Antique computers (was Re: LILO and Zone Alarm)

[Rick Stevens]

Bob McClure Jr wrote:
> On Wed, May 26, 2004 at 10:51:01AM -0700, Rick Stevens wrote:
> 
>>mylar wrote:
>>
>>>On Tue, 2004-05-25 at 20:56, Rick Stevens wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>mylar wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>On Tue, 2004-05-25 at 12:40, Rick Stevens wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>Jo
>>>>>>
>>>>>>6.1?  That's over three years dead!  Why are you still running that?
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>And you _really_ should think about updating your Linux.  6.1 is
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>ancient, creaky, full of security holes and not supported anymore by
>>>>>>anyone.  Heck, it's still a 2.2 kernel even!  Fedora Core 2 is using
>>>>>>the 2.6 kernel.
>>>>>>------------------------
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Believe it or not I still have an old 166 mhz machine still running
>>>>>Redhat 6.0!!! It's still used to provide backup on demand dialup service
>>>>>and dns service to a few machines on a home network. I've patched the
>>>>>heck out of it and firewalled it as best I can via ipchains. Dial on
>>>>>demand service is still provided by the "diald" daemon. It's an oldie
>>>>>but serves it's purpose.
>>>>
>>>>And I have an Alpha machine with 5.2.  It's more historic than anything
>>>>else.  I love having to boot "milo" from a floppy to get it to run.
>>>>
>>>>That and my MicroVAX II and MicroVAX 3100/10e running VAX/VMS.  Oh, 
>>>>yeah!  Ancient technology!  Gotta love it!  (now, where did I put those
>>>>old 9-track tapes of mine...?)
>>>
>>>
>>>Yeah, I started with an early version of Redhat (2.0 I think) running
>>>one of the early monolithic  1.X kernels on that 166 Pentium. I
>>>gradually upgraded to redhat 3.0 then 5.2 then 6.0  where it's stayed
>>>since.
>>>
>>>Way back when I was pretty adepts in running the Vax systems we had in
>>>college and I was interested in acquiring a MicroVAX running Vax/VMS for
>>>my at home computing interests. Unfortunately as a  college student I
>>>couldn't afford such fancy high end computing equipment.
>>>
>>>I'd still like to acquire a PDP-11
>>
>>I've got an old MicroPDP-11 (well, LSI-11) at home that runs (gulp!)
>>RSTS/E, RSX-11M/Plus, and RT-11/XM.  And somewhere in the deep, deep
>>recesses of my horde is a (get ready!) PDP-8!  Yes, a 12-bit computer!
>>Weird! I dunno if it works now or not.  It did when I mothballed it
>>20-odd years ago.  I had WPS-8 on it (a three-user word processor).
> 
> 
> Gadzooks!  In 1970, I did my (Univ. of Okla.) senior project on a
> PDP-8L.  Rocker switches and TeleType ASR-33 to load the boot loader,
> then it would load the OS from a high-speed optical paper tape reader.

Well, mine was a little newer.  Had a version of ODT on PROM, then
booted off the hard drive (an RM80, all of 128MB on a 14" fixed
platter).  WPS-8 wanted VT52 terminals (or a VT100 in VT52 mode with a
funky keyboard).

>>Ah, memories! ;-)
> 
> 
> Indeed.

Don't get me started with my other stuff:

Data General:	Nova 2/10, Eclipse Nova, Aviion
Xerox:		Sigma/7
IBM:		S/360/370, S/32, 5100, 5150/60/70 (IBM PC/XT/AT)
Burroughs:	B2700, M3200
DEC:		VAX-11, PDP-11 (various flavors of each)
Tandem:		NonStop-II
HP:		2100, 21MX, Pa/RISC
Apollo:		Various flavors prior to the buy-out by HP
SGI:		Almost anything with IRIX on it
Sun:		Sun 1, 2, 3, 4 (just about everything they've made)
Commodore:	Amiga (lots of those!)
Intel 8080/5:	Darned near every micro made in the 70s and 80s
Intex x86:	Again, you name it, I've seen it
Bitslicers:	Lots and lots of those custom beasties

There are some I've left out and some I'm sure I've just flat forgotten.
A lot of it was due to a prevailing mindset at the various firms I've
worked for:

	Q:  "What the hell is that thing?"
	A:  "I dunno.  Let's make Rick handle it!"
	Me: "Why, you dirty little %#$@#$%#@@!!"

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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-      "Microsoft is a cross between The Borg and the Ferengi.       -
-  Unfortunately they use Borg to do their marketing and Ferengi to  -
-               do their programming."  -- Simon Slavin              -
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