Author here. I previously built https://unix4.dev (a live UNIXv4 terminal in your browser) which got a bit of attention here (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46468283) — I’ve now expanded it into a broader platform with 13 vintage operating systems (and growing) for people to check out and explore.
Full OS list (so far): MS BASIC 6502, Unix v1/v4/v5/v7, Slackware 1.0, Debian 1.1, Red Hat 5.2, Damn Small Linux, Alpine 3.0, MINIX 2 and 3, FreeDOS with 32 games.
What’s interesting:
Networked BBS — several of the systems can telnet into a telnet-accessible BBS and post messages that are also visible on the web. Fire up (for example) Red Hat or Debian and run: telnet bbs 23 — leave a message.
Microsoft BASIC for 6502 (1976–78) — one of Microsoft’s earliest BASICs, recently open-sourced from the original code. It’s a great snapshot of that formative era of personal computing.
UNIX v4 (1973) — v4 was thought lost for decades until a tape was discovered at the University of Utah after 50+ years in storage. Widely described as the first Unix with the kernel largely rewritten in C. Runs on an emulated PDP-11/45. (v1, v5 and v7 are available as well)
Period software downloads — some systems can download and install authentic period software. A few do it via native package managers (MINIX3, Alpine, DSL), and a few others use a simple download script I put together in /root (Red Hat, Debian). (Not every OS has this wired up yet.)
Red Hat 5.2 “Apollo” (1998) — a late-90s Linux time capsule from the era when Linux started being taken seriously in business (around the same period as Microsoft’s “Halloween Documents,” which discussed Linux as a competitive threat).
Slackware 1.0 (1993) — the oldest Linux distro still maintained today. Originally shipped on a boatload floppy disks with kernel 0.99pl11-alpha (before Linux 1.0 existed!). Early SUSE releases were Slackware-based. (This one’s a simpler implementation than some of the others so far, but it’s still fun to poke at.)
Fair warning: there might be bugs and rough edges. If you find any, report them in the community forums at vintageterminals.io/bbs (vintage.feedback board) or discuss them here, I'll be reading.
Comments
Author here. I previously built https://unix4.dev (a live UNIXv4 terminal in your browser) which got a bit of attention here (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46468283) — I’ve now expanded it into a broader platform with 13 vintage operating systems (and growing) for people to check out and explore.
Full OS list (so far): MS BASIC 6502, Unix v1/v4/v5/v7, Slackware 1.0, Debian 1.1, Red Hat 5.2, Damn Small Linux, Alpine 3.0, MINIX 2 and 3, FreeDOS with 32 games.
What’s interesting:
Networked BBS — several of the systems can telnet into a telnet-accessible BBS and post messages that are also visible on the web. Fire up (for example) Red Hat or Debian and run: telnet bbs 23 — leave a message.
Microsoft BASIC for 6502 (1976–78) — one of Microsoft’s earliest BASICs, recently open-sourced from the original code. It’s a great snapshot of that formative era of personal computing.
UNIX v4 (1973) — v4 was thought lost for decades until a tape was discovered at the University of Utah after 50+ years in storage. Widely described as the first Unix with the kernel largely rewritten in C. Runs on an emulated PDP-11/45. (v1, v5 and v7 are available as well)
Period software downloads — some systems can download and install authentic period software. A few do it via native package managers (MINIX3, Alpine, DSL), and a few others use a simple download script I put together in /root (Red Hat, Debian). (Not every OS has this wired up yet.)
Red Hat 5.2 “Apollo” (1998) — a late-90s Linux time capsule from the era when Linux started being taken seriously in business (around the same period as Microsoft’s “Halloween Documents,” which discussed Linux as a competitive threat).
Slackware 1.0 (1993) — the oldest Linux distro still maintained today. Originally shipped on a boatload floppy disks with kernel 0.99pl11-alpha (before Linux 1.0 existed!). Early SUSE releases were Slackware-based. (This one’s a simpler implementation than some of the others so far, but it’s still fun to poke at.)
Fair warning: there might be bugs and rough edges. If you find any, report them in the community forums at vintageterminals.io/bbs (vintage.feedback board) or discuss them here, I'll be reading.
Happy to answer questions.