Retro/Vintage computer and tech zone?

[HeckinTech]

It'd be fantastic to have a whole sub-section just for Retro and Vintage tech related stuff!
I've got some late 90's and early 2000's projects that I've just GOT to get way too excited about

[manikyath]

i agree that a retro tech section would be cool, but i immediately see two problems:

1: there's douzens of us.. (or probably more acccurately.. half a douzen of us)

2: the line between retro/vintage tech and people posting 'look, old computer' when they see a P4 is worryingly thin, and almost impossible to define in a set of rules.

[BiotechBen]

6 minutes ago, manikyath said:

i agree that a retro tech section would be cool, but i immediately see two problems:

1: there's douzens of us.. (or probably more acccurately.. half a douzen of us)

2: the line between retro/vintage tech and people posting 'look, old computer' when they see a P4 is worryingly thin, and almost impossible to define in a set of rules.

 

43 minutes ago, HeckinTech said:

It'd be fantastic to have a whole sub-section just for Retro and Vintage tech related stuff!
I've got some late 90's and early 2000's projects that I've just GOT to get way too excited about

Newest for retro is P2. 

Flow the Pennsylvania Dept of Transportation classification for antique vehicles: 25yrs. 

As for finding other retro enthusiasts on the forum:

https://linustechtips.com/topic/90677-show-off-your-old-and-retro-computer-parts/

[HeckinTech]

Aahhh, good points. Yeah, the definition of "retro" is going to differ greatly depending on who you ask, so where do you draw the line? I WOULD consider a P4 retro enough myself! Anything natively windows XP or older, is comfortably in my "retro" realm (though, DOS to win98 is definitely the sweet spot for me) 

[BiotechBen]

1 hour ago, HeckinTech said:

Aahhh, good points. Yeah, the definition of "retro" is going to differ greatly depending on who you ask, so where do you draw the line? I WOULD consider a P4 retro enough myself! Anything natively windows XP or older, is comfortably in my "retro" realm (though, DOS to win98 is definitely the sweet spot for me) 

Less than 500mhz is retro, less than 5mhz is antique.

[LogicalDrm]

Just for showing off or general discussion, the existing thread is probably enough. For projects and help on projects, you can use General Discussion. Or Build Logs if suitable.

[Rex Hite]

Vintage content could be a lot of fun. Maybe not the best strategy for attracting tech sponsors, though. But maybe other sponsors might see value in that sort of content.

I think a version of this forum that would permit posting from increasingly older operating systems on old hardware could be a fun exercise. Sort of  reverse bragging rights. For instance, someone could post their Win98 PC from a Win98 browser. And then someone could beat that with a Win95 machine or a DOS browser or old Macintosh system. Maybe even going back to CP/M or similar. There are arcane ways to do these things.

A tech sub-culture that turns the clock back, running Moore's law in reverse to see who can get the most BASIC.

But also some practical advice on getting new life from not quite so ancient hardware as well.

[LogicalDrm]

7 hours ago, Rex Hite said:

Vintage content could be a lot of fun. Maybe not the best strategy for attracting tech sponsors, though. But maybe other sponsors might see value in that sort of content.

I think a version of this forum that would permit posting from increasingly older operating systems on old hardware could be a fun exercise. Sort of  reverse bragging rights. For instance, someone could post their Win98 PC from a Win98 browser. And then someone could beat that with a Win95 machine or a DOS browser or old Macintosh system. Maybe even going back to CP/M or similar. There are arcane ways to do these things.

A tech sub-culture that turns the clock back, running Moore's law in reverse to see who can get the most BASIC.

But also some practical advice on getting new life from not quite so ancient hardware as well.

Posting is already allowed, so what are you talking about? Also creating whole new forum is even more pointless.

 

Our reasoning with subforums is same to most subjects. There needs to be enough weekly activity to keep sub going. With these more niche subjects, they are compared to other, less active subs. Like Hobby Electronics, Home Theater Equipment and probably Mobile Gaming.

[Rex Hite]

The browsers I tried  for Win98 wouldn't render the pages correctly and would not permit me to log in to the forum.

Which ones work?

