[Coco] Retro computing and what's worth it...

[Michael Robinson]

On Wed, 2008-12-17 at 14:35 -0600, Frank Pittel wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 08:30:25AM -0500, John W. Linville wrote:
> > On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 10:44:48PM -0600, Sean wrote:
> > > There was an official Sony release that allowed a PS2 to run Linux.
> > > However, according to this Wikipedia entry it might be hard to find.
> > > Personally I never pursued it.  My PS2 was for games, and I had plenty
> > > of PCs to run Linux on.  And since I liked the games, I didn't want to
> > > risk breaking it!
> > > 
> > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_for_PlayStation_2
> > > 
> > > Modding a PS2 to accept other OSs is a totally different animal.  I'd
> > > just get the boy an old DOS box if you want him to learn how to use
> > > command prompts.  Too much modding is required to get a game system to
> > > do the same stuff as an old PC.
> > 
> > A PS3 is a much easier option for running Linux.  You can install
> > several different distributions from the standard install media,
> > including Fedora, YellowDog and doubtless others.  I find it to be
> > a little slow, but it is usable.
> 
> Wouldn't it be easier and possibly cheaper in the long run to go out and
> buy a sub five hundred dollar computer and put linux on it?
> 
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco

This has been a frustrating journey that has gone from buy him a 
COCO 3 to a Playstation II to...  the problem being that I don't
want to spend much beyond $50 for a Christmas present.  I find 
laptops on ebay that should be in range price wise, but people 
bid them up.  If a Playstation III wasn't so expensive, I'd go 
that route.  It's not the extra power of the PS3 that I'm 
interested in, it is being able to install Linux and specifically 
gcc.