What are you running on your machines?

[hunterjwizzard]

Yeah that's the nice thing about a setup like you've got. Its not that expensive to build but a whole lot of fun when you can find seven other people interested in joining you. Its really cool.

 

[Unknown_K]

I purchased Command and Conquer The ultimate Collection (was cheap on ebay) and it has Generals and Zero hour plus it is a digital only version so no CD check.

 

[JAXVintagePC]

Right. Does it have DRM? I remember that you cannot use it for LAN multiplayer.

 

[hunterjwizzard]

I have a couple of games in my inventory which cannot be played now thanks to DRM. Specifically, the validation services no longer exist. They make for nice choochkies, but will never be playable on period hardware.

 

[twmiller]

SE/30 - has a scsi2sd with System 6, System 7, and A/UX.
IBM 5160 - MS-DOS 5.0 w/ 4DOS 8.0
Tandon AT Clone - dual boots MS-DOS 6.22 and Xenix 286
80386 Clone - OS/2 Warp 3 running a T.A.G. BBS
80486 Clone - Has a CF card hanging off the back, so I can tinker with it. Right now it has NeXTSTEP 3.3
Pentium 100 - Has a CF card as well, and currently is running OS/2 Warp 4

 

[OzzFan]

I try to make it a point to run a different OS on most of my collection, and I try to make it period correct if I can. For example, I run standard MS-DOS 5 on my 386DX; OS/2 2.11 on my IBM PS/2 56SX, OS/2 3 Warp Connect on my IBM PS/2 model 77, PC DOS 7 on my Cyrix Cx5x86 100MHz. I had IBM OS/2 1.3 running on my IBM PS/2 Model 50Z but after the ESDI drive stopped working and I switched over to a McIDE so I could use some IDE hard drives I already have, and the drive I connected to it has MS-DOS 5 and Windows 3.1.

My "daily driver" that I use for writing DOS and Win3x programs is a Socket 4 system upgraded with a Pentium Overdrive 133MHz, 128MB of RAM, 1.6GB hard drive running Windows NT 3.51. It was a bit tricky to get it installed since NT 3.51's IDE driver doesn't seem to like drives with more than 1024 cylinders, so I had to borrow NT4's IDE driver as a replacement.

 

[creepingnet]

Tandy 1000A - MS-DOS 6.22 w/ Deskmate II and III (gets it's date and time over the internet using the SNP utility from mTCP)

Compaq Deskpro 386s/20 (w/IBM Blue Lightining BLX3) - MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1x

CreepingNet 486 is my daily driver - 8.4GB Drive w/ DOS 6.22/WFW311, 80GB w/ Win95 OSR 2.5, 80GB w/ FreeBSD 7.4, and a 128GB SATA SSD with FreeDOS 1.3 - it has a 5.25" mobile rack in it so it's a literal playground for operating systems

NEC Versa M/75CP - one drive has FreeDOS 1.2 (soon to be upgraded to 1.3), the other has DOS 7/WFW311/Win95 OSR 2.5 all on the same drive. I'm tempted to make the 2nd drive Windows 98 SE w/ 98lite only though with a WPA compliant WiFi utility so I can use it at home without using my cell phone for tethering.

NEC Versa P/75HC - Windows 95 OSR 2.5, tempted to do the same as I did to the M/75, and maybe build a second drive with FreeDOS for it, even downgrade the screen to 640x480.

NanTan Notebook FMAK9200 - MS-DOS 7.01/Windows For Workgroups 3.11 - this one is my most used of the laptops because of the SoundBlaster compatible sound card and color graphics but still being a 486.

NanTan FMA3500C - FreeDOS 1.3 - on an 80GB HDD, I finally figured out I could work around the controller limitations using a DDO, but it requires the Alternate Jumper Settings for the PC to let it use the drive in question

 

[cjs]

It's not about resources, it's about convenience. GUI is the most natural interface for human being. By the way GUI was on purpose designed to replace old fashioned command line one, since GUI is the most convenient and the most natural way of interaction between man and machine.

This is total rubbish, and you've simply betrayed how little you know about human-computer interaction.

While there certain situations where a GUI may be the best option for certain people, this is far from universal. My job is to manipulate computers all day, every day, and switching from command line to GUI would absolutely destroy my productivity. You need merely look at people complaining about Tesla cars to see that a GUI can be much worse even for "regular" people.

So, you may use your old machine in many tasks, but it will be a painful and ineffective way of doing things.

Well, it seems that many people here consider late-'80s and '90s computers to be "vintage," so that's dead wrong as well. In the mid-90s I was using a Sun 3/60 (released around 1985, though running software 5-8 years newer than that) as my work-from-home machine. My current desktop environment is essentially the same.

My personal experience was that the eraser-nubbin was a time-loser while the thumb-operated track pad (centered below the space bar) was more efficient than a separate mouse or trackball. But still not as efficient as keeping the thumb(s) positioned over the space bar. YMMV.

It depends on exactly what you're doing with the pointing device. I find the TrackPoint ("nubbin") far better than a trackpad for most uses, but my primary use for it is to switch focus in a point-to-focus system, so large moves don't need to be particularly accurate. It also works better for me for precision work such as selecting text (though not as well as a mouse, which has its own separate costs), but I suspect that is more about what I'm used to and trained on, rather than something inherent in the TrackPoint or trackpad designs themselves.

When I need to do a lot of precision work, such as schematics and PCB layout, I do primarily use a mouse.

 

[thisisamigaspeaking]

I don't use my retro systems regularly. I have some projects in the works for cross-platform demos and games but other than testing them or showing them off to guests, the work is going to be primarily done on my M2 Pro Mac. I also have plans to make some youtube videos of old systems in action.

I'd be worried about ruining a system by leaving it powered on, for example my favorite, a Sun SPARCStation 10 with 2x 60MHz CPU and ZX 24-bit 3d graphics. I was very lucky to get a working ZX board at a reasonable price and I'd like to keep it working.

 

[Zare]

Same here. Only modern stuff is used day to day, the old boxes are stored until I get an idea about something.

My most used is Pentium 100 box with ARK1000PV graphics and Orpheus II/X16GS sound, running PC-DOS 2000. I occasionally hook it to 17" flat CRT and home PA and play some games.