[ from the the-jcm-sparc-museum dept. ]
Tadpole SPARCbook
The Tadpole SPARCbook arrived. In the evening last night I powered it up to confirm that SPARCbook Solaris 1.0.1 is installed and runs. Networking is coming up and the AUI adapter works however I need to remember how a few of the settings are configured on old SunOS over the next few days. This is pretty cool. I need to get hold of an installation CD either from Tadpole or from another SPARCbook owner who has one of the originals.
The plan is to investigate upgrading the hard disks to multigigabyte ones and to install both SunOS and SPARC Debian GNU/Linux on it. I can make a battery pack since at the moment it is running off a modified power supply which was sent to me with the unit. Screen size is small and supports only 16 on screen colours in the 256 colour colourmap at any given moment due to the limitations of the display technology. Who cares though really? It does display information and runs SPARC Solaris so what more could anyone really want in a laptop? 
.
So it will not be replacing my Apple 2002 Powerbook obsideon however it might come with me to Telehouse and to the Nuclear Bunker party at Christmas for the general extension it suggestively offers to manhood. Besides every other geek would do the same. Now all I need is to get a slightly newer Tadpole SPARCbook to complement this original S1 and I can have a pretty complete museum of old SPARC hardware going on in my bedroom.
Meanwhile in the real world I am debugging a serial driver and looking at networking and Compact Flash. One of the family pets is unwell and everyone at home seems to have a cold which they either caught from me or are going to give to me. I have not figured out which yet.
I am probably going to be in Poole this weekend and am writing a review of pGina for next issue – also writing about Tomcat and some other stuff too.
Jon.