11–20 of 151 posts
The 36 pin connector on the sound card was probably a scsi cd-rom connector. They used to put them with the sound card :)
Remember the days back in 90‘ (Must have been 1994) when installing Slackware distribution on 486 DX from about 15 floppy disks to the internal HDD. Had running Linux as web proxy until about 2001. Interesting to see that what was quite normal at that time has become to a topic of interest again.
To add a fun story where Linux saved my live. Back in the 90‘ we had a Clipper / dBASE based DOS app used for capturing orders in a call center after TV commercials. In this case a prime TV show to generate donations. Full house with >100 agents busy. Then the Novell Netware server crashed, and was unable to mount the disks. We managed to switch the users to an older server so they could continue to work. But it firs…
Remember the days back in 90‘ (Must have been 1994) when installing Slackware distribution on 486 DX from about 15 floppy disks to the internal HDD. Had running Linux as web proxy until about 2001. Interesting to see that what was quite normal at that time has become to a topic of interest again.
To add a fun story where Linux saved my live. Back in the 90‘ we had a Clipper / dBASE based DOS app used for capturing orders in a call center after TV commercials. In this case a prime TV show to generate donations. Full house with >100 agents busy. Then the Novell Netware server crashed, and was unable to mount the disks. We managed to switch the users to an older server so they could continue to work. But it firs…
Remember the days back in 90‘ (Must have been 1994) when installing Slackware distribution on 486 DX from about 15 floppy disks to the internal HDD. Had running Linux as web proxy until about 2001. Interesting to see that what was quite normal at that time has become to a topic of interest again.
Downloading it was a nightmare though - there was no TCP/IP connection available to me, but I could use the X.25 based email package. Attachments weren't an option, but you could send email to a file hosting server (funet.fi perhaps?) and it would split the requested file into as many 64K UUEncoded emails as necessary in response. Reassembling them (given the clunky email software I was working with) was a distressingly manual process... but I eventually collated and copied the complete set of disk images to floppy and installed them on the lavish 100Mb drive of the 486.
I also recall the fun (?) of trying to get the right monitor sync info for the XConfig file, and the superstition of `sync; sync; sync` that must have been long out-dated by the time I actually got my hands on this machine (though I did play around a little with the boot/root disk combination before that).
I sometimes feel a pang of nostalgia for all that stuff, but you can take my 1Gb network connection, hidpi monitor, and multi-terrabyte SSDs out of my cold dead hands!
Edit: Afterthought to give a little extra perspective on when this was: Around the same time I signed up for a Beta program on some Microsoft projects and boxed copies (with manuals) of "Daytona" and "Chicago" turned up in the post!
Remember the days back in 90‘ (Must have been 1994) when installing Slackware distribution on 486 DX from about 15 floppy disks to the internal HDD. Had running Linux as web proxy until about 2001. Interesting to see that what was quite normal at that time has become to a topic of interest again.
About the same era I was working on my industry year at a UK computer company. I was mostly working with the spiffy new Pentiums, but had a spare 486 machine to play with Linux. The complete SLS (I think, though it may have been Slackware) fitted nicely onto a box of 3.5" disks (50 in total?) Downloading it was a nightmare though - there was no TCP/IP connection available to me, but I could use the X.25 based email p…
Few months ago, somebody did a series of live streaming events on bringing up a 486-based tablet PC (which happened to be an old voting machine) with modern linux. Kernel turned out to be the easy part. Booting grub from BIOS that doesn't support LBA addressing (CHS only) - a bit harder. Running X11 on hardware without PCI - ridiculously hard: https://diode.zone/w/kMhja4oBUvP6CScsiDZP38
Perhaps this was addressed in the video, but I wonder if that tinkerer tried LILO? It is still supported and might fare better with old hardware.
Few months ago, somebody did a series of live streaming events on bringing up a 486-based tablet PC (which happened to be an old voting machine) with modern linux. Kernel turned out to be the easy part. Booting grub from BIOS that doesn't support LBA addressing (CHS only) - a bit harder. Running X11 on hardware without PCI - ridiculously hard: https://diode.zone/w/kMhja4oBUvP6CScsiDZP38
Perhaps this was addressed in the video, but I wonder if that tinkerer tried LILO? It is still supported and might fare better with old hardware.
I still hang on to a PIII based Dell Latitude laptop from 2001 and Slackware -current runs surprisingly well on it (along with BeOS 5.1 from my original disc, QNX RTOS, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and a few other obscure OSes from its generation to today).
Remember the days back in 90‘ (Must have been 1994) when installing Slackware distribution on 486 DX from about 15 floppy disks to the internal HDD. Had running Linux as web proxy until about 2001. Interesting to see that what was quite normal at that time has become to a topic of interest again.