Breaking the record of oldest PC

[Tsarevich]

Hi,

Linux is for all 'races' of computers. But most tend to have the latest on their desk. But old is gold to the best of my experience. I want to survey how old you own the computer you are working right now at this moment.

[arodlinux]

Hello,

Hey, I just repaired an old computer. It was an Thinkpad IBM 4Gb Hd and 48 Mb for Ram, and running windows Me!

[techieMoe]

Are we making a distinction between computers we own and computers we actively use? The oldest computer I *own* is this one:

Gateway Solo
Pentium 1 90mHz
32MB RAM

I forget how big the harddrive is. Less than a gig, I'm sure. It has a 3 1/2" floppy drive, no modem or ethernet, came with Windows 98SE. It has one USB 1.0 slot. The battery no longer works, so it has to be constantly plugged into the wall. The CMOS battery is also dead, so the system clock will reset itself if you leave the computer unplugged for too long.

It runs Damn Small Linux, though without any kind of network it's pretty much dead. It was a case of "I'm going to throw this in the dumpster if no one wants it" kind of deal. I'm not sure why I still have it. The weight of the thing makes it a nice doorstop.

[Manchunian]

The oldest computer I own is a Toshiba laptop originally running Win95 (the computer dates from 1996!). Its specs are similar to the one you mentioned above, techieMoe, but it does have an amazing 4Gb of memory! The battery works OK but the floppy disk drive doesn't work anymore. It has a USB 1.0 slot, but the computer doesn't recognise any USB device I put in it. This effectively means I can't use this machine as I have no way to transfer stuff from it. A shame that (any ideas?). I wiped Win95 from it and replaced it with Damn Small Linux which works Damn fast (relatively anyway.) As I said, shame I can't transfer stuff from it, otherwise I would use this machine, and probably quite a lot!

[Jonathan183]

4Gb of memory! The battery works OK but the floppy disk drive doesn't work anymore. It has a USB 1.0 slot, but the computer doesn't recognise any USB device I put in it. This effectively means I can't use this machine as I have no way to transfer stuff from it. A shame that (any ideas?)

How about a pcmcia ethernet adapter ? ... you can get them for about £8

[elija]

The oldest computer I have is an old toshiba satellite laptop.

It has a 4gb Hard drive and the memory has been maxed out to an
absolutely stonking 192mb. It has an AMD K62 running (if I remember)
correctly at 200Mhz. It does have a CD Rom, I think it is a 4x
but I'd have to dig it out and check.

You know what, I might have to dig it out and see if something
like Debian will install using something like fluxbox as the WM.

I'm kidding myself of course, I won't get time for that

[Farmer Mike]

The desktop I use at home I bought new in June 1999 with Windows 98 on it. I kept repairing it as parts went bad - the floppy drive, and replaced the dead Winmodem with a controller based modem. I also added more memory. Finally, the hard drive died and when I replaced it, I saw no reason to reinstall Windows. I put Red Hat 9 and then Fedora 5 on it.

The processor is a 450MHz AMD K-6, it came with a 20GB hard drive and 256MB ram if I remember correctly.

[Dapper Dan]

My regular desktop is a Dell E520 that's less than a year old. The oldest computer in my stable is an IBM from 1991! It has scsi drive and the proprietary sound cards are about a foot long! It also has 5 inch floppy, no modem and the video display is black and white. It runs radio automation software on top of DOS. I'm not sure what the processor is or the memory. Get this though... It still runs like a champ although we retired it about two years ago.

[darkrose0510]

Well my current desktop is new; I built it on wednesday; Core2Duo, 2GB DDR2, SATA everything, NVidia 9600 512MB. Previous desktop was about 2-3 years old; P4 dual core, 1G DDR, NVidia 5200 256MB.

I also have a 'toy box'; Pentium MMX 133Mhz, had 32MB RAMbut I've squeezed in about 120MB, 2GB hdd. But I also seem to collect older laptops, I've got 3 at the moment, a 4th went to my dad's girlfriend, all have various Pentium 133Mhz Processors:
NEC Versa 6030H 16MB RAM, runs DeLi.
IBM Thinkpad 760XD 32MB RAM, is stuck in a suspend/resume loop, would be a good system otherwise.
NEC Discovery 713L 32MB RAM, runs DSL but needs better monitor drivers.
Toshiba Satellite Pro 430CDT 32MB RAM, awesome little system that dad's girlfriend uses now, runs modified DSL (boots in 18 secs!).

[Manchunian]

The oldest computer I have is an old toshiba satellite laptop.

Sounds like mine, elija. If it's the same, you'd never get Debian running on it, even with Fluxbox. It works OK with Damn Small, but I wouldn't put anything heavier on it.

How about a pcmcia ethernet adapter ? ... you can get them for about £8

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a go.