Ibm Thinkpad 1995

[Amie Mandy]

Hmmmwhat is this monstrosity, a PC with a colourful Apple sticker!? AND a photo that is out of focus and poorly lit!? What century is this again...? Someone get me the newspaper!

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Yes, that is an IBM Thinkpad 701CS, apparently this has been sitting under yet another ancient piece of technology, a old as hell Sony VAIO netbook. Sadly the 701CS does not work anymore, or well, I don't have the charger or an HDD for it, oh well, maybe I'll do some more digging later on.

What is a 701CS? Here ya go:

-ThinkPad-701CS/

en.wikipedia.org IBM ThinkPad Butterfly keyboardThe TrackWrite, also known as the butterfly keyboard, is a foldout laptop computer keyboard designed by John Karidis for IBM as part of the ThinkPad 701 series, released in 1995. It allowed the 701 series to be both compact (when closed) and comfortable to use (when open), despite being just 24.6 cm (9.7 in) wide with a 26.4 cm (10.4 in) VGA LCD. The 701 was the top selling laptop of 1995; however, as later laptop models featured progressively larger screens, the need for a folding keyboard The b...

While I did have some old hardware lying around, I had never committed toactually getting that hardware usable. By that, I mean I had never tried tobrowse the web, read emails and that sort of day-to-day stuff on anything olderthan a few years. To see if it were really possible, I decided to buy an oldThinkPad (a 760EL from 1995) and see if I could get it working. Before I

started, I remembered that people like K.Mandlahad already done things like this before, but he had such luxuries as 32 MB ofRAM, a CD drive, a USB port. Really, he was pushing the boundaries of whatcould be considered low-end (right?). Here is what my ThinkPad 760EL had when Istarted off (I have upgraded it a bit since then):

The lack of network support and any removable mass storage meant installinganything was impossible, so I bought a 3Com Etherlink III PCMCIA Ethernet card,which is well supported by both NetBSD and OpenBSD, the two candidates for theOS that would eventually be on my laptop.

The minimum memory requirements for OpenBSD 5.4, as listed in INSTALL.i386, areeither 24 or 32 MB of RAM. NetBSD 6.1.2 requires 20 MB. I had only 16. Aftersome consulting with misc@, I was advised to either get more memory or installan older release. Since the latter would involve running 5+ year old unsupportedsoftware (a terrible idea in all cases), I decided to open up my ThinkPad andtake a look at the RAM modules. After reseating the only module to make sure Iwas familiar with the process, I rebooted to find that...I had 32 MB of RAM?!Apparently, 16 MB was soldered on the mainboard and another 16 was removable.

That was very fortunate, because that meant I could install OpenBSD 5.4! I couldhave also gone the NetBSD route, but it required 5 floppies, while OpenBSD onlyrequired one (floppies are actually quite expensive nowadays). The installationwent well - my NIC was automatically detected and configured and the setsdownloaded and extracted without a hitch.

OpenBSD doesn't have much framebuffer support, and there isn't much interest inwriting drivers for images (and other complex 2D graphics) in the framebuffereither. This means we're limited to text unless we set up X, which performsabysmally on this hardware. The first order of business is getting morecharacters on the screen. There are instructions to do that here. It boils down to doing three things:

Unsurprisingly, I could not find much documentation on getting an X server towork on a Trident video card from 18 years ago. This meant I had to fiddlearound with the files in xorg.conf.d a bit. X -configure segfaults every timeI run it, meaning it's not much help. That doesn't matter, though, because theconfiguration file it generates only does the obvious - it changes the driver to"trident", sets up the screen with the correct resolution, these are all thingsI already knew. To get my card to work, I had to add several options to the"Device" section. Here is what that part of my config looked like:

To clarify, this did not go into my xorg.conf, I created a new file in/usr/X11R6/share/X11/xorg.conf.d called 99-trident.conf. The "99" ensured thatthis file would be sourced last, and would override any other device settings.Documentation on what these options do can be foundhere. If theresolution is incorrect (it wasn't in my case), you may have a timing issue,which can be fixed by adding one of these options:

With these settings, one finds that the performance of X is very, very bad onthis hardware. After spending hours getting it to work, I decided to stick tothe text console, where perfomance was far greater. I felt it was worth thetradeoffs (fonts, resolution, colours).