 

[Spotty]

1 hour ago, Rex Hite said:

The browsers I tried  for Win98 wouldn't render the pages correctly and would not permit me to log in to the forum.

Which ones work?

Current versions of major browsers are supported by the forum. Older versions of browsers may work, but support is not provided for them and compatibility is not guaranteed.

 

16 hours ago, Rex Hite said:

I think a version of this forum that would permit posting from increasingly older operating systems on old hardware could be a fun exercise. Sort of  reverse bragging rights. For instance, someone could post their Win98 PC from a Win98 browser. And then someone could beat that with a Win95 machine or a DOS browser or old Macintosh system. Maybe even going back to CP/M or similar. There are arcane ways to do these things.

Maintaining support for additional or obsolete browsers demands additional developer resources. There's no plans to dedicate limited developer resources to adapting the forum to be compatible with decades old obsolete web browsers for the 2 people who might want to try and access the forum from old hardware for bragging rights. Developer resources are better spent maintaining support for current web browsers and feature improvements that the entire community can benefit from.
For security reasons, when connecting to the internet I would recommend using operating systems and web browsers that are still receiving support and security updates.

[Vishera]

18 hours ago, Rex Hite said:

The browsers I tried  for Win98 wouldn't render the pages correctly and would not permit me to log in to the forum.

Which ones work?

 

I am having a flawless browsing experience on Windows 2000 with the Serpent Basilisk Browser...

[LogicalDrm]

18 hours ago, Rex Hite said:

The browsers I tried  for Win98 wouldn't render the pages correctly and would not permit me to log in to the forum.

Which ones work?

 

Oh, you meant using forum with niche browsers. Thats whole another discussion point. In where question begins with, why would we need to support something like that? Surely you are using something modern and supported as daily driver and then have older tech as hobby pieces? I doubt anyone expects forums to work with console built-in browsers either as no one has that as their only daily tech item.

[Needfuldoer]

I don't think an entire subforum is necessary here. We have the showoff thread, retro PC tech questions can always go in the appropriate existing boards, and sites like Vogons and TinkerDifferent can far more thoroughly fill that niche.

  

On 10/22/2022 at 11:36 AM, Rex Hite said:

The browsers I tried  for Win98 wouldn't render the pages correctly and would not permit me to log in to the forum.

Which ones work?

Assuming you got it to handle SSL properly, K-Meleon is probably your best bet. (It's distantly related to Firefox, using a fork of the Gecko engine.)

 

http://kmeleonbrowser.org/wiki/InstallerForWindows98

[Beerzerker]

Thing is a retro section, while it may be of interest to some isn't what LTT itself is about.
I don't see vids or reviews of things that's "Vintage" being profiled here, only the latest and (Supposedly) greatest are what's covered.

Vogons is one such place vintage hardware is covered and the theme of their site which is fine - And they aren't the only place such is covered.
There is a thread about showing off your old stuff here and that's about it but at least it's there and can be used. However I believe the OP is wanting something more along the lines of actual technical info, not just a show off thread.

Even my "Home" site is largely about the older stuff and does cover some newer things too but at the same time, it does have alot of technical info that's no longer found easily - Said info contributed by guys that actually know about it from years of personal experience like I have and yes, I also contribute.

However for such a dedicated section, it just doesn't fit what LTT is about so no - I don't believe there will be such a section created here.

[AlexQC]

On 10/21/2022 at 3:19 AM, HeckinTech said:

It'd be fantastic to have a whole sub-section just for Retro and Vintage tech related stuff!
I've got some late 90's and early 2000's projects that I've just GOT to get way too excited about

Ha! I had those Cambridge Soundworks speakers in 5.1 configuration with my Pentium III but they were black...

[GeorgeMKane]

On 10/21/2022 at 5:10 AM, LogicalDrm said:

Just for showing off or general discussion, the existing thread is probably enough. For projects and help on projects, you can use General Discussion. Or Build Logs if suitable.

I feel like that does cover it too, but maybe a sub-division in build logs for retro / vintage / sleeper enthusiasts would be cool. For that one topic, I would have to go searching through the whole topic for something someone posted maybe a year ago, but was really cool. With separate topics in a subdivision, it would be way easier to search and give feedback/praise/constructive criticism/etc.