Final results of my quest to run NetBSD 10.1 on my 486 system with obligatory fastfetch screen shot.

After getting NetBSD to install from floppies, the biggest challenge was getting it to use memory effectively, otherwise it would spend all its time on swap. Trick was building a custom kernel, turning off many of the daemons (syslogd, cron, ntpd, etc) and sysctl tuning.

Still a few more things I can do to lower the memory footprint, like using dropbear for ssh instead of openssh. Right now though it's relatively usable over ssh, few pauses here and there be generally responsive. Going to try X11 next, which will be interesting.

As for specs, the system is heavily Gateway 2000 486DX2-66Mhz "Family PC" slimline desktop circa 1994. Very similar to my first PC (mine was a 50Mhz version with no PCI slots).

- Anigma LP4IP1 motherboard, 3x ISA and 2x PCI on a riser card
- AMD X5-133Mhz AWD CPU @ 100Mhz (upgraded from the 66Mhz) with a 40mm Noctua fan
- 48Mb of memory
- 4Gb Industrial Compact Flash card in IDE adapter
- ATI Mach64 PCI video card
- Intel Pro 10/100 PCI network card
- ATX4VC with an 80 watt PicoPSU
- Gotek floppy emulator
- GW-12887-1 Dallas DS12887 RTC Replacement clock
- 80mm Noctua case fan

#netbsd #bsd #retrocomputing #486 #fastfetch

Final results of my quest to run NetBSD 10.1 on my 486 system with obligatory fastfetch screen shot.

After getting NetBSD to install from floppies, the biggest challenge was getting it to use memory effectively, otherwise it would spend all its time on swap. Trick was building a custom kernel, turning off many of the daemons (syslogd, cron, ntpd, etc) and sysctl tuning.

Still a few more things I can do to lower the memory footprint, like using dropbear for ssh instead of openssh. Right now though it's relatively usable over ssh, few pauses here and there be generally responsive. Going to try X11 next, which will be interesting.

As for specs, the system is heavily Gateway 2000 486DX2-66Mhz "Family PC" slimline desktop circa 1994. Very similar to my first PC (mine was a 50Mhz version with no PCI slots).

- Anigma LP4IP1 motherboard, 3x ISA and 2x PCI on a riser card
- AMD X5-133Mhz AWD CPU @ 100Mhz (upgraded from the 66Mhz) with a 40mm Noctua fan
- 48Mb of memory
- 4Gb Industrial Compact Flash card in IDE adapter
- ATI Mach64 PCI video card
- Intel Pro 10/100 PCI network card
- ATX4VC with an 80 watt PicoPSU
- Gotek floppy emulator
- GW-12887-1 Dallas DS12887 RTC Replacement clock
- 80mm Noctua case fan

#netbsd #bsd #retrocomputing #486 #fastfetch

Since 2012, Arthur O'Dwyer has had an updating web page called The Search for LONG0751 about a lost version of Adventure that was playable on Compuserve. It has long been one of the top early "missing" games.

It is now found and playable:

https://quuxplusone.github.io/blog/2025/12/29/long0751/

#retrogaming #retrocomputing #adventuergame #videogames #textadventure #history

It's a long shot but anyone out there on the fediverse have access to a CT scanner?

I've been looking to image certain rare cards like my Vermont Microsystems IM-1024 to see if we can non-destructively resolve inner traces.

Commercial services have quoted me $1200-$1500 for this, which is just not in my budget.

#retrocomputing

It's a long shot but anyone out there on the fediverse have access to a CT scanner?

I've been looking to image certain rare cards like my Vermont Microsystems IM-1024 to see if we can non-destructively resolve inner traces.

Commercial services have quoted me $1200-$1500 for this, which is just not in my budget.

#retrocomputing

Annonce : je recherche un câble link RS232 pour Psion 5MX, si jamais vous avez ça dans un tiroir ou que vous en voyez un dans le grenier de vos parents.

#retrofit #psion #retrocomputing

The Commodore 64 Ultimate is really a masterclass in how to make a new #retrocomputing product the right way.

While I don't have one, I really appreciate the attention to details and the way they're marketing it.

Also astounding that there were so many naysayers (I unfollowed or blocked so many retrocomputing people who were outright hostile to it). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Since 2012, Arthur O'Dwyer has had an updating web page called The Search for LONG0751 about a lost version of Adventure that was playable on Compuserve. It has long been one of the top early "missing" games.

It is now found and playable:

https://quuxplusone.github.io/blog/2025/12/29/long0751/

#retrogaming #retrocomputing #adventuergame #videogames #textadventure #history

Annonce : je recherche un câble link RS232 pour Psion 5MX, si jamais vous avez ça dans un tiroir ou que vous en voyez un dans le grenier de vos parents.

#retrofit #psion #retrocomputing

Nemanja Trifunovic revisits the story of why IBM went with MS-DOS instead of CP/M and discusses one important detail: why the 8086 port of CP/M was late and how much this influenced what followed.

https://nemanjatrifunovic.substack.com/p/the-late-arrival-of-16-bit-cpm?utm_medium=web

#cpm #cpm86 #retrocomputing

While cleaning a storage room, our staff found this tape containing #UNIX v4 from Bell Labs, circa 1973

Apparently no other complete copies are known to exist: https://gunkies.org/wiki/UNIX_Fourth_Edition

We have arranged to deliver it to the Computer History Museum

#retrocomputing

Oh sure, it's getting old and tired and the keys don't all sit at the same height anymore, and I keep reaching for a volume control that isn't there. And it's big and heavy and displaces my mousing a bit to the right because it's not a TKL. And the left alt key isn't where my fingers want it to be.

But those aren't failures. It's not obsolete. It's just not new, and that's okay. It still works fine, even on a completely different system to the one it was intended to work with. #retrocomputing

spaceball 2003 and a bit of pyserial - adafruit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zzY8cxKauU

#retro #retrocomputing

I will not buy an Altair clone. I will not buy an Altair clone. I will not buy an Altair clone. I will not buy an Altair clone.

https://www.tindie.com/products/kb0wwp/altair-duino-680/

#retrocomputing

I'm reading "Presentation Based User Interfaces", the dissertation and later revisions in which Eugene Ciccarelli laid the foundations of GUI frameworks such as Dynamic Windows of Symbolics Genera and CLIM.

https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/6946

https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/41161/AI_WP_219.pdf

#retrocomputing #lisp #CLIM #CommonLisp