Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   RevK :verified_r: (revk@toot.me.uk)'s status on Sunday, 17-Nov-2024 20:21:21 JST RevK :verified_r:

   • Neil Brown

   @neil You know some of us used an 80x25 text only screen and keyboard (connected via a serial line) all day, long before these new fangled "browser" things.

   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 17-Nov-2024 20:26:04 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Neil Brown
     • random thoughts

     @hittitezombie @revk @neil Back in 1991 a department of 14 of us shared a single 33MHz 386 with 16MB of RAM and a Stallion OnBoard 32-port RS-232 multiplexer driving about 16 Wyse 70 terminals and a couple of laser printers. Worked just fine, you got used to being a human type-ahead buffer b/c those TTYs were only updating at 9600 baud so it took about a second for vi to refresh a full screen.

     John Pendleton repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     random thoughts (hittitezombie@mastodon.me.uk)'s status on Sunday, 17-Nov-2024 20:26:05 JST random thoughts

     in reply to

     • Neil Brown

     @revk @neil
     Or just a 1200 baud modem, connecting to international numbers over very noisy lines...

     John Pendleton repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 17-Nov-2024 20:43:27 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Neil Brown
     • random thoughts

     @hittitezombie @revk @neil I was working in SCO Techpubs in the EMEA headquarters in Watford, just inside the M25 (London suburbia, in other words). The next year we began to upgrade to X terminals then Open Desktop workstations for all, but I came in at the tail end of the "your PC is a mainframe! Just add SCO and a terminal multiplexer" era. Actually, compared to the previous decade's PDP-11s a 386 was pretty powerful.

   • Embed this notice
     random thoughts (hittitezombie@mastodon.me.uk)'s status on Sunday, 17-Nov-2024 20:43:29 JST random thoughts

     in reply to

     • Neil Brown
     • Charlie Stross

     @cstross @revk @neil 91 I was in high school, but about a decade later, similar setup were still in use with various Turkish companies, and I worked for the SCO Unix channel main reseller providing advice and support. Painful days...

   • Embed this notice
     Michael K Johnson (mcdanlj@social.makerforums.info)'s status on Sunday, 17-Nov-2024 21:24:34 JST Michael K Johnson

     in reply to

     • Neil Brown
     • Charlie Stross
     • random thoughts

     @cstross @hittitezombie @revk @neil In 1991, I happily tended the VAX in the chilled server room, in part because I was able to use the blisteringly-fast 9600 bps console terminal instead of the 2400 bps terminals elsewhere that I had to use the rest of the time. Got a lot done, both ways!

     (They conserved money in the form of wire and VAX ports, by 4:1 multiplexing four 2400 bps RS-232 VT-102s onto a single 9600 bps RS-422 with custom hardware, and demuxed with modified drivers on the VAX; thus the 2400 bps limitation when not at the console terminal.)