A Quora question I just had to share

I wrote an answer to a question on Quora that stroked my nostalgia, and fed my early to mid 90's geek.

I had so much fun writing the answer I just wanted to share it here.

In 1995 when Windows 95 came out, I was already a computer repair technician for ectra tech computers and then for sears, and had already started my own company, Denny's Computers.

It feels so dated now, but when Windows 95 first showed up, it was so much sleeker and sharper looking than Windows 3.11 that I was ecstatic. (It was a nightmare, but that I would learn in the coming months, thank goodness for Windows 98 SE.)..

Anyways, here was the question, and my answer. It really gives you a window into just how insanely much the computer industry has changed in 23 years:

How slowly would Windows 10 run on a typical Windows 95 machine, if you could get it running?

Dennis Gutowski, Owner/Operator at Denny's Computers (1993-present)

Answered 12m ago

If by some magical powers you got it to run, I would assume very slowly.

There is NO way to do so in reality though. Windows 95 machines are similar to Windows 10 machines only in the fact that they both can compute.

The architecture has changes so rapidly, and in so many ways that this is not a real world question.

Windows 95 machines were mostly 486’s with megahertz of processing power, not gigahertz like nowadays.

Here is the original needed specs for running Windows 95:

Personal computer with a 386DX or higher processor (486 recommended)

• I usually preferred the 486dx model, which had 20, 25 33 and 50 MHz (megahertz) ranges. Today’s average machine runs between 1500 and 3900 mhz, per core. quite often having more than 4 cores, roughly 4 3900 mhz computers in one.

4 megabytes (MB) of memory (8 MB recommended)

• most computers these days run between 4000 mb and 16000 mb.

Typical hard disk space required to upgrade to Windows 95: 35-40 MB The actual requirement varies depending on the features you choose to install.

*most hard disks run between 500,000 mb and 5,000,000 mb. These numbers are so large we call them gigabytes and terabytes.

Typical hard disk space required to install Windows 95 on a clean system: 50-55 MB The actual requirement varies depending on the features you choose to install

• I am currently running Kubuntu 18.04 LTS 64 bit edition. It’s complete footprint after installation is somewhere around 12 Gigabytes, or 12000 mb. And that’s just the operating system, no extra goodies.

One 3.5-inch high-density floppy disk drive

• a 3.5 inch high density floppy drive could store roughly 1.44mb of storage. Kubuntu’s ISO, which is what i used to install kubuntu, is 1800 mb, or 1,250 3.5″ floppies.

VGA or higher resolution (256-color SVGA recommended)

I hope I made my point.. the cellphone I have in my pocket is several hundred thousand times faster and more powerful in any way than a 486dx. And a modern cheap laptop from Walmart.com is by far more powerful than my cellphone.

It’s a neat thought experiment though, and it gave me a lot of nostalgia to think back on those days, because that’s when I was a wet behind the ears computer tech, so thank you for this question! :)

Installation guide for Slitaz 5 Rolling release

This guide is for machines that will only have Slitaz installed, not other Linux OS's or Windows versions. Following these instructions will remove any and all other OS's, and install Slitaz.

All of these pictures enlarge if you click them.

 First, under system tools, choose slitaz installer.

When this comes up, the password is root.

 Choose "install slitaz"

Next we need to set up a partition for slitaz. So choose "execute gparted"

Under device, choose "create partition table".

Make sure this box says "msdos", then click "apply" 

right click the un-allocated space and choose "new"

If you just want to use all the space available on the hard drive for slitaz, just click "add" here

You need to "apply all operations" to make these changes

after all the operations are completed, close this dialogue box.

right click the newly created partition, and and choose "manage flags"

choose "boot" here (it will be check marked) then click close.

close the gparted program, and then choose "continue installation" here. 

Where it says "install slitaz to partition:" choose our newly made ext4 partition

change the root password, the user login and the user password to whatever you like.

Remember to write this stuff down, unless you are certain you won't forget.

Make sure to select "install a bootloader", then click "proceed to slitaz installation"

this is the window that lets you know what slitaz is currently doing in the installation process.

when slitaz tells you in the text on the left that it is done. shut down the machine, remove any usb or cd-rom media in the machine, and reboot.

You should now be booting into a newly installed Slitaz.

Dear Mr. Lunduke, come back to reality, please.

If you are fans of Bryan Lunduke and his "The Lunduke Show" on Youtube, you may soon not be.

Bryan Lunduke announced in his "State of the Show" show for May that he would be sending his regular show to Patreon.com and that all that would be available on Youtube would be short clips of the show.

In his latest show, he compared his show, which is a unique, and interesting Linux based show, to all of Netflix and Hulu.

This may sound mean, but what a joke! Is his show interesting? Sure. Is it worth 1/4 the price of Netflix or Hulu to watch his show? Not in the slightest.

Here's an email I sent to him that I think sums up my feelings on this subject quite well: (click to enlarge)

Mr Lunduke, I have a strange feeling this is going to do a lot of damage to your viewer base.

