It certainly impresses on me how much one can do with so little physical
hardware. Now, the performance stinks, but, for the time, perhaps that wasn't
so bad. It does seem to have a few places where it sticks, however. I tried to
initialize a diskette, and had to wait about 5 minutes after the process ended
before it would let me do anything else, though it did eventually let me back at
it.
Funny thing, though, is that I remember people claiming that MAC OS was
multitasking. Windows allows me to play a game or whatever when I start off on
a time-consuming task. This guy doesn't seem to want to do that. I had to try
it on the second machine just to verify that the thing was not just bum
hardware. It worked the same on the second box as well.
So far, I haven't figured out what I'd do with NetBSD, though the notions
interesting. Since the MAC's have 2400 baud (max) Global Village Bronze modems,
they're certainly unsuited for internet use. Further, I'd expect that one would
have to have some sort of external router to allow the sharing of a DSL modem or
even an acoustic modem. My DSL modem under Win98 doesn't support modem sharing,
though I imagine there's a workaround for that. Maybe an ethernet board would
solve that, but I'm not the one ultimately going to use these, as I'm planning
to donate them once they're working to my satisfaction. That will require a
shared modem, since two modems won't be on the menu.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cameron Kaiser" <spectre_at_stockholm.ptloma.edu>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2001 5:46 PM
Subject: Re: OT: paging MAC expert(s) --- What's a Performa?
> > buying MAC hardware, either. Is there a cheap and easy way to use NetBSD
> > without a major outlay and majof effort? I'd bet not. I've really never
seen
> > anything involving hardware that could be done cheaply AND easily on a MAC.
> > Most things seem to be both insanely difficult and excruciatingly costly.
>
> NetBSD on mac68k is the most mature Unix for that architecture. However, it
> is still not a smooth install. There's a few workarounds that you have to
> "just know". It is supported on the P630, but you need to have a real '040
> in it (the LC040 is plagued with difficulties yet). Once it is running, it
> is nice and stable, but I run it on a IIci which is the NetBSD/mac68k
> 'typical box'.
>
> Linux/mac68k in its various forms is still quite flaky and uneven in its
> support.
>
> Modern Power Macs have standard IDE, USB and FireWire ports, so most things
> can be done for about the same price as a PC. There is still a driver gap
> though for some peripherals. Nevertheless, the old dogma about Macs doing
> half as much for twice the price is definitely no longer true.
>
> --
> ----------------------------- personal page:
http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ --
> Cameron Kaiser, Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser_at_stockholm.ptloma.edu
> -- We only pretend to have standards. -- Unknown producer,
ABC-TV -------------
>
>
Received on Fri Nov 16 2001 - 20:48:32 GMT