win95/98/ME and printers. An ethics issue comparable to DRM servers or not?

[Hal Duston]

On Sun, Aug 03, 2008 at 01:40:11PM -0700, Leo Mauler wrote:
-- snip --
> I have a very old Pentium I laptop still running that same
> "10-year-old OS", namely Slackware 7.1.  The laptop won't run
> anything better as it only has a floppy drive and no CD drive
> (not even a USB port).  What the laptop does do is manage all
> my recipes in my kitchen, and allows me to write essays or
> thoughts, or play simple games, while the bread is rising or
> the water is getting ready to boil.  An old wired Ethernet
> card does a nice job of connecting me to the basement server
> and very basic Internet connectivity.  Fact is that I wouldn't
> want to risk a $1000+ laptop right next to the stove, and don't
> have the space for a bulky tower case and monitor.  
> 
> Sometimes older is a *better choice* than newer.

Just as an additional data point:

root at charon:~# cat /etc/slackware-version
Slackware 12.1.0
root at charon:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 5
model           : 2
model name      : Pentium 75 - 200
stepping        : 5
cpu MHz         : 100.296
cache size      : 0 KB
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 1
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8
bogomips        : 203.30
clflush size    : 32

root at charon:~# cat /etc/slackware-version
Slackware 12.1.0
root at charon:~# uname -a
Linux charon 2.6.23.9 #1 Tue Dec 4 17:23:50 CST 2007 i586 Pentium 75 - 200 GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
root at charon:~# cat /proc/partitions
major minor  #blocks  name

   3     0     418035 hda
   3     1     386849 hda1
   3     2      31155 hda2
root at charon:~# free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:         11848      11076        772          0       3008       3000
-/+ buffers/cache:       5068       6780
Swap:        31144       1224      29920
root at charon:~# ps faux
USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root         2  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Jun12   0:00 [kthreadd]
root         3  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Jun12   0:36  \_ [ksoftirqd/0]
root         4  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Jun12   0:20  \_ [events/0]
root         5  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Jun12   0:00  \_ [khelper]
root        48  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Jun12   0:06  \_ [kblockd/0]
root        55  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Jun12   0:00  \_ [ata/0]
root        56  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Jun12   0:00  \_ [ata_aux]
root        57  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Jun12   0:00  \_ [ksuspend_usbd]
root        63  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Jun12   0:00  \_ [khubd]
root        66  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Jun12   0:00  \_ [kseriod]
root        97  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Jun12   0:00  \_ [pdflush]
root        98  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Jun12   1:59  \_ [pdflush]
root        99  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Jun12   0:22  \_ [kswapd0]
root       152  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Jun12   0:00  \_ [aio/0]
root       818  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Jun12   0:00  \_ [scsi_tgtd/0]
root       857  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Jun12   0:00  \_ [kcryptd/0]
root       885  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Jun12   0:32  \_ [kjournald]
root      1715  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Jul14   0:05  \_ [rpciod/0]
root      1737  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Jul17   0:00  \_ [lockd]
root         1  0.0  0.7    772    88 ?        Ss   Jun12  10:55 init [3]
root      1002  0.0  4.5   1848   540 ?        Ss   Jun12   1:41 /usr/sbin/syslogd
root      1007  0.0  3.2   1704   384 ?        Ss   Jun12   0:00 /usr/sbin/klogd -c 3 -x
root      1039  1.0  3.1   1724   372 ?        Ss   Jun12 773:44 /sbin/dhcpcd -d -t 30 eth0
bin       1109  0.0  2.5   1804   308 ?        Ss   Jun12   0:00 /sbin/rpc.portmap
nobody    1113  0.0  3.8   1872   460 ?        Ss   Jun12   0:00 /sbin/rpc.statd
root      1651  0.0  4.5   3932   536 ?        Ss   Jun12   0:18 /usr/sbin/sshd
root      1695  0.0  9.2   6516  1096 ?        Ss   Jul14   0:11  \_ sshd: root at pts/0
root      1697  0.0 12.4   3124  1472 pts/0    Ss   Jul14   0:08      \_ -bash
root      7396  0.0  7.4   2560   888 pts/0    R+   14:09   0:00          \_ ps faux
root      1671  0.0  3.6   1704   432 tty1     Ss+  Jun12   0:00 /sbin/agetty 38400 tty1 linux
root at charon:~#

Thanks,
--
Hal