>protect the moronic) at the university I waste money in. Just after
>purchasing a spanking new Pentium 166 with 64mb and all the goodies,
>including an ATI All in Wonder card (on our nickel I might add!), he asked
>his secretary to scare up a new template for WP5.1, For this is all he used
>it for! (where's my wailin' stick when I need it :)
Now that is scary. Unfortunatly that is what a lot of people spend several
thousand to do. Me I've got a Mac SE/30 that I picked up for ~$50, fixed
it, and use it to run MS Word 5.1 (Note, Word is the only MS product I
use). It's a great machine for writing, and if you honestly need more you
probably need something running PageMaker or QuarkXPress.
If a person wants a computer for Word Processing they should pick up an old
Macintosh, preferably with at least a 68030/16 processor (basically the
third notch on the old speed meter). If you look around these systems are
dirt cheap, and anyone can use them. I got my Mom a Mac IIcx with monitor,
keyboard, mouse, and software for $60 at an auction earlier this year, she
loves it, and it does everything she needs.
>>This win95 (blows) leads to other options which I am looking at
>>linux. Linux is very promising and I am learning to use it, trying
>>to upgrade my old 2 4+ yr old 386 portables first also currently
>>learning on my other pentium 75 o/c'ed to 100 lunchbox. Then install
>>it on main pc when I feel more confident to put it to real use. :)
>
> Looking for a UNIX like OS for you 386? Why don't you get MINIX? A lot
>less overhead and pretty easy to set up. (not much out for it yet, put the
>list grows everyday) You could even get a version of Xwindows for it, and
>MINIX will run on an XT! (two versions, i86 and 386)
Couple of questions. How much does Minix cost now days? Last I looked it
was ~$200 for the PC, although I'll admit this was back in '92 when it was
a fairly good alternative to Linux (I remember when Linux didn't have a
login prompt, you were dropped staight to single user). You can get a 6-CD
Linux set for $25.
Second, what major UNIX apps are there for Minix? Linux has basically all
the freeware ones (when it comes to UNIX don't let the term freeware scare
you away, it's often far better than commercial PC software).
The minimal system I've run Linux on was a 386sx/16 Twinhead laptop with
4Mb of RAM (the max the computer can handle), and a 350Mb Hard Drive. I
used it for TeX (typesetting), College Ingres (database originally written
for PDP 11's running UNIX I think), and X-Windows for previewing the DVI
files created with TeX. Yes, I actually was able to run X on this relic,
and got good performance.
I also used it for programming. I've got to admit this was pretty hard to
stomach after being used to running on a 486DX/33 system (which has been
running Linux from January '92 to present).
Note, in an effort to get this thread back on the topic of Classic
Computers, Minix is now availabe for free on some platforms. I think this
includes at least the Atari and the Macintosh. I'm pretty sure the PC
version still costs money. Also GNOME, a UNIX like OS for the Apple IIgs
is now freely available.
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh_at_ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh_at_holonet.net (alternate) | Mac Programmer |
+----------------------------------+---------------------------+
| For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. |
| see
http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
Received on Sun Sep 07 1997 - 03:57:44 BST