General Computer Thread

[Marc]

^^ That's usually what "kills" a new OS, lack of programs or in the case of OS/2 IBM not being able to market it..

Even if they'd been able to market, it's release coinciding with a big increase in ram prices didn't help things.

Speaking memory for operating systems, was watching and a video earlier on the new Epyc processors from AMD. the 16 and 32 core models have 768MB cache, the 96 core has 1152MB.

The guy doing the video (Patrick from STTH) commented that 768MB is enough to run Windows 7.

Not to mention with the new processors coming out it's pushing prices down on the older models. Strong temptation do upgrade my server but hey I'm the power is included in my rent so don't really have a justification as things are fast enough for me.

 

[Santaman]

^^ That was Windows 95 which needed 8MB of RAM, OS/2 Warp only required 4MB, I had a 486 DX2 50Mhz at that time with 4MB and Warp ran fine, 95 not so much..

 

[Marc]

^^ That was Windows 95 which needed 8MB of RAM, OS/2 Warp only required 4MB, I had a 486 DX2 50Mhz at that time with 4MB and Warp ran fine, 95 not so much..

That was much later. The first version of OS/2 came out in 1988, then the following year was 1.1 with presentation manager as the gui. Wiki doesn't list the details but from memory it required 2 - 4MB at a time when 640Kb was king of the hill.

And yes I was doing PC sales & support at the time Windows 95 came out so I remember the issues with all the people who believed Microsoft's hardware recommendation (rather than the maxim of you read them and then double it).

 

[Santaman]

Ah, I was talking about OS/2 Warp 3 specifically, as for the memory thing.. OS/2 was not for the meager mortal, it was for people who could afford at least an EMS card with 4-8MB RAM on it..

 

[Marc]

Ah, I was talking about OS/2 Warp 3 specifically, as for the memory thing.. OS/2 was not for the meager mortal, it was for people who could afford at least an EMS card with 4-8MB RAM on it..

I do remember see it running at the office but not sure tried it at home though I had a 386SX system with 6MB of ram that could have run it.

Did try OS/2 3.0 for a while then went back to Windows. I had a Gravis Ultrasound at the time and can't remember if I had driver support for it. Given the lack of drivers for OS/2 probably not and the Gravis could be a pain in the podex under Windows at the best of times.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Did anyone run the Soundblaster 16 with the CD connector on the soundcard? I remember fun times getting that to work well, and it wasn't just the CD audio the actual drive connector was on the top of the soundcard. I never got to try the later models.

 

[Santaman]

Yes, I've done that, it behaved just like a normal IDE controller, would free up a connector on the multi IO adaptor that usually came with older machines, those usually had two IDE connectors.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Yes, I've done that, it behaved just like a normal IDE controller, would free up a connector on the multi IO adaptor that usually came with older machines, those usually had two IDE connectors.

I used to get conflicts every now and then.

 

[bdub76]

I used to get conflicts every now and then.

I don’t miss IRQ hell, nor memory managers to get stuff working back then. The TCP/IP stack in old Windows versions was also painful. I tired out old Redhat Linux back then for decent networking before running obsd as my desktop during the Vista years.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I don’t miss IRQ hell, nor memory managers to get stuff working back then. The TCP/IP stack in old Windows versions was also painful. I tired out old Redhat Linux back then for decent networking before running obsd as my desktop during the Vista years.

I love that term IRQ Hell I've never heard it described that way, only that sometimes it was a pain

 

[Santaman]

Never had problems with IRQ's or any other hiccups when I had the CD drive connected to the soundcard, and the freed up second IDE port on the multi IO card was used for a super duper shiny Connor 210MB drive, oh yeah...

 

[bdub76]

Never had problems with IRQ's or any other hiccups when I had the CD drive connected to the soundcard, and the freed up second IDE port on the multi IO card was used for a super duper shiny Connor 210MB drive, oh yeah...

My first HD was an awesome 40MBs on a 286 Packard Bell. It’s amazing how much has changed.

 

[Santaman]

Smallest HDD in terms of capacity I own is a Seagate ST-412 which is 10MB, the physical size is 5.25" full height which means it's as large as two CD-ROM drives stacked on top of eachother, it was built in 1981 and it still works.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Tandy 1000 and the hard drive was like a brick

 

[bdub76]

Anybody else miss the good ole BBS days? I loved coming home, dialing up my modem, and getting my messages on the BBS. I now love being able to being completely disconnected after hanging up. While my smart phone is useful, it's a pain in my neck.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Anybody else miss the good ole BBS days? I loved coming home, dialing up my modem, and getting my messages on the BBS. I now love being able to being completely disconnected after hanging up. While my smart phone is useful, it's a pain in my neck.

I miss newsgroups

 

[bdub76]

I miss newsgroups

A more civilized time.

I tried to participate in the X-Files one, but way too much traffic back then when it was on.

They still exist.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

A more civilized time.

I tried to participate in the X-Files one, but way too much traffic back then when it was on.

They still exist.

They do but for me its lost a bit of its appeal.

I used to download a few groups in the mid / late 90s via my email program and then read them while I was offline and do all my replies that way so next time I went online it was all updated in one go and wait awhile to get replies.

 

[bdub76]

Remember Zip drives. I used to carry that drive around a lot. Much better than me carrying my C64 drive to a friend’s house while my parents were at work. That drive was heavy.

 

[Santaman]

I've got a external ZIP drive hidden away somewhere and also two Castlewood Orb drives which were 2.2GB per disk, haven't tried to run those in at least a decade, I do have disks for them though..