Title: The Old Computer Challenge | |
Author: Solène | |
Date: 07 July 2021 | |
Tags: linux oldcomputerchallenge | |
Description: | |
# Introduction | |
For some time I wanted to start a personal challenge, after some | |
thoughts I want to share it with you and offer you to join me in this | |
journey. | |
The point of the challenge is to replace your daily computer by a very | |
old computer and share your feelings for the week. | |
# The challenge | |
Here are the *rules* of the challenge, there are no prize to win but | |
I'm convinced we will have feelings to share along the week and that it | |
will change the way we interact with computers. | |
* 1 CPU maximum, whatever the model. This mean only 1 CPU|Core|Thread. | |
Some bios allow to disable multi core. | |
* 512 MB of memory (if you have more it's not a big deal, if you want | |
to reduce your ram create a tmpfs and put a big file in it) | |
* using USB dongles is allowed (storage, wifi, Bluetooth whatever) | |
* only for your personal computer, during work time use your usual | |
stuff | |
* relying on services hosted remotely is allowed (VNC, file sharing, | |
whatever help you) | |
* using a smartphone to replace your computer may work, please share if | |
you move habits to your smartphone during the challenge | |
* if you absolutely need your regular computer for something really | |
important please use it. The goal is to have fun but not make your | |
week a nightmare. | |
If you don't have an old computer, don't worry! You can still use your | |
regularly computer and create a virtual machine with low specs, you | |
would still be more comfortable with a good screen, disk access and a | |
not too old CPU but you can participate. | |
# Date | |
The challenge will take place from 10Th July morning until 17Th July | |
morning. | |
# Social medias | |
Because I want this event to be a nice moment to share with others, you | |
can contact me so I can add your blog (including gopher/gemini space) | |
to the future list below. | |
You can also join #oldcomputerchallenge on libera.chat IRC server. | |
prahou's blog, running a T42 with OpenBSD 6.9 i386 with hostname brouk | |
Joe's blog about the challenge and why they need it | |
Solene (this blog) running an iBook G4 with OpenBSD -current macppc with hostna… | |
(gopher link) matto's report using FreeBSD 13 on an Acer aspire one | |
cel's blog using Void Linux PPC on an Apple Powerbook G4 | |
Keith Burnett's blog using a T42 with an emphasis on using GUI software to see … | |
Kuchikuu's blog using a T60 running Debian (but specs out of the challenge) | |
Ohio Quilbio Olarte's blog using an MSI Wind netbook with OpenBSD | |
carcosa's blog using an ASUS eeePC netbook with Fedora i386 downgraded with ker… | |
Tekk's website, using a Dell Latitude D400 (2003) running Slackware 14.2 | |
# My setup | |
I use an old iBook G4 laptop (the one I already use "offline"), it has | |
a single PowerPC G4 1.3 GHz CPU and 512 MB of ram and a slow 40GB HDD. | |
The wifi is broken so I have to use a Wifi dongle but I will certainly | |
rely on ethernet. The screen has a 1024x768 resolution but the colors | |
are pretty bad. | |
In regards to software it runs OpenBSD 6.9 with /home/ encrypted which | |
makes performance worse. I use ratpoison as the window manager because | |
it saves screen space and requires little memory and CPU to run and is | |
entirely keyboard driven, that laptop has only a left click touchpad | |
button :). | |
I love that laptop and initially I wanted to see how far I could use | |
for my daily driver! | |
Picture of the laptop | |
Screenshot of the laptop |