What to do with a 486

My friend is giving me an old 100-MHz 486 with 24 MB RAM. What would be the best OS/thing to with this, or should I refuse it?

uum.. get it just for fun and play with it ...

get Win95 and see what happens...

then stick a GeForce 2 ti4600 in and go play Morrowind with it :D

-Emo

Load Redhat Linux 7.3, MySQL, Apache, PHP, and then phpbb and report back so l don't have to do it ;)


Have used 486s to test vb program distributions as well

I used my 486 to test my new hammer and electrical pliers, how do you use yours?

i gave it to a tall african dude who said he wanted ot donate it to a school in africa. wonder what ever happened to it...

you could put wfw311 on it and network it to your machine. Maybe a webserver?

Linux and webserver

load linux on there and make it into a router

If you got the right software you could run it as a firewall. :rolleyes:

Install Windows NT and use it as a file server

Take out the hard drive (and any other writeable disks), then get it to run Linux or BSD as a Router or Firewall - should be very secure.

Or practice writing your own BIOS with it.

I had a 386 given to me once. I took out the 600mb hard drive and use it for a laugh when friends come over. I also saved the screws and jumpers. The rest went to the dumpster.
Michael

Quote:

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Originally posted by msimmons
I had a 386 given to me once. I took out the 600mb hard drive and use it for a laugh when friends come over. I also saved the screws and jumpers. The rest went to the dumpster.
Michael

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600MB? that's pretty hefty for a 386. Hehe. I kept the screws and stuff from mine too. and the speaker and LEDs for some bizarre reason. and the BIOS chip for an equally unknown reason. :confused:

Quote:

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Originally posted by ricmitch_uk

600MB? that's pretty hefty for a 386.

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you are correct, I was thinking about another hd I have (i actualy use the 600mb (sad)) but the one from the 386 was 1mb or 1.44 but it was twice the (physical) size of a hd today.
Michael

i have a 386 with win 3.1 and all i do is just mess around with it when im bored.

Donate it to charity and take it as a tax write-off at the end of the year.

Whack Linux on :)

put linux on, add an nic, and sell it on ebay as a dedicated server ;)

Well, it came with Win95. I'll probably just leave that on there, as the CD-ROM went missing (it was a Discman anyway), and I don't feel like installing something like Linux off floppies :D

if it has an NIC, you can load one of those linux dist. that fits on 1 floppy, then set up a computer connected to it with the linux cd in its cd drive, then network from the connected computer....

or you could install from one computer, then transfer the hard drive (I once installed win98 in my computer, then transfered the HD to a completely different computer :p )

Red Hat will install over HTTP. OpenBSD will install by connecting to their server in Canada.

Use DOS :)

Run it over with a truck a few times smear some paint on it and call it modern art.