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I'm downgrading my laptop.
That is, I have a Toshiba Tecra 8000 (P2 266MHz, 256MB RAM, 4GB HDD) with Windows 2000 on it. For a while, there was a novelty to doing new things on an old PC, but that's worn off. Basically I can do the same things on my new laptop and much faster. If I really needed it for all that, I'd be better off with Slackware or Puppy Linux anyway.
So... instead, I decided to split the HDD in half. The first would have Win98SE and all of my old Windows apps, while the second would have my old DOS apps.
The first thing I had a problem with is FDISK. How the hell have I used computers for so long having never used this? I guess all the drives we used to buy were pre-formatted. I screwed it up the first time around, somehow making a logical drive that I couldn't delete, leaving me to do the whole thing over with Gparted.
I managed to get everything working and stable. Looking through all the settings, I'm wondering how I never could get computers to work right when I was a kid. Probably either because we bought cheap hardware at flea markets, or because I'd never heard of online updates. I blame my dad being the last person on the block to go DSL.
On a related note, I hope to be getting a few old boxen from relatives soon - an 8088 and a Pentium 75MHz. I already got a 286 and 486 to play with, so we'll see what happens.- Show previous comments 1 more
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Well, for the time being I can only open the machines up and admire the rusty innards, since I have no power cords or peripherals.
P.S. What kind of apps do you guys recommend for this machine? Bear in mind I'm more interesting in USING the thing than fiddling around with tweak utilities.
P.P.S. Hey! I found Wally! This is a great alternative to Paint Shop Pro. The homepage doesn't work, but the direct link does.
http://www.slackiller.com/hlprograms.htm -
That would be a good DOS machine. Fast but not too fast and with full harwdare support. What video and sound does it have? You might even be able to play some rad old Windows games like Powerslide.
It's ironic how an Ubuntu LiveCD is one of the best system recovery tools out there these days. Even old text-only cfdisk shits all over what DOS and Windows gave/give us.
Here's some apps for you:
http://www.opus.co.tt/dave/utils.htm
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/util_e.html -
It's got Yamaha OPL3-SA3 sound and a NeoMagic 2.5MB video card - typically generic hardware for a laptop. DirectX/OpenGL support is inadequate but it plays Unreal in software mode excellently. That's the beauty of this laptop: it has advanced features, but tech-wise it's behind its time, making it a great choice for DOS games.
I found a serial mouse and a PS2/USB adapter, so I can kiss good bye to that eraser nub. - Show next comments 3 more