[vcf-midatlantic] OT: Dell Dimension XPS 466V

[Herb Johnson]

> Working on a Dell 486 computer.  I need a RTClock battery, but otherwise
> it's running quite nicely Windows for Workgroups 3.11

The question of batteries is on-topic IMHO.

Batteries in the long term, cause corrosion of parts that have constant 
current on them. This is true all the way back to 128K Macs. also, many 
batteries leak (not coin cells), that's not good either. If you add a 
battery pack, make sure you can readily pull it out when the computer is 
in long-term storage.

Windows for Workgroups (Win 3.1 + networking) is worth preserving. It's 
a legacy OS now. It ran for many years in embedded applications (back 
ATMs) and Microsoft support only ended several years ago. Many consider 
Win 3.1 the first really "successful" M/S Windows OS product.

If I had time and interest, I'd see about migrating Win 3.1 to the 
Heath-Zenith Z-100. That's a S-100 system that is somewhat IBM PC 
compatible. I don't recall if Windows was offered for that platform, 
later Zenith PC's ran even earlier Windows (I have those distributions).

Herb

-- 
Herbert R. Johnson,  New Jersey USA
http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net