17 Apr
1999
17 Apr
'99
9:51 a.m.
<snippage>
I would have been thrilled to get any kind of computer
when I was
in high school. So it is hard for me to imagine people willing to
throw away _any_ computer. But now I am starting to see that XT's
and 286's are like paper cups. Not only do they tend to work less
well as they age (they eventually break and lack support from their
manufacturers), but they are really next to valueless in terms of
replacement cost. Even if getting a computer to somebody who is
What? Valueless? Not at all. Get an XT or an 286, give it a 10 or 20 meg
HD, throw a 10BaseT network card in it (I have those coming out of my
ears, thanks to all my friends!), install Minix on it, and make it a node
on your friendly house-hold network. Or forget the network card and use a
serial port to connect it to your friendly house-hold Linux or UN*X
machine! They make splendid dumb terminals... my first BBSing machine was
an old XT, 2 Floppies, no HD, a 2400 baud modem and a copy of Mirror II
(Comms program)... all green, but hey, it was great for using Cserve and
checking my mails.
Valueless? I think not.
Just my $.05... what with inflation, taxes, shipping & handling and all..
Kevin