Re: [9fans] old NEC Versa S/50 useful?

Re: [9fans] old NEC Versa S/50 useful?

[Laura Creighton]

The largest problem we have in popularising Plan 9 is finding old
enough hardware to run it on because it will not run on any of the
new stuff.  The reason that we have this problem is because the
people in 1127 are so completely satisfied with their ability to
do major amounts of real work with the anceint hardware they have
got that they couldn't be bothered to go to the computer hardware
store and buy something made in the past decade, _even though they
are aware that people who want to run plan 9 cannot now because
they can't find old enough hardware_.  (Also because people like me
haven't made a VM ware port yet because we are too damn busy with
the rest of our lives, as usual.)  I'd say _speed_ is not going to
be a problem for you.

While I am here.  Thank you ever so much for so many hours of enjoyment.

Laura

Re: [9fans] old NEC Versa S/50 useful?

[pac]

That might be interesting for others, too. If anyone runs Plan 9 on a hardware not listed yet,
I ask him/her to give us a few minutes of his/her time, go to the Plan 9 Wiki at
http://cm.bell-labs.com/wiki/plan9/44/index.html
and add the hardware to the list.
Many thanks for us all who would like to upgrade our machines.
- Peter.

 
>> Plan 9 runs fine on brand new bitsies and brand new PCs;
>> at least, I'm using Plan 9 on them. Of course there are
>> devices with no Plan 9 driver, but that's a different issue.
>> 
>> 



--
Peter A. Cejchan
Dept. Paleobiology, Inst. Geology Acad. Sci.,
Rozvojova 135, Prague 6
CZ-16502 Czech Republic
<cej@cejchan.gli.cas.cz>

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A plea:
Please, consider your support to the Public Library of Science initiative at
http://www.publiclibraryofscience.org

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Re: [9fans] old NEC Versa S/50 useful?

[Dan Cross]

In article <20010611145718.C301D199F6@mail.cse.psu.edu> you write:
>That's unfair and not even true.

I agree that it's untrue; I've used Plan 9 on some pretty serious and
pretty modern hardware.  However, I *do* think that it's fair to say
that there's a certain lack of device drivers which in a sense is
fairly limiting, if for no other reason than unsupported hardware is,
often so much more prevalent than supported.  SCSI controllers are a
good example; the lack of an Adaptec AIC7xxx driver is frustrating,
particularly since those show up on a lot of motherboards.  Similarly,
video hardware support can be frustrating (though I think the recent
addition of an nVidia driver has helped tremendously).

I suppose the solution is for people (not necessarily 1127) to write
more device drivers.  :-)

	- Dan C.

Re: [9fans] old NEC Versa S/50 useful?

[F.J.Ballesteros]

Plan 9 runs fine on brand new bitsies and brand new PCs;
at least, I'm using Plan 9 on them. Of course there are
devices with no Plan 9 driver, but that's a different issue.

Re: [9fans] old NEC Versa S/50 useful?

[presotto]

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That's unfair and not even true.

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From: Laura Creighton <lac@cd.chalmers.se>
To: sjking@bconnex.net
Cc: lac@cd.chalmers.se, 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] old NEC Versa S/50 useful?
Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 16:51:06 +0200 (MET DST)
Message-ID: <200106111451.QAA17134@boris.cd.chalmers.se>

The largest problem we have in popularising Plan 9 is finding old
enough hardware to run it on because it will not run on any of the
new stuff.  The reason that we have this problem is because the
people in 1127 are so completely satisfied with their ability to
do major amounts of real work with the anceint hardware they have
got that they couldn't be bothered to go to the computer hardware
store and buy something made in the past decade, _even though they
are aware that people who want to run plan 9 cannot now because
they can't find old enough hardware_.  (Also because people like me
haven't made a VM ware port yet because we are too damn busy with
the rest of our lives, as usual.)  I'd say _speed_ is not going to
be a problem for you.

While I am here.  Thank you ever so much for so many hours of enjoyment.

Laura

Re: [9fans] old NEC Versa S/50 useful?

[pac]

Don't throw away your hardware, but be prepared to throw away your
software. However, it's worth it! Definitely, try Plan 9 out!
Cross fingers,

Peter


--
Peter A. Cejchan
Dept. Paleobiology, Inst. Geology Acad. Sci.,
Rozvojova 135, Prague 6
CZ-16502 Czech Republic
<cej@cejchan.gli.cas.cz>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A plea:
Please, consider your support to the Public Library of Science initiative at
http://www.publiclibraryofscience.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[9fans] old NEC Versa S/50 useful?

[Stephen King]

I gather from all that I've read here and in the various FAQ that I will
be able to get plan 9 running on my NEC Versa S/50 once I get a larger
hard drive and NIC. Question is, will I then be able to do anything
useful with it? I'm wondering about the performance I might expect from
a 50MHz '486 - will it be so sluggish that I'll wish I hadn't bothered?
This machine served me well for years, but Win3.1 has had it's time ;-)

BTW. My other machine's a 7 year old Indy and it's going to give me a
few more years of service!

I HATE throwing away hardware that still works, and I really want to try
a few things with Plan 9.

Thanks!

-- 
"I think my life is fuller because I realize that I
don't know what I'm doing" - Richard Feynman, 1979.