[rescue] AIX N40 Tadpole

[Justin Haynes]

Rescue -

Sorry about the digression.  What I'd really like to say is that if there
are any historic UNIX or other laptops that are unusual for some reason;
they would have a happy home.


On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 1:23 PM, Justin Haynes <justin at justinhaynes.com>wrote:

> Ian, *exactly*.  I was so frustrated when I heard that.  Likely, they just
> threw them in a dumpster or let some kids tear them apart:
> https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/invtreports/tx072004.html
>
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 1:15 PM, Ian Finder <ian.finder at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Ugh. And what do you think they charter school even did with them? I'll
>> bet
>> they had no idea what to do and once they found out they couldn't run
>> Windows 98 they probably eCycled them...
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 8:59 AM, Justin Haynes <justin at justinhaynes.com
>> >wrote:
>>
>> > Rescue -
>> >
>> > If I could go back and do this over again, I would.  I used to work at
>> > University of Houston and at the time was the property custodian for my
>> > department.  As such I could go to property management and pull items
>> from
>> > storage that were mostly ultimately destined for recycling or various
>> other
>> > non-profit or privileged organizations who could come and take their
>> pick.
>> >
>> > There was a pile of Tadpole N40 laptops and I checked out a couple.  I
>> > finally checked them back in, thinking maybe I'd buy one at auction.
>>  But
>> > before that could happen, a "charter school" came and took them.  It
>> was a
>> > school later mentioned on the radio as one of many who were taking
>> > advantage of public funds and leaving disadvantaged kids with less of an
>> > education than the public alternative.
>> >
>> > At any rate, they ran AIX and and almost no battery life at all, but
>> they
>> > represented an interesting slice of time at what I read as the very end
>> of
>> > the UNIX wars where there was a market, but not much of one, for small
>> > laptops that matched the architecture of big iron.
>> >
>> > Does anyone have one of these today?  I'd be interested in preserving
>> one.
>> > My SPARCbook 3gx is a delight.  I don't use it often, but I will
>> preserve
>> > it and keep it alive, bootable and usable.  I'd do the same for the N40.
>> >
>> > I run OpenBSD on the 3gx but I have all the media for Solaris.  I know I
>> > could always put Solaris back on the box.  But I think it is a
>> testament to
>> > the architecture that a software project can choose to maintain a
>> modern OS
>> > for an older architecture and that it can still be usable today.
>> >
>> > If I had an N40, I'd keep AIX on it, because I think this platform is so
>> > rare as to be really dififcult to find.  (Any disagreements here?)  If
>> > anyone wants to make space who has one, I'd be interested in preserving.
>> >
>> > Thanks!,
>> >
>> > Justin.
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>    Ian Finder
>>    (206) 395-MIPS
>>    ian.finder at gmail.com
>> _______________________________________________
>> rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue