Void's Forums

i've never owned a mac, and always wanted one, because they're cool but i don't have any money

now i own one! i found it at the side of the road. somebody had thrown it away, complete with peripherals (all minus the kettle lead). they had even taped a note saying "working" to it, helpfully. anyway, i got it home, dried it out (it had been rained on overnight) and now it appears to work fine. it is fifteen years old though, as it is an Apple Classic II. Here's some info on it, i am sure you will be riveted to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Classic_II
http://www.machine-room.org/computers/395/
http://www.lowendmac.com/compact/classic.shtml

ok, now i know you are thinking, why is he talking about this ancient mac on a cutting edge linux forum. well. i expect you already are imagining ways to stick linux on this beast, and that would be nice, except that at present i am not eager to launch into such a task. i have no idea even what the specs are of this machine, though i plan to go about learning its ins and outs before i take any software related action. at the moment it appears to have MacOS of some sort with MS Word and Eudora (and some other stuff) installed. It does not have a serial port or a PS/2 port so i can't use my own mouse in it (which is a bit crap, but tolerable) it doesn't seem to have a parallel port either, in fact that first link above has photos of what it does have, but i have no idea how to make it use my existing printer (a samsung ml-1210 which i also need to use with my real computer, running FC4) or anything. Also, i have no idea what sort of disk size it has, but i suspect its 40MB in total, i know it has 4096k of memory because that's all it says in "about this macintosh". it has an actual button on the side of the machine which brings up what appears to be an onscreen command prompt but whatever i type i can't even bring up any error messages. i would LOVE to get a dual boot going on this machine but it has only a floppy drive, and i have no idea what i would need to install a CD drive for it. i do have a zip drive, but it is USB, not parallel, so this is not an option for this mac as it predates USB. i really don't want to hose its existing setup and i don't have any install disks for it, so there it is.

now, i haven't really talked about linux, nor have i really asked any proper questions, but my aim is to have fun with this mac and learn about it without screwing it up in any way along the route, anybody got any helpful suggestions? i did use these machines in high school, but cannot remember anything at all (except how to use good old MS word of course! )so, suggest away.

i know how off topic this is so i won't hold it against you if you delete it VM!

aye, i remember using one of those in my earlier school days.... or at least trying to use one.

I kinda have a really old mac laptop (currently it got misplaced with my brother, and taken 3000km away). I never really found anything useful for it to do.

If you eventually do try to get linux on it, i think your going to have to go with DamnSmallLinux or possible debian 2.1.

I dont really see any way to get a CDROM on that thing, i did have an external CD drive that was on a parallel port, but i doubt that something like that would even run on it.

Best of luck with it.

it doesn't have a parallel port.

bedouin over at FMS has made some very helpful comments about how to connect it up to the internet, but i think with its 25MB hard drive, i am going to have to forego linux on this machine and stick with apple system 7.5

still, it is going to come in very useful for checking email quickly since it boots in 5 seconds and shuts down in 3, and also because of that it can go in the studio (where a computer needs to be OFF when i am recording) and be used between takes to type lyrics, setlists, notes of what's on each track etc, without too much hassle.

on an unrelated note... i thought the forums at FMS were closed or something. Anytime i click on the forum link (http://forum.microsuck.com) it tells me the page doesnt exist. Is it located somewhere else now?

yep, it's at forums.microsuck.com - subtle but important. i must say i have never really used that link, might be an idea to let refalm know that it isn't working. he'll probably reply saying he hasn't got the ability to sort it out and if only xomsense would visit the site more often etc, but hey...