---Reply to mail from Bob Williams about [SURVPC] Can you make money promoting and
selling older hardware? (It's l
> Hi Gang! Bob, from the Southern Philippines here -
>
(((SNIP)))
> It looks like you, Paul (of OWL fame) and maybe others - are
> trying to do some commercial activity centered around the older
> hardware. How's it going? Care to share any ideas with someone
> thinking of doing same?
>
> Right now I'm encouraging people to use Arachne and Net-Tamer and
> have poked around at Fdisk.com, Dinosaur's Garden and TVDog. But
> still not fully up to speed on the software side - what's
> available and what's right for different situations. On using
> older machines and DOS, people here seem to consider it SOP to use
> DOS software which gets passed from hand to hand. It seems to me
> that older versions of popular software - like Wordstar 4 or older
> Lotus 1-2-3 may not be aggressively protected by the company - but
> that copying them is still piracy. Am I right? Does a commercial
> product ever become "abandonware?" If so, is there a list
> somewhere? I DO NOT want to be involved in anything that even
> smells of piracy.
>
> Linux seems to be a solution to the legality problem - but getting
> DOS people to move over may be a problem as well. I have much to
> learn here - no full Linux installation running yet - but have
> played with some UMSDOS packages while waiting for my CD order to
> come in....
>
> So - Anybody making a living largely or exclusively in the realm
> of older hardware? If so, care to share any secrets of your
> success?
>
> Any ideas on how to 'market' older systems to businesses in
> which the powers-that-be have just decided that they just can't
> afford computers or the Internet?
>
> Are you selling hardware/software combinations? Services?
> Support? Custom systems?
>
> What would you consider to be the "killer freeware or shareware
> applications" for DOS / Linux on older hardware. Arachne,
> various flavors of Lynx, Net-Tamer and Pegasus seem to be strong
> in the Internet and E-mail arena. What about other areas like
> Wordprocessing, Local Area Networking, etc?.....
>
> Any ideas will be appreciated.
>
Hmmmm. . . Ideas, yes one, _Don't quit your day job. There's no _money in
this that I have been able to find. However, there is some satisfaction
when you can donate/sell cheap/give a machine to a deserving
youngster/adult who is interested enough to use it. There is also some
satisfaction in knowing that you can keep some of these machines out of
the land fill by recycling what you can, i.e., metal in the case, gold in
the circuit boards, etc.. One can also Reclaim some for upgrading one's
own system. (Mine are totally reclaimed machines.)
So other than those few benefits, there is no monies able to support a
business.
That being said, I live in the USA, and this may color what has been said
here. You, on the other hand, may find more gratuity in the Philippines.
Hope this helps you,
Paul
---End reply
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