First post, by keenmaster486
- Rank
- l33t
This thread is all about ways to make retro PCs and other computers more useful in the modern world, by doing things such as:
- New software/drivers to add functionality that either was proprietary/licensed or never existed to begin with
- Resurrection of old internet-based services that went defunct
- Ways to add hardware functionality that was either very expensive or didn't exist yet back in the day (e.g. WiFi cards, high-capacity solid state storage, all those super-cool newly made parallel port devices, etc.
- Modern peripherals interfacing with older systems
- Patches for old OS's to make them more stable/secure or add modern functionality (A/V codecs, security protocols, etc.)
- Maybe even someday new OS's for old systems, made with tools and luxuries developers could only have dreamed of back in the day, to breathe new life into old machines. This does not include projects such as FreeDOS and ReactOS, which, although great, are just clones of existing OS's.
The list goes on - you get the idea.
It's stuff like new servers for MSN Messenger (https://escargot.log1p.xyz), or making a new public directory server for MS Netmeeting (https://web.archive.org/web/20180830115515/ht … .io/winmac.html), or patches to run new web browsers on Windows 98, or an online A/V streaming service for retro PC's (doesn't exist but it should, and I'll do it someday if nobody beats me to it!) --- that really gets me excited because it's great to see old computers fulfilling their purpose in the modern world.
Maybe I will make a Google Sheets page to list all of the examples of these things that I've found so far, and stuff that could happen in the future.
Edit: Google sheets document - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QZwD1 … dit?usp=sharing
I really want to someday have a server of my own in which I can run VM's with services for retro computers.
Anyone have anything to add to this discussion?
World's foremost 486 enjoyer.