> So there are stacks of them around in theory. The problem is that
> 286's, 386's and 486's are very limited use.
Depends on what you mean by limited.
486s can serve as X-terminals
386s can do text based web browsing and mail, again diskless
286s can do telnet or ssh diskless (go to http://www.vein.hu/~nagyd if you
disbelieve)
Problem is a lot of people in the street feel uncomfortable with text mode. But
when I see a few webmail sessions tie up a dialup line, I can't but help feel
that pine would be a better use of the limited bandwidth. Another problem is
that there is no good Open Source package for text mode word processing (you
know the Wordstar, Wordperfects, etc). Don't everbody chime in with
vim/emacs/joe/etc. WP != text editor, you have to be able to access the printer
effects easily.
What would a community organisation want with a free computer network anyway?
I'm trying to puzzle that out myself. If they are happy with a network of pine
and w3m/links/lynx terminals, this we can do that tomorrow. It would be far
easier than a IF2K event. We don't have a variety of machines to install Linux
on. We just make one big server out of a low end Pentium, then castrate, er rip
the disks out of the 2/3/486s, whack in network cards with boot ROMs and away we
go. Well, a few more details like setting up an ISP connection, but essentially
not more difficult than setting up one machine.
> As I understood it, the problem with computerbank in Sydney was
> storage/workshop space. So, if anyone knows of a long term vacant
> warehouse - hint hint!.
I guess I didn't make my thesis clear enough, also in response to Jon's post.
There no point having lots of storage space if there is no outlet for the
machines, at some point you end up with a bunch of people with aching backs,
full warehouses and nowhere for the hardware to go.
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