From: rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com   
      
   On Thursday, March 23, 2023 at 1:37:40 PM UTC-4, wolfgang kern wrote:   
   > here I have my first problem:    
   > with a new assembled PC I get a main-board with a CD that contains only    
   > a few drivers for windoze loonix and Mac, nothing boot able on it.    
   > the HDs are all empty, not formatted in any usable mode.    
      
   I have this thought, and then I'll bow out:   
      
   For a custom OS, it's enough to support the 1990s-based 80386 and/or 80486   
   systems and later up through probably the AMD-based Pentium equivalents, and   
   even those systems with just a few MB of RAM.  We forget what powerful   
   software we had back in those    
   days with limited resources.  They just weren't GUI, or didn't use complex   
   classes and objects, but more programming in C or assembly.   
      
   Those custom OSes will need only basic drivers for basic motherboard devices,   
   floppy, hard disk, keyboard, mouse, video, and most importantly:  networking.    
   USB would be nice, as would things like SD cards and more modern storage as   
   they're easy to    
   transport.  But I think it would be fine to stick with even older technologies   
   as those are fairly easy to cobble together and get up and running with   
   limited resources / labs / equipment.   
      
   IMO, for the world that's coming, having the ability to do any type of basic   
   computation, and to be able to communicate with others using even very basic   
   software, will be sufficient in that environment.  Using DOS 6.x and QEMM   
   would probably be best,    
   along with old Novell networking, because many drivers for many compatible   
   hardware devices existed into the late 90s.   
      
   A new era is almost upon us.  It's time to prepare for it.  Stock up on   
   Ethernet cables, old compatible network cards, old PCs, etc.   
      
   And most importantly, I advise making preparations at the foot of the cross   
   before doing any of this, and then concerning yourselves with all these other   
   places after that.   
      
   If any of you wish to contact me, feel free to do so.   
      
   --    
   Rick C. Hodgin   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)