TinyCore Linux vs DOS                                         03/21/23
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I was reading on SDF user candide's gopher hole about their adventures
with TinyCore Linux[1]. If you're  looking for a well-thought-out dive
into what TinyCore is and why it's awesome, go read that post. In this
post you'll just get a few random rantings.

The post by candide made me recall  that I have a system in the garage
with TinyCore  installed. It's  an older Point  of Sale  terminal with
very  limited resources.  It  came to  me (if  memory  serves) with  a
stripped down version of XP. I  wiped that out and installed TinyCore,
to make the box more interesting and useful.

As I was reading, I got to thinking about that old box. And then I got
to thinking about  what it would mean  to pull it out  and fiddle with
it. My  brain immediately started  pondering on  what I would  need to
do  to make  sure  TinyCore itself  was  operating properly,  updated,
connected, etc.  etc. etc. In  other words, I starting  thinking about
what I would have to do  to bring the machine up-to-speed, rather than
thinking about what I could do with the machine... and decided I would
just leave it in the garage.

This made  me think of my  machines that have DOS  installed. Good old
DOS. When I  think of getting those machines out,  I don't worry about
anything. I know they'll function just as they did when I last powered
them off  (assuming there are no  hardware failures.) I know  there is
nothing to update, nothing to check... I just turn them on and go.

Perhaps I could just  turn on my old TinyCore install  and go, but for
some reason  I have a mental  block about it. It  would probably work,
after all. It's just a different concept to me. Heck, it might be good
for me,  to power it up  and just use it,  and let it be  outdated and
wacky, just like my DOS machines.

[1] gopher://sdf.org:70/0/users/candide/tinyCore.txt