[cctalk] Old UNIX Systems

On Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 2:09 PM, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: Here in Columbus, P4 machines have been skipware for some time, and I'm starting to see complete, working Core 2 Duo boxes offered for free. No quad-core yet. As for running UNIX/Linux on old Intel hardware, I lament the loss of 386 support, but the oldest desktop I've run in quite some time is a 486 (I'm not counting running DOS on 8-bit and 16-bit boxes - those never ran Linux and only could run a sliver of UNIX spectrum). I do still have a few 486s knocking about - they tend to max out at 16MB and have been limited in scope as a result of lack of memory more than anything else. I think the "weakest" machine of this kind I still have set up is a PS/2-E (IBM 9533 w/486SLC, 16MB RAM shared between code and video - 12MB/4MB) running RedHat 5.something, and the only reason for keeping it around is the quad PCMCIA ISA board in it. I built it up in 2000 as a poor-man's PIX (loaded with four 10/100 cards) as a dev box for the company I worked for at the time. We had a dual-PIX for production (redundancy/failover) but the devs learned the hard way when they tried developing in a single network space using broadcast protocols that there was a lot to set up in a secure production environment (i.e., production deployments fell flat on their faces and the devs didn't know what ports had to be opened between what machines). The PS/2-E router was never meant to enforce security, but it did a good job of segmenting the machines on the network from each other, forcing the developers to a) pay attention to, and b) tell the Network Guy (me!) what their network requirements were.

My trusty old 386-DX/40 that I purchased in Apr, 1992, for the express purpose of running Linux, is long gone. -ethan