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Running NetBSD on IBM ThinkPad 380Z

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Re: Running NetBSD on IBM ThinkPad 380Z

#31

Post by hagbard_c »

ofalkaed wrote: post #29
gorgonical wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny to hear someone describe my daily driver personal laptop in the same way as a 380Z. I use Slackware with Xfce4 and except for the lower screen resolution (1360x768) I have never noticed that it's not "modern." I even have a new battery so it gets 6-9 hours of use again. Like you said, the giveaway is the poor performance, but if you're a systems developer that usually isn't a problem anyway. Emacs, C, asse…

A T42 with slackware and notion wm was my daily driver until around 2015, never really felt a need to get something newer and only did because I wanted something smaller/lighter for portability so I get a cheap $250 11e Thinkpad. Used the T42 regularly until it finally died in 2021 or 22. Miss the 4:3 screen and tiny trackpad. In just shy of 20 years the only issues I had with the T42 was a dead fan. Now I have an X1…

I used a T42p (not just a measly T42, that's for the proles) as a daily machine until forced to move away from 32 bit machines around 2021. Were it not for that I'd still be using it daily - I got three of them in nearly new condition for free about a decade earlier, all of them still work, one of them with a new translucent trackpad cover (made from an old mobile phone screen protector) because the old one was totally worn through - since the combination of the 1600x1200 4:3 (more or less) screen and the keyboard are hard to beat. I'm now using a P50 which, while offering far better lacks the 4:3 screen and 'suffers' from the modern Lenovo keyboard.

Re: Running NetBSD on IBM ThinkPad 380Z

#32

Post by ahoka »

likeabatterycar wrote: post #24
Aldipower wrote: post #22

In my basement are quite some old but for the time powerful unix machines. SGI Indigo2, Sun Fire, a Pentium II with Knoppix Linux or my Samsung Laptop from 2010 with Ubuntu 16.04. They all boot up quite fast into a nice looking and snappy X Window system. Fantastic machines. Until.. You try to open a web browser, if there is even a modern one available. If you try to open a modern web browser on those machines, you s…

Pepperidge Farm remembers running Internet Explorer on SPARC Solaris until it was committed to the dustbin of computing history.

Or Outlook on HP-UX.

Re: Running NetBSD on IBM ThinkPad 380Z

#33

Post by hagbard_c »

Borg3 wrote: post #13

I wonder if that memory usage is with X running. If yes, then Im very impressed. 32MB with X is very decent result.

I used X11 on a 4 MB Toshiba portable with a 386SX CPU, it was slow but doable. This machine as a whopping 160 MB, that's hog's heaven compared to what X11 has been used on traditionally.

Re: Running NetBSD on IBM ThinkPad 380Z

#34

Post by likeabatterycar »

reidrac wrote: post #28
likeabatterycar wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better or worse than OpenBSD and its ridiculous baker's dozen partitions and mount points? You know __for your protection__ meanwhile they fill up if you install more than a few packages or heaven forbid build a custom kernel when 80% of /home and /var is free and you realize you're screwed and have to start all over.

Been there, done that. Feels painful, but that's because you're learning . My favourite, too small /boot in Linux that prevents updating the kernel if you keep more than 3 versions, and autoremove doesn't seem to happen automatically. I had to install a new Debian last night. Manual partitioning and I'm quite happy with the results. I couldn't do that without all my past mistakes.

Debian's partitioner is really buggy and a major pain point for me. Won't support a backup EFI partition, creating and booting from RAID volumes is really tricky, many other issues. Issues that are resolved or nonexistent in RedHat, Ubuntu, and even Windows. I've had it create unbootable GRUB configurations many times - it only tells you at the very end.

I now make the partitions beforehand in fdisk then choose them in the installer. Which for some bizarre reason is not included in the install image; you have to boot into rescue for that.

Re: Running NetBSD on IBM ThinkPad 380Z

#35

Post by ahoka »

f1shy wrote: post #15
justmarc wrote: post #6

A lovely ride down memory lane. These IBM machines were all works of old, beautiful computing art.

I wonder what would be the closest (because I do not think there is such a thing) today. And I do not mean military grade things. I mean „normal“ laptops that are tough and functional.

Most (all?) modern business laptops are actually very tough. Reviewers regularly bend them in ways that would make you faint if that was yours and they are fine.

Re: Running NetBSD on IBM ThinkPad 380Z

#37

Post by ofalkaed »

hagbard_c wrote: post #31
ofalkaed wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A T42 with slackware and notion wm was my daily driver until around 2015, never really felt a need to get something newer and only did because I wanted something smaller/lighter for portability so I get a cheap $250 11e Thinkpad. Used the T42 regularly until it finally died in 2021 or 22. Miss the 4:3 screen and tiny trackpad. In just shy of 20 years the only issues I had with the T42 was a dead fan. Now I have an X1…

I used a T42p (not just a measly T42, that's for the proles) as a daily machine until forced to move away from 32 bit machines around 2021. Were it not for that I'd still be using it daily - I got three of them in nearly new condition for free about a decade earlier, all of them still work, one of them with a new translucent trackpad cover (made from an old mobile phone screen protector) because the old one was total…

>not just a measly T42, that's for the proles

What do you think the 'p' in T42p really stands for? T42p did not exist when I bought my T42 back in 01 or 02. X13 keyboard is almost as enjoyable to use as the T42's was for the first decade of its existence, X13's wins hands down over a T42 keyboard with a decade of use and tired springs. I am pretty happy with their current keyboards.

Re: Running NetBSD on IBM ThinkPad 380Z

#38

Post by userbinator »

bitwize wrote: post #2

And you can learn how to hack the NetBSD kernel just by reading the man pages . That's how good BSD documentation is. Those screen shots make me 90s in my pants. That's what a real powerhouse workstation looked like in my college years.

I attribute that not only to good documentation, but that the overall design is relatively simple and logical.

Re: Running NetBSD on IBM ThinkPad 380Z

#39

Post by aaaaaaron »

> It doesn't overwhelm you with thousands of packages and dozens of boot services right in a fresh install. On the contrary, it does only what you tell it to do. It puts you in charge and makes you feel like you can understand it top to bottom.

Just like Arch Linux and Gentoo, of course.

Re: Running NetBSD on IBM ThinkPad 380Z

#40

Post by pjmlp »

Aldipower wrote: post #22

In my basement are quite some old but for the time powerful unix machines. SGI Indigo2, Sun Fire, a Pentium II with Knoppix Linux or my Samsung Laptop from 2010 with Ubuntu 16.04. They all boot up quite fast into a nice looking and snappy X Window system. Fantastic machines. Until.. You try to open a web browser, if there is even a modern one available. If you try to open a modern web browser on those machines, you s…

Spot on, turns out Niklaus Wirth was right being disappointed with industry evolution.
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