freecomputer20090226
This post is part of the freecomputers project.
freecomputer20090226
I've been putting off working on this machine for a while, simply because it's so old. It's a Compaq Prolinea 4/66. Yes, it's a 486. It was donated by Narender, via FreecycleTO, and comes with modest hardware. I got some additional RAM from Norm this past week, and that helped somewhat. The CD drive that was in the machine was dead, so it was replaced. Still, there wasn't much to work with.
The machine had WfW 3.11 loaded, which was a shocker seeing it. I booted it up just out of curiosity, and was floored. I hadn't seen WfW, since, well ... was it the mid-90s? Ancient times in the technology world. I tried right clicking on the File Manager before realizing how futile that was. It was a novelty to see the old OS, but it didn't last long.
I loaded Damn Small Linux (DSL) onto the machine, and it performs fairly well. The unfortunate thing is the NIC, which is an old SMC ISA card. The card works, but DSL doesn't have the driver for it, and I can't find one. So the appeal has gone out to the FreecycleTO network for an ISA NIC. I've got one promised to me, I just have to make it over to pick it up.
This machine, once the NIC is replaced and it can access the internet, will be suitable for just that. Email and internet searches -- but no video streaming or heavy application use. The standard Office apps that is a part of the DSL distro will work just fine, but it won't do anything fancy.
Configuration of freecycle20090226:
This machine is currently available.
freecomputer20090226
I've been putting off working on this machine for a while, simply because it's so old. It's a Compaq Prolinea 4/66. Yes, it's a 486. It was donated by Narender, via FreecycleTO, and comes with modest hardware. I got some additional RAM from Norm this past week, and that helped somewhat. The CD drive that was in the machine was dead, so it was replaced. Still, there wasn't much to work with.
The machine had WfW 3.11 loaded, which was a shocker seeing it. I booted it up just out of curiosity, and was floored. I hadn't seen WfW, since, well ... was it the mid-90s? Ancient times in the technology world. I tried right clicking on the File Manager before realizing how futile that was. It was a novelty to see the old OS, but it didn't last long.
I loaded Damn Small Linux (DSL) onto the machine, and it performs fairly well. The unfortunate thing is the NIC, which is an old SMC ISA card. The card works, but DSL doesn't have the driver for it, and I can't find one. So the appeal has gone out to the FreecycleTO network for an ISA NIC. I've got one promised to me, I just have to make it over to pick it up.
This machine, once the NIC is replaced and it can access the internet, will be suitable for just that. Email and internet searches -- but no video streaming or heavy application use. The standard Office apps that is a part of the DSL distro will work just fine, but it won't do anything fancy.
Configuration of freecycle20090226:
- Compaq Prolinea 486 DX2/66, 48MB RAM
- Quad Speed CD-ROM
- SB16 CT1740 Soundcard
- Quantum ProDrive 504MB HD
- Modem (I didn't check -- probably 33.3)
- NIC: SMC 8013WC ISA (needs to be replaced)
- Monitor: TBD
- Default user: DSL
- Root password: Dabydeen
This machine is currently available.
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