Since Spring 2000, my Compaq Presario 7AP140 has provided me with many, countless hours of Star Trek Elite Force, Justice League on YouTube, the occasional search for frivolous images (*cough*), and Napster (at least... until iTunes for Windows came along with its iTunes store!!).
But now, no more. It died a sad death.... losing one video card after another (because i always needed more ways to squeeze out more frames per second in my online frag-fests)..... and one day, I fried the video card upgrade with some static electricity. That's right, all because i neglected to ground myself by touching the metal part of the CPU case or power supply. So I put in the original video card (which worked) only long enough to find a suitable replacement.
As it turned out, they stopped making video cards for AGP 2x/4x systems a long.......... LONG time ago. So I opted for the AGP 8x cards, hoping they would work on my old system. I got the GeForce 5200. For a while, it worked flawlessly...... that is...... until I loaded MPGs, WMVs, and even Quicktime movies. As they all seem to put a heavy strain on my AGP port, it fried the motherboard.
So I waited a few days, pondering of whether to buy a new system with Windows Vista or get a custom-built PC with no OS, and then get a copy of XP Pro on it, just to play my beloved Elite Force game again.
Well, school just HAD to come first. I took the route of settling for an HP Pavilion with Windows Vista Home Premium.
Not all went bad. I mean, I realized that I'd be running everything "up-to-date", I'd get to be ahead of the hackers (for the moment), and that I would be able to play computer games that'd be released at least for the next 2-3 years. AND MY STAR TREK ELITE FORCE GAME WORKS ON VISTA!!!!! (32-bit; Home Premium)
But the only thing though is that Vista is missing some crucial Windows Media Plugins for Firefox, I have to buy a new microphone to tune my guitar, and now I'm having a really hard time doing graphics editing with this rather ridiculous LCD screen.... I guess I'll have to revert back to my old CRT, somehow. Oh, also, the PowerMac emulator for Windows, "SheepShaver" doesn't seem to work on Vista......... so, that sux.
But what does this all mean for my 6100? Well, thanks to Dave 5.x, I was able to share files and folders between my 6100 and Vista PC. However, I think I really should upgrade to a newer version of Dave, in case any bugs pop-up down the road.
My verdict? I actually like how the story turned out! But don't get me wrong.... it's still "Windows"..... lol.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Linux on a 6100, upgraded with a Sonnect Crescendo G3/NuBus card...
No, no... I haven't been able to do it.
You see, ever since I got Sonnet's Crescendo G3/NuBus upgrade for the Power Mac 6100, I have always wanted to install Linux and enjoy the benefit of being able to use more modern software. Tools like Firefox and OpenOffice... ANYTHING to squeeze out the most life I could get out of my Mac... EVEN if it means not using the Mac OS. (gasp!)
Alas that it would be a dream to never come to fruition. The best options we Power Mac 61xx/71xx/81xx users have is to either go to eBay and get one of the discontinued G3 upgrade options provided by NewerTech, or to simply make due with the stock PowerPC processor soldered onto our motherboards. At the "Linux/PPC for NuBus Power Macs" site (http://nubus-pmac.sourceforge.net/), there hasn't been any activity since January 2006.
I have made several attempts at "spreading" my idea of making a Linux-side driver for the Sonnet upgrade card, but I don't think anyone was listening at the SourceForge page.
Today, I just came up with yet another idea:
Why not make a "Hybrid Virtualization/Emulator Environment" (H-VEE).
What is it?
Essentially, it combines a virtualization environment, similar to Parallels for OS X, with (part of) an emulator like VirtualPC or SheepShaver.
How would it work?
Well... here's how the process would go:
1) Launch the Mac OS, WITH the Sonnet Crescendo upgrade card and the corresponding system extension BOTH enabled.
2) Launch the "H-VEE" (a MacOS 7.x/8.x/9.x-compatible "application")
3) Pop-in a PowerPC distro of Linux, BSD, Darwin, or even OS X (non-Intel).
4) -ONLY- the hardware portions needed for each specific guest OS would be emulated; the Open-Firmware, the PCI architecture, the presence of USB/Firewire, etc. Perhaps even a JIT (just-in-time) compiler could be used, just like in SheepShaver for x86.
5) Proceed to install the guest OS and your favorite 3rd party software.
