Last year, I learned about the Old Computer Challenge (OCC) from the blogs of BSD users. (They seems to have a strong community, brought together by deliberate computing setups around the various BSDs; a community that reminds me of the culture that flourished (briefly) on cohost.) It runs this year Sunday, July 13th, to Saturday, July 19th.
Intent
I will be exploring older computer enviroments that have minimal hardware requirements. I want to be reminded of the tools that have existed for decades, remember how we got here.
Tuesday 15 July - usb-dos
From the project Readme:
usb-dos is a DOS live USB image with tools for writers What it contains: SvarDOS plus a menu launcher and a choice of freeware writing tools: Microsoft Word 5.5, WordStar 7.0, Arnor Protext, Symantec Grandview, PC-Outline, Adobe Acrobat 1.0, DOSLFN.
I use a UTM VM on macOS with the following settings:
- Architecture: i386
- System: Standard PC (i440FX ā¦ 1996)ā¦
- RAM: 32 MB
- QEMU -> Tweaks
- disable āUEFI Bootā
- disable āRNG Deviceā
- enable āForce PS/2 controllerā
- Input
- USB Support: USB 2.0
- Network Device -> removed
- Boot Image
- Image Type: Disk Image
- Interface: USB
It boots into āthe DOSShell menu from PC DOS 2000ā that looks like this: 
Microsoft Word 5.5 looks like this: 
Thursday 17 July - Thoughts on forever tools
Retro- and embedded computing have always caught my eye. I admire the enthusiasm and dedication. Also there is the respect and awe I feel towards decades of hard work to create and put to use these powerful devices.
I ask myself, why investigate a computer from the past? Why learn to use an Apple //e? Why try to fit a complete modern operating system onto a device that can power for years off of a small battery? Why care about a computer from the early 90s that is surpassed by almost any modern cell phone? Why does any of it matter?
I donāt know the answer to those questions. I donāt know why I donāt feel satisfied in using this fairly recent laptop Iām typing on to do everything I could ever dream of doing with a computer. Why? I donāt know.
Do I wish we could stop and get to know a device, become familiar with it, have the time to work with it and expand it. To feel that it is enough?
Iām going to make up a term: āplateau pointsā, which is when you know you have everything you need in a tool. Letās examine two of them: one for the daily personal computer experience, the other for the computer needs of society.
The 2nd, the plateau point for the needs of society, is constantly changing. Computer security alone motivates drastic changes from year to year. Just when one group declares āsufficientā, another creates new ways of computering that could upset or benefit us all.
The 1st, the plateau point for daily personal experience; it can feel fixed and unchanging, perhaps for years at a time. But we can never escape our every-changing society. And even ourselves, we change, drastically and suddenly at times. Seasons and phases etc.
So how can you find a machine or OS or tool ecosystem and know that itās your forever home? How can you feel and know that say emacs or a Commodore 64 is enough? How do you know if itās the right thing and itās time to learn everything about it and use every feature and depend on it?