Re: [VERY OT while waiting for Lenny?] reminiscing on old computers
On Sun, 6 Apr 2008 21:48:18 -0400
"Douglas A. Tutty" <dtutty@porchlight.ca> wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 06, 2008 at 06:18:51PM -0700, Andrew Sackville-West wrote:
> > On Sun, Apr 06, 2008 at 08:23:20PM -0400, Douglas A. Tutty wrote:
> >
> > so now we can twiddle our thumbs, go on random OT rants and rest
> > assured that lenny will be out any time. When's the next utnubu due
> > out? That always brings a few interesting ones. Maybe we should run
> > some more google trends charts?
> >
>
> We could reminise about my 486 that doesn't run Debian anymore. I
> wonder if Lenny will run on my P-II or if that's another box for
> OpenBSD.
>
> I remember my 386. It was an IBM PS/2 model 70-A21. It came with the
> then-unherd of 120MB hard drive, MCA bus, and I put 4 MB ram into it,
> running OS/2, IBM Fortran compiler (the reason I bought a computer in
> the first place), WordPerfect 4.?, and AutoCad 11.
>
> It died after two years. That second summer was very hot and we didn't
> have air-conditioning. The system-board cracked across like a
> cookie-sheet in the oven. I don't know if the problem was the board or
> the plastic case. Room temp was over 40 C with about 90% humidity.
> This happend just as I was entering the summer before final year in
> nursing and I was writing many essays and doing stats research (and the
> only one in the class doing it in Fortran instead of the stats package
> that required MS something).
>
> I replaced the 386 with my IBM 486 ValuePoint 6492X5C, 16 MB ram (now
> 32MB). This box still runs like a charm but gagged on Etch and runs
> OpenBSD just fine.
>
> My P-II was given to me full of cat hair. The people who gave it to me
> needed a box with USB. I read the manual for the board and popped out
> the cover on the back of the case and lo and behold there are two
> functioning USB ports on the MB. :) The PSU is flaky, the CPU fan
> bearing is noisy (hostname= rocky, as in a gravel truck). It does take
> large drives so is a good second box but it only has 64 MB ram and isn't
> reliable (too much heat damage?) to bother adding more. Will it run
> Lenny well?
Since we're off topic and talking about low end machine. I don't know if any of you guys have heard of this new linux distro on the block called slitaz.
http://www.slitaz.org/en/
Very small distro...fits in a 24.8 mb live cd. Can run entirely on RAM as low as 64MB. Linux kernel 2.6.24.2 and all the good stuff. I wish i could try it out but I only have old PPC machines lying around...never owned an x86...
AMit
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