
trying to get them moved out.

The provenance of the hardware is such that I should wipe the drives
clean. While I'm at it, it's reasonable for me to put some sort of
basic OS on the PCs. Outside of FreeDOS, does anyone have any
candidates for those machines? Is there a simple, pared down version of
Linux that would apply?

Thanks for your suggestions.

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
But that only applies to the top 486s.

Win 3.11 is about all you can do with the 386s

Win95 or MAYBE 98 should be OK for the 486s

Thanks.