Antique computers (was Re: LILO and Zone Alarm)

[Andrew Kelly]

On Wed, 2004-05-26 at 20:38, 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.
> 
> > Ah, memories! ;-)
> 
> Indeed.

This is fun!

It's kind of like going to NASA and hearing how some of the old hands
used to track lunar movement by throwing goat entrails into a defoliated
yew tree and timing the descent of the tail feathers dropped by the 
magpies that were frightened off.

Nurse, another leach, quickly! This man's sweetbreads are full of demons!

Andy
(sorry, debugging all night, not a pretty sight)