The main issue with using retro devices is software. It can be incredibly
difficult to locate it! It seems that obscure ancient OS's are better
preserved than for example Palm OS or Sharp Zaurus software.
This sounds like hogwash, but BSD 386 is around, so is CP/M. Need
some OS/2 Warp apps? Yeah you can get them.
Maybe I am exagerating a bit. I mean, you'll probably have to work for all
the above. I really wish people had used sites that are still around for
hosting. As shit as sourceforge became, at least it is still around and
preserves a lot of stuff that would have otherwise disapeared.
This brings up another related topic: shareware sucks. No redeeming
quality. The main influencer on this opinion of mine is that when a
company releases shareware, then that company fails, the software is
dead. Dead. Dead. Hopefully some enterprising hacker patched the
software to defeat the protection, but this can tend to make an app
buggy. Software released under an opensource license can still be sold.
It tends to be better preserved as well.
Think about that the next time you write software for the latest and
greatest platform. It will assuredly be crusty, dusty, and forgotten years
from now. Do not do a disservice to the future. Set it free.
"But the work I did, the sweat of my brow..." -- will all be for naught the
day you die. Don't be a jerk. I am not talking out of my ass here. I have
written software -- gave it away. I have released over 90 albums of musicon
my own label (and a dozen labels owned by others on 3 continents,
digital, tape, and CD) and have given it all away for free. I created the
cover art for hundreds of albums for French label Wulfrune Worxx (which
is featured on numerous YouTube videos and pop up on tape trading
sites a lot), did all that work for free. Some things, IMHO, should be done
for the love of it. Hamstringing the future is a dick move.
Note: today I figured out a memo beamed from a palm device to the
Zaurus comes across as a textfile. This entry was typed on a Handspring
Visor Deluxe using a Stowaway keyboard, beamed to a Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000,
renamed and ftp'd over 802.11b to a Raspberry Pi 3 which then
scp'd it to another then was posted to RPoD via git. Rube Goldberg eat
your heart out.
