RE: The State of Alpha Linux
> >> The State of Alpha Linux
> >>
> >> We're all subscribed to this list because we use a dying platform.
> >
> > You think it's dying? :-P
>
> Way back, on the day that I heard that Compaq had bought DEC, I knew in my
> heart that the beginning
> of the end had arrived for Alpha. Yep, the Alpha is definitely a dying
> platform.
>
> I have been running an Alpha XP1000 at home for the last three or four
> years (ever since it was
> discarded by my workplace) and it has served me well and has done all that
> I asked of it (a
> multimedia machine with a PVR card for recording analague television and
> playback of recorded MPEG
> files and DVDs). I am impressed by all that this nine year old computer
> has managed to do.
The same here, too. I was inpressed, that an old AlphaStation 500/500 was
(and is still) able to handle the needs of a modern computer. The only
problem today is the graphics problems with X.org.
But for me this is not the problem, as my AlphaStation is running as server
only (and the console works perfect). The given AlphaStation machine is
perfectly booting from a SCSI ZIP drive (containing /boot) just to have a
SRM-able boot drive instead of the 3,5" disk drive (I did not want to have a
always spinning small hard drive for booting). This handles over to a cheap
10$ SATA (!!!) controller having large SATA disks with root and other
partitions working perfect (10 years ago when this machine was bought, a
SATA was not available or even invented at all). It also contains a cheap
10$ USB 2.0 controller (again 10 years ago this was not available, too) for
plugging in USB drives and even other hardware (even webcam worked). Since
last kernel this machine runs and runs and runs... in this configuration.
I want to keep this machine until it is dying, but when it dys, I will not
start another alpha machine at all. But in my opinion, as long as alpha
machines are running, they can do their best as servers!
Uwe
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