I’ve still got that 10 year old Thinkpad. And I’m still enjoying it. Here’s a status update for those of you waiting breathlessly for such information.
This puppy now dual boots both Ubuntu 10.04 and Windows 98 SE. That’s a month-old operating system coupled with a 12 year old operating system on a 10 year old computer. Man, I’m such a geek.
And why is this important? It really isn’t. It’s just something that occupies my time so I can mindlessly plod away on something geeky while my mind resets itself. It’s called Vegetation.
I do have some old DOS games installed on that thing, and some old computer and game console emulators. I haven’t set those up yet, but the games are running just fine. Except Risk 2. And 1602. And Rome. I guess the “SE” part of that Windows 98 deal messed around with DOS a bit more. Oh well. I still have my first PC to play those on.
There will be a bit of an issue I can see coming up. That is that this laptop only has 1 USB port. I don’t have any spare PS2 mice kicking around, so I have to use my spare USB mouse… which just kind of died. Right-click no longer works. But in any case, when I need to use a game controller for the emulators, I’ll have to unplug the mouse and use the direction button. You know, that silly little orange nub between the G and H keys that allows you to move the cursor around.
I already tried my USB hub. Doesn’t work.
Anyway, I’ve got both OSs tweaked just right, except sound doesn’t work in Ubuntu. There’s a problem with sound on all Thinkpad 600E models. The soundchip doesn’t get identified correctly, and as a consequence, no driver is installed. I found a workaround for the issue, but that was from 2006, and it didn’t work in Ubuntu 10.04.
There’s also a non-functioning internet connection for the Windows partition, but this is on purpose. I found all kinds of drivers for Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and XP for this machine on Lenovo’s website. That’s how I got the sound, video and on-screen display drivers. But I chose not to get the internet connectivity drivers (modem, PC card) because I don’t want an internet connection for the Windows side of things. If I left it unattended and hooked up to the net, it would get infected with malware in a manner of minutes.
So it’s basically set up for me to play DOS games. Or I might give it away to someone who wants an extra PC to fuck around with. But I’ll probably keep it. Thanks, Uncle Furry. ;)
And here are some screenshots from it:
