Re: what's the killer app for GNU/Linux systems?
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On 12/02/06 09:03, Douglas Tutty wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 02, 2006 at 08:46:37AM -0500, Roberto C. Sanchez wrote:
>> On Fri, Dec 01, 2006 at 09:39:35PM -0700, Nate Duehr wrote:
>>> Ron Johnson wrote:
>>>
>>>> And has *kept* them working on it, without turning it into a huge
>>>> ball of legacy crud, without forking or general worker revolution.
>>>> However he does it, he *has* done it, and that is his genius.
>>> Some might argue these days with the "ball of legacy crud" part. :-)
>>>
>> Yet, others argue vehemently that Linux does not have enough legacy
>> support, owing particularly to Linus' unwillingness to let code for
>> extremely old hardware stick around.
>>
>
> So if one finds a neat piece of old gear, say a 386 (which debian now
> doesn't support) or even 286 (which linux never supported) what
> monitarily-free (since I don't hack existing code, just write new) OS
> options are there other than DOS?
>
> For example, on eBay there's a very ruggedized text-only (amber!) 286
> laptop apparently still solid and as reliable as ever. But what could I
> run on it other than DOS? I would like to have vim, mc, minicom, ppp, ssh,
> and lpr, in addition to the coreutils and a programming language like
> python or fortran.
286? How much RAM? 1MB maybe, 2MB at the outside? Minix 2 (with
patches) might help you some, but only with basic Unix stuff.
*Nothing* beyond what Unix state-of-the-art circa 1980.
Me, with a 286 laptop I'd install FreeDOS and 4DOS
http://www.freedos.org/freedos/software/
http://www.freedos.org/cgi-bin/freedos-lsm.cgi?q=d&a=net
http://jpsoft.com/ftp/free/4dos750.exe
ftp://jpsoft.com/4dos/files/readme.txt
Remember, though, that the 386 has been out for 21 years, and (in
the US, at least) 286 desktops haven't been sold since 1990ish.
- --
Ron Johnson, Jr.
Jefferson LA USA
Is "common sense" really valid?
For example, it is "common sense" to white-power racists that
whites are superior to blacks, and that those with brown skins
are mud people.
However, that "common sense" is obviously wrong.
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