By: Jeff Field
NewsForge Columnist
Hardware review

My articles recently have all focused on new hardware — the latest and greatest that is available. However, this ignores one of the strong points of Linux: that it can function on hardware that by today’s standards is rather old. This is useful for schools, and for those who can’t afford that brand new laptop, but can probably afford a used 486-33 laptop from EBay.

The key to getting Linux to make old hardware useful is to not expect too much of it. A 486-33 simply will not run Mandrake 7.1 with Gnome 1.2 and all the latest bells and whistles. It will, however, run a minimal version of X with a light-weight window manager. So, you need to plan accordingly. You’ll also want a light-weight kernel with as few options as possible to conserve memory, and you’ll want whatever distribution you use to be as small as possible — the bare essentials.

What will this give you? Well, in the case of a laptop, you will have a machine suitable for typing, taking notes, doing spreadsheet work, checking e-mail, and even browsing the Web. If you feel you can live without a GUI, you’re even better off. Once you get a network card or modem that works with Linux into the thing you will have a fully functional laptop with Internet capabilities, something which can definately come in handy if you are in need of computing on the road, but can’t afford much. In the world of Windows, this would (essentially) be dead hardware, but thanks to Linux and its focus on being able to run on a wide range of hardware and without heaps of space and RAM, you’ve now got an mobile Internet-capable machine, capable of doing real-world work, to an extent.

What about on the desktop? I know many people who have 386 and 486 systems lying around their house — machines they don’t think are worth doing anything with — not good enough to be given away, not quite old enough just to throw out.

Well, fear not, that machine can be made useful again. With a little work, you can get Linux installed on it and have a fine machine for someone to use for word processing or Web browsing. With a desktop, it’s even easier than the case of a laptop, because you can probably get an ATAPI CD-ROM running, and you might be able to get X running at 640*480*256. You aren’t going to be able to get Netscape 4.x running on it, but perhaps a Web browser like BrowseX, which is focused on being fully functional and small and fast (and, coincidentally, was featured in an article here recently), and runs well on a machine with 12 megs of RAM! Again, this is a great example of Open Source programming going back to its roots — back to when programs didn’t need a quarter-gigabyte of RAM just because the programmers knew most people would have it or could get it.

In the end, given maybe $50 worth of hardware, you can build a system for someone to use as a Web browser or a word processor, or something for a child interested in computers to toy around with without worrying about breaking it. A computer like this could even be given as a gift; it’s a nice starting point for someone wanting to get into computers, or for someone who doesn’t need bells and whistles. For instance, I’m planning on building a machine like this for my grandfather — all he wants to do is be able to type up and print out newsletters he sends out to the family and to his classmates, who he still talks to, and perhaps get in email contact with our family. For things like this, a machine like this is perfect: inexpensive and effecient.

The UK is tickled pink about the Sinclair ZX81 bursting back on the scene at a computer reseller’s store in the US. It may have a little trouble with compatibility, however. From a report at ZDCOUK.

Techweb reports that thousands of consumers in the United States were
billed an average of nearly $250 apiece last month for
videotext services that they did not know had been
accessed through their telephone lines, the Federal
Trade Commission said, citing a sample of complaints it
received.

ZDCOUK reports that by Christmas, computer engineers hope to launch a program that
could confound those trying to sue the likes of Napster by
providing complete anonymity for online music sharers.

For most open source projects, news of an overlooked security hole is simply part of the debugging
process. But for the developers of OpenBSD, an operating system whose design motto is “secure by
default,” it’s nothing short of an affront. From a report at Upside Today.

ZDNET is taking a close look at the anomalies of the cube – right out of the box.

An article in the New York Times reports on yesterday’s oral arguments on the Eldred v. Reno case.
-Anonymous Reader. ed. note: further information is found in the extended copy. The government tries to claim that the “system as a whole” provides an increased incentive to authors over the former law. Unfortunately for the government, this argument was anticipated and criticized months ago by this essay which points out that “No work not published before January 1, 1978 can ever qualify for the 67-year renewal term. Hence the extended renewal term cannot … be argued to provide an indirect incentive to future creators by virtue of being part of a uniform regulatory system which by its overall structure provides the incentive, since it applies only to an obsolete system which is no current author is able to take advantage of.” Then there is the Congressional Research Service Report 98-144E, “Copyright Term Extension: Estimating the Economic Values” by Edward Rappaport, May 11, 1998, which has this evaluation of the incentive
Provided by the life-plus-seventy term for new works: “The additional incentive afforded by adding 20 years to the current life plus 50 appears to be small compared to the already existing incentive. This is due to two considerations: the small probability of a work surviving as long as the current term, and the effect of time-discounting of future incomes.â€

The Washington Post reports that the experiment in question is “fusing sturdy Unix underpinnings with a shiny Mac interface. This could have easily resulted in a train wreck of an operating system.”

Oslo, October 5, 2000 – Opera Software today released a Beta version of
Opera 4.0 for Linux, bringing the browser for Linux one
step closer to a final release. Opera 4.0 for Linux is part of Opera Software’s ambitious project to port
its Opera browser to the most popular platforms in the market.

“Opera 4.0 for Linux has now reached a stage where we reach out and invite
the Linux community to participate in the development of the browser even
more closely than before,” says Hakon W. Lie, Chief Technology Officer,
Opera Software. “This is a great release, and with the help of Linux
aficionados everywhere a final release will come faster, be stronger, and
result in a browser that Linux users can identify with,” he ends.

Opera for Linux 4.0 has the following features:
Support for plug-ins
128 bit encryption
TLS 1.0
SSL 2/3
CSS1 and 2
XML
HTML 4.0
HTTP 1.1
ECMAScript
JavaScript 1.3.
WML

Opera has until now been known as “the third browser” on Windows. It has
achieved this position with limited expenditures on marketing, only relying
on enthusiastic users and journalists spreading the word. Opera’s small
size, low resource consumption and support for standards positions it in the rapidly expanding Internet device market. In the last
year the company has raised capital, and added personnel in marketing,
sales, and R&D. Apart from Linux and Windows, Opera also develops browsers
for EPOC, Mac, and BeOS platforms.

Opera Software AS is a developer of Web browsers
for the desktop and device markets. The Opera browser has received
international recognition from end-users and the industry press. Opera
Software AS is a privately held company headquartered in Oslo, Norway. Learn
more about Opera at www.opera.com

CONTACT:
Opera Software AS
Pal Hvistendahl, Communications Manager, pal@opera.com, +47 99 72 4331

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