Why?
Because if you still have a working computer that is still in great condition, you should NOT have to toss it out to the trash or a landfill if you can still make some use of it (especially if you made the choice of upgrading it over the years). Lets face it... WaMCoM, iCab, ClarisWorks, and even Mac OS Classic just aren't cutting it anymore.
Clearly, this would mean that your seemingly worthless NuBus machine would have more added value. And it could serve you for even more years down the road! Lets face it... if you have maintained your old NuBus Power Mac fairly well, then you can agree with me when I say that Apple really made these machines to last.
Who?
Well, seeing as how I have no idea how to program, I would have to (again) submit my idea to all the helpful (MACINTOSH) programmers at SourceForge. I only wish I could still find a willing developer who also knows how to program for OS 7.x,8.x, and 9.x. Those programmers have always been rare and today, ever-increasingly hard to come by.
When?
I'll submit my idea as early as I finish writing this blog entry. As for when this project will break ground.... well, that depends on the developers (if there are any.... and if they are willing).
Where?
Well, since this would be a collaborative effort, amongst people from around the world, this project should be open-source, for anyone and everyone to be able to modify. So it would be fitting to give this project its own page at SourceForge.
You see, ever since I got Sonnet's Crescendo G3/NuBus upgrade for the Power Mac 6100, I have always wanted to install Linux and enjoy the benefit of being able to use more modern software. Tools like Firefox and OpenOffice... ANYTHING to squeeze out the most life I could get out of my Mac... EVEN if it means not using the Mac OS. (gasp!)
Alas that it would be a dream to never come to fruition. The best options we Power Mac 61xx/71xx/81xx users have is to either go to eBay and get one of the discontinued G3 upgrade options provided by NewerTech, or to simply make due with the stock PowerPC processor soldered onto our motherboards. At the "Linux/PPC for NuBus Power Macs" site (http://nubus-pmac.sourceforge.net/), there hasn't been any activity since January 2006.
I have made several attempts at "spreading" my idea of making a Linux-side driver for the Sonnet upgrade card, but I don't think anyone was listening at the SourceForge page.
Today, I just came up with yet another idea:
Why not make a "Hybrid Virtualization/Emulator Environment" (H-VEE).
What is it?
Essentially, it combines a virtualization environment, similar to Parallels for OS X, with (part of) an emulator like VirtualPC or SheepShaver.
How would it work?
Well... here's how the process would go:
1) Launch the Mac OS, WITH the Sonnet Crescendo upgrade card and the corresponding system extension BOTH enabled.
2) Launch the "H-VEE" (a MacOS 7.x/8.x/9.x-compatible "application")
3) Pop-in a PowerPC distro of Linux, BSD, Darwin, or even OS X (non-Intel).
4) -ONLY- the hardware portions needed for each specific guest OS would be emulated; the Open-Firmware, the PCI architecture, the presence of USB/Firewire, etc. Perhaps even a JIT (just-in-time) compiler could be used, just like in SheepShaver for x86.
5) Proceed to install the guest OS and your favorite 3rd party software.
Why?
Because if you still have a working computer that is still in great condition, you should NOT have to toss it out to the trash or a landfill if you can still make some use of it (especially if you made the choice of upgrading it over the years). Lets face it... WaMCoM, iCab, ClarisWorks, and even Mac OS Classic just aren't cutting it anymore.
Clearly, this would mean that your seemingly worthless NuBus machine would have more added value. And it could serve you for even more years down the road! Lets face it... if you have maintained your old NuBus Power Mac fairly well, then you can agree with me when I say that Apple really made these machines to last.
Who?
Well, seeing as how I have no idea how to program, I would have to (again) submit my idea to all the helpful (MACINTOSH) programmers at SourceForge. I only wish I could still find a willing developer who also knows how to program for OS 7.x,8.x, and 9.x. Those programmers have always been rare and today, ever-increasingly hard to come by.
When?
I'll submit my idea as early as I finish writing this blog entry. As for when this project will break ground.... well, that depends on the developers (if there are any.... and if they are willing).
Where?
Well, since this would be a collaborative effort, amongst people from around the world, this project should be open-source, for anyone and everyone to be able to modify. So it would be fitting to give this project its own page at SourceForge.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)