On Wed, 28 Jul 2004, Bob George wrote: > Day Brown wrote: > > > I dont think of folks trying to run a network with a SURVPC; > > Many do! I knew quite a few folks who used a 386 with Linux as a > firewall and home server just fine. While an old kernel may be asking > for trouble for such a device, a new (equally small) kernel should be as > robust as any other modern configuration. > > > I expect folks want to continue to run text editors and small > > business database tools, like what they've been doing in DOS. So... > > how do the Linux tools stack up on a SURVPC with the DOS-OS/2 tools > > folks have been using? > > Perhaps they have an ISP that requires PPP options not available under > DOS or OS/2? Or they want spam filtering capabilities not available > under either? If an old PC can be made to run current software, it makes > a GREAT surv-gateway along the lines of what's been discussed on this > list many times! Use the "high horsepower" machine for DOS, windows or > whatever old software you love, while using a small, fast and modern > Linux on the "old" box to talk to that ISP or do other things your > beloved stuff can't. > > Not to mention that there a lot of people who'd love to run Linux but > simply don't have the appropriate hardware. This may be a good solution > for them. Not everybody with an old PC is necessarily unwilling to > replace DOS with Linux.
There's also the newest of the old to answer to such needs. Older Linux kernels of the 2.x branch are still being developed. Freesco - the router/firewall I use - has recently come out with a new release based on the latest 2.0.x kernel - 2.0.40. I am still using the previous release, that uses the 2.0.39 kernel, but plan on upgrading in the next few months. The system is rock solid and secure: last reboot was in April. Here's an excerpt from the Freesco site on the new release: "Boot speed has been improved dramaticly, so that 033 can run effectively on a 386 as well as much quicker on any speed CPU. Shutdown speed has been increased to around 5 to 10 seconds on any speed CPU. Your mileage may vary." My Freesco runs on a hotrod PPro 180 with 24MB RAM and 64MB CF disk/HD. Freesco had backed off a bit on the minimum system requirements for the last 0.3.2 release (which were previously: 386 DX with 6MB RAM), but it looks like the 0.3.3 release could run on such a system. It also needs to be noted that, since Freesco is now undergoing very active development, many add-on packages are being compiled for it against the 2.0.x kernels: Apache, sendmail, Squid, ssh, vpn stuff, php - etc, etc. Networking for survpc's? Looks like from 386 DX on up Freesco does about anything you'd need. James
