[wplug] FreeDOS

[Michael Semcheski]

Chris Ott wrote:
> Okaay... They can't use floppy disks, yet they won't get you a new
> system... What's wrong with this picture? I say, let them mutiny. If
> they get frustrated enough, they'll cough up the cash.
> 
>> Old, small hard drives in good
>> condition are not cheap or easy to find.
> 
> 
> Again I say: let them mutiny.

The underlying problem is that we need to use old machines.  We have an
ISA device that is about 15 years old that apparently will not run on a
machine faster than 200mhz.

This leads to three problems:
--The devices we have that fit the requirements are old and prone to
failure.
--We're stuck with old Pentiums, which have old BIOS's, which only
support old small hard drives, which are all long since out of warranty,
and are also getting well past their manufacturer expected life-time.
--Where do you want to go today?  Windows 98 says "Out to pasture!"

That the system is old and slow with small disks is not really the
problem.  The problem is old and slow systems are hard to find parts
for, and they get older every day.

That they run Windows 98 makes it impossible for us to run the whole
system from a floppy or CDROM (ala knoppix), adds headaches for us,
wastes everyone's time because it runs like a dog, is unstable, etc.
I'd like to get rid of the fixed-disk dependency, and the old,
unsupported, never-was-that-good-anyway operating system dependency.

Mike