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I used to build Linux router software that would fit on a floppy disk and run it in a 486DX2, for absolutely no reason except it was fun as hell. Made a nice we

I used to build Linux router software that would fit on a floppy disk and run it in a 486DX2, for absolutely no reason except it was fun as hell. Made a nice web UI, packed in a ton of advanced features. Wanted to try and start a company to sell little open source routers, but then I found out cheap routers were quite hard to make money on, so I became a sysadmin instead and mostly browsed Slashdot for 10 years. My big regret is not becoming a musician or woodworker instead.

hk1337 4y ago
> Linux router software that would fit on a floppy disk and run it in a 486DX2 I thought this was me that posted this and forgot I posted it. I did this exact thing with same equipment back in college. My reasoning was slightly different. I did do it just for fun but also I wanted to run multiple computers and servers and the university was pretty strict on the one computer per connection rule.
- ghaff 4y ago
  In the early days of consumer broadband, routers/switches were these exotic things and the cable companies absolutely would not support the configuration.
  - dtaht 4y ago
    the cable companies had no service worth a damn at the time. DSL was going to win... it really was... and the fiber folk were planning to deliver any day now...
- dualboot 4y ago
  There are a lot of us out there.
pengaru 4y ago
Did something similar-ish, except using an old 386 motherboard packed to the gills with 30-pin SIMMs. Booted off 3.5" floppy into initramfs. Init was a busybox shell script (@/linuxrc IIRC) to setup ip masquerading as it was known then, then it'd deliberately panic by exiting init while the kernel kept running the network stack with no userspace. That little pile of PC debris eventually became a dialup POP for a local girl I met on IRC who was at constant war with her older brother over their shared AOL account, despite having their own computers w/phone lines. Fun times, those teen-aged years. Linux was such a game changer back then, enabling kids to deploy their own ISP if they just read the HOWTOs and collected enough computer trash.
- dtaht 4y ago
  I actually started with fidonet in the 80s. I am glad linux was so accessible and useful instead, in the 90s. There were no girls on fidonet as best as I recall.
dtaht 4y ago
I became a musician, and still hack on openwrt. I wish I had managed to make it into the space program, after the spaceshipone launches... Have a song about spacex... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjur0RG-v-I&t=2s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjur0RG-v-I&t=2s

hk1337 4y ago

> Linux router software that would fit on a floppy disk and run it in a 486DX2 I thought this was me that posted this and forgot I posted it. I did this exact thing with same equipment back in college. My reasoning was slightly different. I did do it just for fun but also I wanted to run multiple computers and servers and the university was pretty strict on the one computer per connection rule.

ghaff 4y ago
In the early days of consumer broadband, routers/switches were these exotic things and the cable companies absolutely would not support the configuration.
- dtaht 4y ago
  the cable companies had no service worth a damn at the time. DSL was going to win... it really was... and the fiber folk were planning to deliver any day now...
dualboot 4y ago
There are a lot of us out there.

pengaru 4y ago

Did something similar-ish, except using an old 386 motherboard packed to the gills with 30-pin SIMMs. Booted off 3.5" floppy into initramfs. Init was a busybox shell script (@/linuxrc IIRC) to setup ip masquerading as it was known then, then it'd deliberately panic by exiting init while the kernel kept running the network stack with no userspace. That little pile of PC debris eventually became a dialup POP for a local girl I met on IRC who was at constant war with her older brother over their shared AOL account, despite having their own computers w/phone lines. Fun times, those teen-aged years. Linux was such a game changer back then, enabling kids to deploy their own ISP if they just read the HOWTOs and collected enough computer trash.

dtaht 4y ago
I actually started with fidonet in the 80s. I am glad linux was so accessible and useful instead, in the 90s. There were no girls on fidonet as best as I recall.

dtaht 4y ago

I became a musician, and still hack on openwrt. I wish I had managed to make it into the space program, after the spaceshipone launches... Have a song about spacex... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjur0RG-v-I&t=2s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjur0RG-v-I&t=2s