Mail Archives: opendos/2001/03/09/11:11:14
I suppose our problem is a little unique.. We are a volume recycler, and
receive hundreds of computers without any of the manuals or software,
and wiped hard drives. We are reasonably adept at getting DRDOS/Linux
(and Win95/98 when available) running on these machines. We then donate
them to schools and other non-profits. DRDOS/OPENDOS is a great platform
for these older machines, and Arachne provides good internet tools.
Most manufacturers provide support for their older products, and drivers
are available over the Internet for most of the hardware we encounter.
We seem to hit a wall with certain manufacturers that appear to have no
interest in their customers after money changes hands. It appears
Toshiba is one of those.
It's a shame; we have low income clients that could use these machines
to advantage if they had modems, but Toshibas have only one external com
port; so you can't have an external modem and a mouse at the same time.
Which brings us to the pcmcia port and the lack of software support for
it. The pcmcia modems and ethernet cards we have were also donated and
the software didn't come with them. Microcom is now a part of Compaq,
and Compaq doesn't have support for older Microcom stuff. I keep hoping
there's someone out there that has something in their "stash" that will
let us use these machines for Internet access. Other wise, they will
probable end up in the landfill.
--
Tom Webb
Come visit at http://wordwonder.com
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