[UFO Chicago] Now Taking Requests For Free Operating Systems

[Jay F. Shachter]

Esteemed Colleagues:

One of my clients sent me a laptop on which Microsoft Windows had been
installed, because he needed me to teach an online class to a customer
who, for security reasons, insisted on using Adobe Connect rather than
Zoom for the videoconference platform, and the Adobe Connect client
only works properly on Windows, and I didn't own a laptop on which
Windows had been installed (except for one where it had been
installed, but it doesn't work).

So now I had a laptop in my possession that could boot only Microsoft
Windows.  This is, of course, a waste of disk storage, and, although
disk storage might no longer be considered a scarce resource, laptop
computers still are.  I shrunk the Windows system (it still boots, and
none of its functionality has been impaired).  Onto the disk storage
thus reclaimed, I have installed 6 free operating systems (so there is
now a choice of 7 operating systems, when you boot this computer).
Three of the six are UNIX systems: Solaris 11.4, Springdale (an RHEL
clone) 9.0, and OpenBSD 7.3.  The other three are non-UNIX systems:
Haiku r1beta4, 9front (a fork of Plan 9), and FreeDOS 1.3.

I have tried and failed to install ReactOS, Icaros, and SkyOS.  Also
NetBSD 9.3, which had problems with nouveau.  I have reason to think
that NetBSD 10 will have better drivers, and I am waiting for it to
become more stable.

I am now taking requests.  I will bring this laptop to the next
in-person ufo meeting, and you may all play with it.  What other
operating systems do you want me to install on it?  In particular, the
Linux area has room for 2 or 3 more Linux distributions.  I figured
that one of them ought to be RHEL or an RHEL clone, but I have no
opinion about the others.  If you could only have 3 or 4 Linux
distributions on your computer, which ones ought you to have?  I also
have room for several more non-Linux operating systems.  Which ones do
you want to see installed on this computer?

           Jay F. Shachter
           6424 North Whipple Street
           Chicago IL  60645-4111
                   (1-773)7613784   landline
                   (1-410)9964737   GoogleVoice
                   jay at m5.chicago.il.us
                   http://m5.chicago.il.us

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