Decided to relax a little, but failed because I found a channel on YouTube called "NCommander," where a guy who knows his subject plays with old software. For instance, I watched him compile WinWord for OS/2 v. 1.2.

It was a very tense operation as I saw loads of long-forgotten OS/2 errors that in later OS/2 versions meant at least boot from floppy and from the third install floppy run fdisk (with some switches I've forgotten) or else the dreaded rf-ri -- reformat-reinstall.

But the real waves of dread came in the video in which he installed SLS Linux from 31 floppies. It didn't go well, but what got me were the parts that did. Installing Linux a quarter century ago was hell. It was a minefield.

Still, if you're not subject to nightmarish flashbacks, it's a pretty enjoyable video. The whole floppy-swap experience and everything. (Though he didn't get into editing Xf86config, which was half the . . . fun.)

dep
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