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  • From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] BL3 on 386sx no-copro update
  • Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 23:15:50 +0000 (UTC)

We run into a lot of computers with specialized board/case combinations including Compaq, Packard Bell, HP, and AT&T, with this daughter-board arrangement for plugging in cards. It is probably cheaper to build them this way than to assemble with cards and also makes the computer thinner.

Is this desktop 386 in any way superior to a 386 laptop computer apart from that expansion slots? You can often plug in an external keyboard and/or monitor into a laptop to get the same effect in even less space than a desktop, and we have a 386 with 5MB RAM which you could play with instead if you do not mind the lack of backlighting (or want to invest in a new bulb and also CMOS battery). We are strongly considering recycling even the laptops if they are older than a 486, tho they still work fine for DOS.

A suggested use for the 386 with 4MB RAM is to run DOS browsers. Lynx with lxpic as a viewer runs in 3MB RAM -- not sure if your video is enough for running lxpic though. Arachne if you delete the icons runs at a crawl but it will dial, and let you ftp, telnet, and send mail. Nettamer ditto. You can put in an internal modem, sound card, and network card (ISA).

Have you tried playing with minix? The 386 version I think called for 3MB RAM and 20MB hard drive.

I ran Newdeal on a 386 with 8MB RAM but 1MB is theoretically enough. They used to have a downloadable trial version. Office Suite with browser etc.
GEOS-based.

Wordperfect for DOS. Win3.1. We have a VGA CAD program for DOS that runs even in mono VGA.



Yes, I've already thought of that. And I do have old motherboards out the
bahooty as they say--well, some unsophisticated types with a rather poor
grasp of the technical nature of the phenomena we're discussing would say
it that way, anyhow. Their inexpertise aside, I haven't run across a
board yet that would work. This machine must have been really futuristic
in its day. It's a Compudyne, a really tiny case. It's got a ps2
keyboard plug and onboard video. Those two features must have been really
unusual in the 386 era. The main problem logistically here--apart from
the unlikelihood that a ps2 keyboard plug and onboard video plug on
another board would just happen to end up in the right spots--is that,
owing to space constraints, this board has a single expansion slot into
which a specialized riser board fits. The riser board, in turn, can take
up to 3 ISA cards (one on one side, two on the opposite side), which
actually end up oriented parallel with the mobo. So, not just any
mobo--in fact, no mobo I've ever seen--is going to work. This thing might
be a collector's item: I've never seen anything like it myself. Final
statement? I'm sort of stuck with it as it is. Looks so nifty and is so
small, I'd really like to do something with it. But it may end up being
too impractical to be useful for anything.

James
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SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org




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