4 ms·

Hah, that's pretty amazing that someone put this online. I did this back at the dawn of time with my old ST, some telephone cable, and Slackware Linux running o

Hah, that's pretty amazing that someone put this online. I did this back at the dawn of time with my old ST, some telephone cable, and Slackware Linux running on - possibly an 8088 (or could have been a 486). Funny to see it crop up again. Of course, no-one in their right mind would do this to run a second terminal, as the Atari ST had the worst keyboard since the ZX81.

Zenst 7y ago
>Of course, no-one in their right mind would do this to run a second terminal, as the Atari ST had the worst keyboard since the ZX81 I hooked up an Oric-48k as a terminal once, having owned an Atari ST, I'm kinda in agreement with you. The Atari Keyboard had a weird springy feel about it, had Atari made mattresses, they would probably of been the best in the World - based upon the spring-feel of their keyboard. Though the Psion II I used with the serial adapter was the most funkiest at the time, ABC style calculator keyboard (still better than ST apart from layout). But it was portable and a dream. Though I still to this day and occasionally use my Psion 5mx with serial adapter cable.
- chiph 7y ago
  Now that you mention it - my 1040ST's keyboard was pretty springy, and you never were totally sure about whether it had registered your key hit. I never ran unix on it, but I wrote a VT100 emulator for it to connect to a multi-processor Xenix machine.
  - tom_ 7y ago
    It was very spongy indeed - but (when using the OS - so pretty much universal in GEM apps, and very common for TOS programs) there was a brief sound chip blip each time a keypress was registered. I for one never minded it. If the blip was there to compensate for the lack of feedback, it worked well.
weinzierl 7y ago
> possibly an 8088 (or could have been a 486) Almost certainly the latter. Linux ran only from the 386 upwards.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  Maybe MINIX?
- bencollier49 7y ago
  Must have been the 486. Actually, now you mention it, it certainly must have been that machine, as a friend brought Slackware round for me to install from a stack of 3.5" floppies, and the 8088 only had a 5.25" drive.
cmrdporcupine 7y ago
Can't read the article right now (page seems hung) But, funny I did this exact same thing (ST as dumb terminal), 1995ish or so. An old Atari ST (with a missing top half of the case), serial connection to my 486 50 running Linux. In the same room. So friends could come over and IRC or MOO or whatever on one machine while someone was on the other. The ST's keyboard was crap, but the Mega ST (not Mega STe and TT tho) had a good one. Mechanical (cherry) keyswitches. In its favour, there were some good terminal emulators for the ST, and its mono monitor was good quality. I also used the same ST to retrieve usenet and email via UUCP somewhere around 1990 or 1991. Good times.
- laumars 7y ago
  Likewise but much much more recently. Also hooked an Amstrad CPC 464 up as a dumb terminal too. At one point working from home basically meant I was SSHing into work via an 80s micro / personal computer. Albeit my Raspberry Pi did all the heavy lifting. Re the ST's keyboard: I didn't think it was so bad. I could type easy enough on it and I've used plenty worse.
  - mattl 7y ago
    Mode 2 on the CPC would give you a pretty decent terminal.

Zenst 7y ago

>Of course, no-one in their right mind would do this to run a second terminal, as the Atari ST had the worst keyboard since the ZX81 I hooked up an Oric-48k as a terminal once, having owned an Atari ST, I'm kinda in agreement with you. The Atari Keyboard had a weird springy feel about it, had Atari made mattresses, they would probably of been the best in the World - based upon the spring-feel of their keyboard. Though the Psion II I used with the serial adapter was the most funkiest at the time, ABC style calculator keyboard (still better than ST apart from layout). But it was portable and a dream. Though I still to this day and occasionally use my Psion 5mx with serial adapter cable.

chiph 7y ago
Now that you mention it - my 1040ST's keyboard was pretty springy, and you never were totally sure about whether it had registered your key hit. I never ran unix on it, but I wrote a VT100 emulator for it to connect to a multi-processor Xenix machine.
- tom_ 7y ago
  It was very spongy indeed - but (when using the OS - so pretty much universal in GEM apps, and very common for TOS programs) there was a brief sound chip blip each time a keypress was registered. I for one never minded it. If the blip was there to compensate for the lack of feedback, it worked well.

weinzierl 7y ago

> possibly an 8088 (or could have been a 486) Almost certainly the latter. Linux ran only from the 386 upwards.

seanmcdirmid 7y ago
Maybe MINIX?
bencollier49 7y ago
Must have been the 486. Actually, now you mention it, it certainly must have been that machine, as a friend brought Slackware round for me to install from a stack of 3.5" floppies, and the 8088 only had a 5.25" drive.

cmrdporcupine 7y ago

Can't read the article right now (page seems hung) But, funny I did this exact same thing (ST as dumb terminal), 1995ish or so. An old Atari ST (with a missing top half of the case), serial connection to my 486 50 running Linux. In the same room. So friends could come over and IRC or MOO or whatever on one machine while someone was on the other. The ST's keyboard was crap, but the Mega ST (not Mega STe and TT tho) had a good one. Mechanical (cherry) keyswitches. In its favour, there were some good terminal emulators for the ST, and its mono monitor was good quality. I also used the same ST to retrieve usenet and email via UUCP somewhere around 1990 or 1991. Good times.

laumars 7y ago
Likewise but much much more recently. Also hooked an Amstrad CPC 464 up as a dumb terminal too. At one point working from home basically meant I was SSHing into work via an 80s micro / personal computer. Albeit my Raspberry Pi did all the heavy lifting. Re the ST's keyboard: I didn't think it was so bad. I could type easy enough on it and I've used plenty worse.
- mattl 7y ago
  Mode 2 on the CPC would give you a pretty decent terminal.