Hi,
I joined this list a week or so ago through Yahoo Groups, and then
figured out that the actual list was on Softcon, so I subscribed to
that, and am getting ready to unsubscribe to the Yahoo mirror. I have
a question; is it possible for me to modify the subscription from
digest to individual emails? I have been on a lot of lists, and know
the usual procedures of sending the appropriate keywords to majordomo,
etc., if that is possible here.
> At work, I am compelled to stay more or less current with the
> Industry (Win9x, WinNT). At home, my wife insists on only --
> you guessed it -- the very latest hardware and software, and
> my kids like the CPU-intensive games, so wife and kids
> naturally have 700+mhz, 30+gb, 128mb Athlon/Duron boxes.
>
> I, on the other hand, do mostly text stuff: I program, write, and
> manage data. Consequently, I use whatever they've outgrown
> and find that it's more hardware than I need.
I have newer computers for my everyday work, but am getting into the
older equipment and software because I find it very interesting, and
instructive. Right now I have a newer PIII desktop, and a PIII laptop,
for everyday use and work, loaded with Win98se, Linux RedHat, and also
a DOS partition, with 6.2 in it. I also have a 1994 vintage IBM 486DX2
with OS/2 and DOS 6.2 running in the same partition, using the
'dual-boot' feature. I also have a 1991 vintags IBM 386sx box, with
Windows 3.1 in it, that is not running, as I need to pick up a monitor
for it. I plan on getting rid of Windows, and don't have a planned
permanent use for it. I want it for 'practice'. Something I can
disassemble, and learn maintenance on, once I pick up a ground
bracelet, and the other necessary tools.
I became interested in retro hard and software because I am learning
some programming languages, and with newer languages, like VBasic, and
C++, no matter what book you are using, they never really explain
programming back to its roots... the same for operating systems. I
then discovered eBay's vintage computing auctions, and have been
picking up all sorts of stuff, software, hardware, books, manuals,
etc., a lot of it very educational, because it goes into great depth
in explaining the hardware and principles that computing was built on,
which are ignored in more modern texts.
Also, the whole process is amazingly cheap! Plus, I am able to now
begin with the absolutely stripped down setup of DOS 6.2, and develop
the space myself, batch files, macros, Basic programs, in an
environment that is simple enough to actually understand. I figure
that this will give me a better start than just trying to start
learning on the third and fourth generation languages and OS's that
are in use now, without any knowledge of what they are built on, and
why.
> I keep, deliberately, hardware as old as I can get away with
> until we run out of space. I use one box as my DOS/Win31
> compatibility platform. I use the others as research boxes
> to teach myself Linux and BSD -- which both run just fine on
> the older stuff.
Yeah, I'm running Linux, but on my best and newest box. Since I am
into graphics, and using GIMP, there is no way a smaller set-up would
work for me, although Linux/ Unix is a lot less of a memory hog than
Windows.
> Funny, when I used straight DOS boxes, I got more done,
> wrote more stuff, had more fun. I find, personally, that having
> to learn the environment all over again every year or two puts
> a serious dent in my productivity.
Even in Win98se, I have been using DOS, and have a command prompt
installed in my Taskbar. Without it, accessing Regedit and other
Windows utilities is just about impossible. In fact, editing the
registry was one of the moving forces behind my exploration into
earlier OS's. Without understanding Autoexec.bat, Config.sys, and all
the other batch and *.ini configurations in between, understanding
registry is pretty difficult. I wonder how useful it would be to check
out the various versions of Windows, starting with the first graphic
DOS overlays that preceded Windows, up through Win for Workgroups,
where the split with NT occurred, up to the present incarnations. I
have already picked up a book on OS/2, and how it got its start as a
'breakaway' OS from DOS 5.0, which is pretty enlightening.
I don't want to give up the convenience of the newer OS's and
machines; I want the best of both worlds.
thanks,
-wittig
Online Portfolio and Gallery: http://www.robertwittig.com/
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