486 memory lane

[MASONTX]

I've heard so much about linux on old computers, I thought I would dig one out of the closet and try it. I pulled my old 486/33 out and turned it on. It booted up into dos, and I spent some time remembering just how to get windows 3.1 open. Played around with windows 3.1 awhile, and tried to load DSL, but the CD driver file had dropped the driver for the CD. Now I need to excavate my old disks for 3.1. I saw them a couple of weeks ago, just have to figure out where.

Using dos commands again reminded me how far we've come, and how spoiled we've gotten.

I also pulled a 400, a 650, and a 750 out. Funny thing though, while the 486 booted right up, the others lights came on but no one was home. I guess the 486 was built better.

[Rubberman]

I still have an old Gateway 486 EISA bus server w/ CD, SCSI hard drives, and both 3 1/2" and 5 1/4" floppies. I haven't fired it up in awhile (I ran QNX 4.0 on it with X-Windows and Motif), but it should work, though I might have to thump the drives a bit if they have caught a bit of "stictionitis".