captainClassLoader's Journal: Goodbye, Old Machines...

So, I've spent the last couple of nights decommissioning a couple of old Macintoshes I had around the house - An ailing Duo 210, and my 12 year old Quadra 900 workhorse. I guess I'm a bit sad about the process. These are old machines, but I've had the Quadra for over a decade now, and it still runs okay. I've actually gone through two of the weird little PROM batteries that the Quadra uses. There's a lot of my history on that computer.

The Duo was a note-taker for several years, up until I wore out the keyboard. I was also using it for a PIM until 2001. The software I was using for that (anybody remember DayMaker?) had, oddly enough, a Y2K+1 problem, and the company folded, so no bug fix for me. Fortunately, the notebook software I was using (tiny, simple Spiral) runs on my G4 Powerbook in Classic mode, so no loss of functionality there.

What was amazing about the Duo is that I used up only about 30MB on it - Including the OS and all apps. System 7.1, which is what it ran, was pretty tiny - The whole OS took up about 5MB. You have to be a PDA to boast that kind of footprint these days.

Well, they're both done and gone now - All of the software and docs (whether the apps will run under Classic mode or not) written to CD via an ancient 2x SCSI CD recorder I had around, and the disks then wiped after moving everything to the Powerbook. I'm still keeping one iDinosaur around, though - I've got a PowerMac 180 MP that's running System 9.04, and that still has some miles left on it as a Mac and maybe a Yellow Dog box.

Kinda sad to turn old hardware out to the curb, but I guess it had to happen sooner or later, and I'm in clean-up-your-life mode, so out they go...