Re: [seul-edu] RE: X-terminals

[Ben Armstrong <synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca>]

On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 09:38:08AM -0500, Jay Drew wrote:
> I have a lab full of old but good IBM PS/2 286 workstations that will soon
> be gracing a local landfill. Has anyone tried using these as LINUX
> terminals? Will they handle running as X-terminals? I hate to see working
> computers thrown away.

The 286 processor lacks a MMU (Memory Management Unit) and therefore is
unsuitable for Linux.  The earliest x86 processor supported by Linux is
the 386.  There is a project, "Elks", which would be a port of Linux to
the 8086 (and therefore also 80286) architecture, but it is still very
alpha quality work (last I checked anyway).  Besides, I use 486 systems as
X terminals and they are only just adequate (well, provided you have a
DX2/66 or better, they're OK for web browsing, but my kids do complain
about the speed).  386en are less than adequate.  You're really scraping
the bottom of the barrel with a 286 for graphics performance, so I doubt
if there's any life left in these as X terminals, even if Elks were
mature.  On the other hand, anyone with a freenet/community network
needing text-only dialup terminals might find these of interest.

Ben
-- 
    nSLUG       http://www.nslug.ns.ca      synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca
    Debian      http://www.debian.org       synrg@debian.org
[ pgp key fingerprint = 7F DA 09 4B BA 2C 0D E0  1B B1 31 ED C6 A9 39 4F ]
[ gpg key fingerprint = 395C F3A4 35D3 D247 1387  2D9E 5A94 F3CA 0B27 13C8 ]