It's worth mentioning that the screenfetch script took about 30 seconds todisplay anything, and that elinks is completely unusable unless I let it take upthe whole screen. These screenshots are really just for show. I can't show youwhat my screen looks like when I'm doing real work, because OpenBSD has nofacilities in place to take framebuffer shots (like fbgrab).

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Windows 95 is an operating system released by Microsoft in 1995. It was a major milestone in the evolution of personal computing, introducing a more user-friendly interface and significant improvements over its predecessor, Windows 3.1.

Windows 95 brought several significant changes compared to Windows 3.1. It introduced a new graphical user interface (GUI) called the "Start" menu, which provided easy access to programs and files. It also introduced the taskbar and the concept of minimizing and maximizing windows. Additionally, Windows 95 offered improved stability and support for 32-bit applications.

Windows 95 introduced a range of features that made it popular among users. Some notable features included the Start menu, which made it easier to access programs and files; the taskbar, which provided a quick way to switch between open applications; and the Plug and Play functionality, which simplified the installation of hardware devices.

The Start menu was a significant addition to Windows 95. It provided a central location from which you could access programs, documents, and settings. By clicking on the Start button, you can open the Start menu and navigate through its hierarchical structure to find and launch applications. The Start menu became a core component of the Windows operating system and has remained a key feature in subsequent versions.

The taskbar in Windows 95 revolutionized the way users interacted with open applications. It provided a visual representation of all running programs and allowed you to switch between them with a single click. The taskbar also introduced the concept of minimizing and maximizing windows, allowing you to declutter your desktop and focus on the applications you were actively using.

Plug and Play was a significant feature introduced in Windows 95 that made it easier to install and configure hardware devices. With Plug and Play, you no longer needed to manually set jumpers or configure interrupt request (IRQ) settings for devices like printers, scanners, or sound cards. Windows 95 automatically detected and configured these devices, making the process more user-friendly.

To run Windows 95, you needed a computer with a minimum of 4 megabytes (MB) of random-access memory (RAM), a 386DX processor or higher, and 50-55 MB of free hard disk space. However, for optimal performance, it was recommended to have at least 8 MB of RAM, a 486 processor, and a larger hard drive.

Windows 95 included several bundled applications that provided additional functionality to users. Some of the notable bundled applications were Internet Explorer 1.0, Microsoft Paint, Notepad, Calculator, and the Windows Media Player.

Internet Explorer 1.0, bundled with Windows 95, marked the beginning of Microsoft's web browser dominance. It provided users with an integrated web browsing experience, allowing them to navigate the internet and view websites without the need for other software. Internet explorer eventually became one of the most widely used web browsers in the world.

Yes, Windows 95 introduced significant improvements in networking capabilities. It included built-in support for networking protocols like transmission control protocol/ internet protocol (TCP/IP), which enabled users to connect their computers to local area networks (LANs) and the internet. Windows 95 also introduced the Network Neighborhood, a feature that made it easier to discover and access shared resources on a network.

Absolutely, Windows 95 was a popular platform for gaming. It provided improved support for graphics and sound, making it ideal for running a wide range of games. Many classic games from that era were designed to run on Windows 95, including iconic titles like "Doom," "Quake," and "Command and Conquer."

Windows 95 played a significant role in advancing computing technology. It introduced a more intuitive user interface and made personal computers more accessible to a broader audience. Windows 95 also laid the foundation for future versions of Windows, setting the stage for subsequent improvements and innovations in operating systems.

Yes, Windows 95 introduced improved multitasking capabilities compared to its predecessor. It allowed users to run multiple applications simultaneously and switch between them seamlessly. This feature greatly enhanced productivity by enabling users to work on different tasks without closing and reopening applications.

Yes, Windows 95 offered various customization options for the desktop. You could change the wallpaper, select different screen savers, and modify the appearance of icons and fonts. Windows 95 also introduced the ability to create shortcuts on the desktop, making it convenient to access frequently used programs or files.

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