> 
 > On Tue, 17 Jun 1997, David Jones wrote:
 > 
 > > Part of the appeal of NetBSD is that it runs on a great number of older
 > > workstation equipment that large companies are getting rid of, but which
 > > still has enough power to be a "nice box". e.g. Sparc 2, HP 425, Sun 3/280,
 > > etc.
 > > Is there a more accurate term for the practice of running 5-year old
 > > workstations?
 > 
 > I think frugality is a good term for it.  In my mind retrocomputing refers
 > to software and hardware that is far enough out of date that the primary
 > value of using it is the experience, rather than achieving a practical
 > goal like serving users.  Running a 386-40 is frugal, running a
 > Microvax II is, at least if recieved in the condition I received the one I
 > played with, very much retro.   Even a Mac+, an ancient sun 2 ('tho I
 > haven't even seen one to judge) or an 8086 is simply frugality.  Running a
 > Lisa/Mac XL (which is very similar to the Mac+ ) is retro.  Most anything
 > not ~100% PC compatible before 1985-6 is retro.  Even the NeXTs have a
 > certain retro appeal to me.   

I agree, something like an '11 is really left over from the last ice
age, so it would be, say, canonical or Jurassic retrocomputing. Even in
their day, I think they were hard to get up and keep going, so today it
is almost the equivalent to having a running Model T.

Then there is a whole class of desktop hardware that is old, sure, but
running it is just eccentric and cheap, so it's real cool that you can
run netbsd-current on it, but its only mid-retro. Kind of like having a
60's dodge.

I'm not sure how to classify the big vaxen. (...typing in the cold
start program in hex...doing all installs directly from the Berkeley
9-track tape...unless it was a Mt Xinu site...)  It sure felt wierd
when we threw a 750 in a dumpster for the first time. We have a really
loaded-up one that would have been in the dumpster years ago except
it's in storage, so we keep forgetting that we still have it.

----------------------
Ross Harvey	Avalon Computer Systems, Inc.		  ross@teraflop.com
		Santa Barbara	 		    http://www.teraflop.com