Thinking about acquiring PDP stuff

[allison]

On 11/30/16 11:48 AM, Brad H wrote:
>
>> I'm curious.. what do people do with these things?  I've seen videos
>> of some in large racks being used to play music, etc.  The rack ones
>> seem like a a pretty substantial investment in space for something
>> that doesnt (or does it?) have much practical use today.
Define practical use?

Most still can or do produce useful work.  After all programming in C or 
other language
on a PDP-11 or PC is about all the same things.  One difference is the 
PDP-11 is really
running unix.  IF anything its no different than using an arduino to 
blink a light.


What I do:
Use them to run old software that still does useful work.

Let me correct that....

Use them to run well tested and debugged old software that still does 
useful work.

Amuse myself, enjoy the hardware I can fully understand down to the gate 
level.
Marvel that unlike every PC I've had that crapped after a few years 
these old machines
just keep doing their thing.

The above is significant as most of the machine I have were obtained 
when they were still
current or relevant and they were fully functional.  So maintenance has 
been minimal to none.
There are a few that I built myself back in the mid to late 70s as well.


Allison