Windows 98/2000/ME - which is best for my crappy laptops?

[orphicblue]

So I'm getting some crappy laptops for my small business, and they're older (400 mhz, 128 ram etc). I'm wondering which version of windows would be best to use on these? I'm thinking 98 is the most stable, so that may be what I go with, but I haven't really dealt with the other versions so I was hoping someone could help me out. Also, which version of Office is the best? I'm only going to need these for e-mail, lite web-browsing and office. And is there internet product authentication required for these?

Thanks so much for the advice!

[SOSTrooper]

Windows 2000 would be the more stable OS out of the 3. Definitely stay away from ME, it's nothing but trouble. But with only 128MB of memory, I would strongly suggest running Windows 98 (second edition would be best) over the Win2K. Simply because after running for an hour or so (on average, depending on usage), Win2K will start swapping on the harddisk because all the memory are used up. If you can somehow upgrade to 256MB, then I would say use Windows 2K on it. Also I would suggest running the older versions of Office rather than the latest 2006 or 2003/XP versions. Office 2000 would be enough for what you do, since the latest ones aren't too much different other than interface changes. Finally none of the older software, pre Windows XP, have the online authentication.

[btw1217]

If you upgrade it to 256 MB of RAM, you could even comfortably run XP if you wanted, but for what you have right now, 98 SE like SOSTrooper said.

[David85]

My computer is 8 years old I think and Windows 2000 runs great on it. But I would go with 98 just because you have no memory.

I would not waste your time with XP.

[redgopher]

2000. Stay the fuck away from anything before that.