IBM 5120 (was Re: My First S-100 System)

From: Tothwolf <tothwolf_at_concentric.net>
Date: Mon Oct 14 02:34:00 2002

On Sun, 13 Oct 2002, Scarletdown wrote:

> I just did a bit of snooping and it seems that although the 3Com
> EtherLink II is supported under MINIX, there is no Token Ring or 3270
> support. Ethernet is the only network supported.

The EtherLink II is quite inefficient as far as ISA ethernet cards go too.
The 3C501 is probably the only thing worse than a 3C503. My favorite ISA
card is still the 3C509B (EtherLink III), but the original 3C509 works
quiet well too.

> Therefore, I am now looking at the possibility of using Coherent as the
> OS. Hopefully it will meet my networking needs. I really don't want to
> go with FreeDOS or MS-DOS actually, since I realized that there is no
> login/password feature. I will consider some sort of minimalist Linux
> implementation as well. FreeSCO is a prime example of one of these Tiny
> Linux systems. However, FreeSCO would not be suitable for me, as it is
> intended just to be used as a router, and I do not think that Token Ring
> or 3270 are supported there either.

If you are looking for something with lots of support for network
hardware, Linux seems to be the way to go. Linux network drivers are quite
diverse, and unsupported cards tend to be the exception. I often still
prefer *BSD for dedicated servers, but in those cases, more common
hardware is usually in use.

I investigated FreeSCO, LRP, and several derivatives for one of my 486
router/gateway systems. None of them were exactly what I was looking for,
mostly because the software they contained wasn't up to date. In the end,
I ended up stripping down a Debian install to the essentials, and then
built a custom kernel with support for the different interfaces and
networks I wanted to bridge. I'm fairly sure I could even add 3270 support
to that router if I ever have the need.

-Toth
Received on Mon Oct 14 2002 - 02:34:00 BST