I personally am only one of well over a thousand that have already unsubscribed from your Youtube channel, and on principal alone will not ever sign up for your overpriced Patreon based show.
-Denny

MintBox Mini 2, big power in a tiny box

When it comes to computers in general, there are more powerful machines than the MintBox Mini 2.

What is so impressive then about this linux based pc? The amount of power available in such a small size.

For a machine at best twice the size of your mouse, it hosts some impressive hardware.

In a space roughly twice the size of a raspberry pi, this machine comes with a quad-core Apollo-Lake Intel Celeron J3455 processor with embedded Intel HD Graphics 500, 4 gb of ram, available up to 8 gigs if you get the pro version.

Here is an "exploded" image to show you the construction:

As the Linux Mint team states "Based on the Compulab Fitlet2, the new Mini is just as small as the original MintBox Mini and the MintBox Mini Pro but with much better specifications, better performance and a few more features.

The top heatsink is slightly taller than before for the all-metal black housing to provide better passive cooling for the upgraded specs. The small size of the unit is still very impressive." -https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3528

Here it is next to a cup of coffee:

If you like the novelty of a ultra small pc, or if desk space is at a premium, this machine is an excellent buy. For $299 you can pick one of these up, but with double the hard drive space and double the ram, I would spend the extra 46 dollars and get the pro model.

There is quite a bit more information available at Linux Mint's blog, https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3528.

Pop Os! by System76

If you read my blog, you know I tend to gravitate towards lighter desktop environments with my Linux distros.

In fact, currently my favorites are Peppermint OS and Bodhi.

But Pop Os! by System76 has caught my eye.

Yes it uses more resources (by far) than either of the aforementioned "lighter" distros, but for being an eye candy, or "pretty" desktop environment, it's a very smooth running, and light (for a gnome 3 based desktop) environment.

I have been running Pop OS for the better part of a month now, and I see no reason to switch to anything else for now.

Here's what the Pop Os crew have to say about their distro:

"We believe the computer and operating system are the most powerful and versatile tools ever created. Desktop operating systems have moved too far toward the casual user. We’re building an OS for the software developer, maker, and computer science professional who uses their computer as a tool to discover and create." -https://system76.com/pop

Here's a look at my machine's pop os:

I also wanted to bring out that the artwork that comes with Pop OS is great. It has a real "ketchy" space/robot feel. (The wallpaper here is not included, it's one of my favorites.)

If I had one draw back, it would be that a few simple things I like doing to my set up i couldn't. For instance, i couldn't set control alt t to open the terminal. It's been no big deal, because super t does the same thing. (the super button and the windows button are one and the same).

If you are interested in this distro, you can read more and get it here:
https://system76.com/pop

-Denny

Slax 9.3.0, clean, simple and easy to use!

Slax 9.3.0 was released on December 24th, 2017.

Slax is not the kind of Linux you install on your computer. It's meant to be a fully functional, fast, simple "boot from usb key" type of Linux.

It's great for use on public computers, for rescuing data from a computer where the native OS refuses to function, and I like to boot Best Buy computers with it to mess with the staff.

This has to be the cleanest, sleekest Slax I have ever seen. It's just beautiful. Simple and easy to use, it has two menu options, the quick launch menu (bottom left), and a right click menu with more options.

Here's the Slax team's bit on their operating system:

"Slax is a Live operating system based on Linux. Live means it runs from an external media without any need for permanent installation. Slax boots from USB mass storage devices such as Flash Drive keys as well as from regular hard drives and CD/DVD discs. Simply plug your device in and boot from it. Entire Slax operating system resides in a single directory /slax/ on your device, making it easier to organize with your other data.

Slax provides FluxBox window manager already preconfigured for the most common tasks. Included is a Web browser chromium, Terminal emulator xterm and simple text editor leafpad and calculator qalculate. You can put Slax on wide range of different filesystems, including EXT (ext2,ext3,ext4), btrfs, and even FAT and NTFS.

When Slax is started from a read-only media such as CD/DVD, it keeps all system modifications in memory only, and all the modifications are lost when you reboot. On the other hand, if you run Slax from a writable device such as USB Flash Drive, it can store all changes there, so all your configurations and modifications are restored next time you boot, even if it is on a different computer. This feature is known as Persistent Changes and you can read more about it in a separate chapter." -https://www.slax.org/en/introduction.php

Here is a graphical rundown:

 This is the desktop after boot

This is the app menu after clicking bottom left icon

This is the file manager, PCManFM

This is the web browser Chromium

Good old Leafpad. It's a lightweight 

text editor for jotting down notes.

Right click menu, with resolution options.

Right click menu with keyboard language options.

Qalculate, a solid calculator.

Xterm is the terminal emulator. Just to show some action, 

I ran the ls command.

WiCd network manager for configuring 

wifi and other internet options.

The logout/shutdown menu.

Alsa Mixer is the audio mixer on Slax.

This is just showing Slax running 

several programs at once.

While I wouldn't use this on a daily basis, I love systems like this for when I am on the go or need to troubleshoot something. If you could use something like this, I suggest you check it out.

The website is https://www.slax.org/en/

-Denny