Sender: root AT falcon DOT prod DOT itd DOT earthlink DOT net Message-ID: <3AA8FFE1.C6F7EBFA@earthlink.net> Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2001 09:08:02 -0700 From: Thomas Webb Organization: WordWonder.Com X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.75 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.17 i586) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: opendos AT delorie DOT com Subject: Re: PCMIA struggles References: <004701c0a8a8$50043900$0400a8c0 AT alain-nb> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Reply-To: opendos AT delorie DOT com 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