4 ms·

It still does. http://kparc.com http://kparc.com - OS, GUI, database, boots on 64-but bare metal, still fit on a 3.5in floppy last time I looked.

krylon 9y ago
These days, finding a machine with a floppy drive, let alone an actual floppy disk, might be harder than shrinking a system down enough to fit on a floppy disk. EDIT: Don't get me wrong, it is really cool people can build such tiny systems. But the smallest storage device in my household it a 2GB SD card. Outside of embedded devices and low-end routers, I do not see the point other than for hack value.
- itomato 9y ago
  A little more time, and Arduino-class devices will run a full GNU/Linux. IoT ain't seen nothin' yet.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    Indeed, think about the increase in attack surface.
  - shakna 9y ago
    Done. [0] At least, it's an AVR chip. [0] http://dmitry.gr/index.php?proj=07.+Linux+on+8bit&r=05.Projects http://dmitry.gr/index.php?proj=07.+Linux+on+8bit&r=05.Proje...
- fpoling 9y ago
  Few months ago at work we used a 25 years old spectrometer. It got 5 inch floppy. Initially we considered to get a drive for it to get data from the spectrometer, but after few quick searches on eBay we realized that to get one that can be connected via USB was not so trivial or cheap or fast. Fortunately it turned out that spectrometer can send everything over serial port as long as the serial link has proper 12 volts voltage. So we got our data using true usb-to-serial dongle costing like 120$.
  - digi_owl 9y ago
    Was the drive in the spectrometer in a bay? If so you maybe have been able to get a drive emulator that can take modern storage devices in the front.
  - jasonjayr 9y ago
    What serial adapter did you end up using? I've worked with connecting equipment that we super finicky on what was on the serial port, and after 2-3 tries, we gave up and just sourced an old machine with hardware serial. We only have a few old machines left!
hucker 9y ago
Are there any bootable releases anywhere?
- beagle3 9y ago
  You have to talk to Arthur Whitney to get one - so far AFAIK he has made it available only to people who plan to contribute.
  - exikyut 9y ago
    What counts as contribution? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTrOg19gzP4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTrOg19gzP4 seriously, seriously did my head in. I was certainly fascinated by this, but I fear that I'd contribute one character, accidentally put it in the wrong place, break the build for two days because nobody can figure out what broke, and then feel really bad for weeks afterwards. (Okay, okay, diffing... but still. I'd break my own build, at least.) I _am_ genuinely interested, and I'd LOVE to play with this, but I'm really, really conservative, and would far prefer to be a fly on the wall for a bit for a while first.
metalliqaz 9y ago
Such a simple website and yet still crushed by the hackernews rush.

krylon 9y ago

These days, finding a machine with a floppy drive, let alone an actual floppy disk, might be harder than shrinking a system down enough to fit on a floppy disk. EDIT: Don't get me wrong, it is really cool people can build such tiny systems. But the smallest storage device in my household it a 2GB SD card. Outside of embedded devices and low-end routers, I do not see the point other than for hack value.

itomato 9y ago
A little more time, and Arduino-class devices will run a full GNU/Linux. IoT ain't seen nothin' yet.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  Indeed, think about the increase in attack surface.
- shakna 9y ago
  Done. [0] At least, it's an AVR chip. [0] http://dmitry.gr/index.php?proj=07.+Linux+on+8bit&r=05.Projects http://dmitry.gr/index.php?proj=07.+Linux+on+8bit&r=05.Proje...
fpoling 9y ago
Few months ago at work we used a 25 years old spectrometer. It got 5 inch floppy. Initially we considered to get a drive for it to get data from the spectrometer, but after few quick searches on eBay we realized that to get one that can be connected via USB was not so trivial or cheap or fast. Fortunately it turned out that spectrometer can send everything over serial port as long as the serial link has proper 12 volts voltage. So we got our data using true usb-to-serial dongle costing like 120$.
- digi_owl 9y ago
  Was the drive in the spectrometer in a bay? If so you maybe have been able to get a drive emulator that can take modern storage devices in the front.
- jasonjayr 9y ago
  What serial adapter did you end up using? I've worked with connecting equipment that we super finicky on what was on the serial port, and after 2-3 tries, we gave up and just sourced an old machine with hardware serial. We only have a few old machines left!

hucker 9y ago

Are there any bootable releases anywhere?

beagle3 9y ago
You have to talk to Arthur Whitney to get one - so far AFAIK he has made it available only to people who plan to contribute.
- exikyut 9y ago
  What counts as contribution? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTrOg19gzP4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTrOg19gzP4 seriously, seriously did my head in. I was certainly fascinated by this, but I fear that I'd contribute one character, accidentally put it in the wrong place, break the build for two days because nobody can figure out what broke, and then feel really bad for weeks afterwards. (Okay, okay, diffing... but still. I'd break my own build, at least.) I _am_ genuinely interested, and I'd LOVE to play with this, but I'm really, really conservative, and would far prefer to be a fly on the wall for a bit for a while first.

metalliqaz 9y ago

Such a simple website and yet still crushed by the hackernews rush.