i've thought about this from different directions.
i'd love a laptop that i could upgrade. something like the https://www.crowpi.cc/ where every 3-4 years i could replace the old pi and get a newer better one. the current versions are really only made for 1 specific version of pi. and wouldn't fit any clone boards.
or perhaps a vt100 terminal connecting to a rasp pi as a terminal. text only for distraction free work. could even get a z80 cp/m based computer for real old school vibes.
I love the idea of a "long term" computer, but the thing that terrifies me about the Amiga (or the C64, or the Atari 400/800, or the Apple IIe) is how dependent they are on custom no-longer-produced chips. Sure, those chips might last a long time, but there's only going to be fewer and fewer of them over time.
At least the 6502 is still being commercially produced, and most TTL 74* chips too, so the original Apple II should easily last 50 years... but I/O is kind of a pain and the lack of full ASCII keyboard and display is crippling.
Thinking more about this overnight. My thoughts converged on the loved/maligned Raspberry Pi. It may not be a repairable device but simply a numbers game based production runs. 40 million units. A hobbyist/maker community adapting it to so many applications. C 64 sold 17 million, Apple II series 6 million and Atari 8bit was 3 million.
even if every pi disappeared overnight there are a dozen clones you could drop in as a replacement the day after. in 10-20 years time. you'll be able to find something that can run emulate the os or computer you want.
Are there though? I’d call those other boards a pi-like but their software stacks are often abandoned shortly after they ship. Unlike the offline by default of the 8-bit era these are going to need updates and support in an ever hostile world - just my thoughts on the subject.
Random : anyone else posting from mobile get their posts duplicated ?
Fair enough. Lot of quality SBC boards in that lot. I bought a lot of junk during the dark times when Pi 4 was scarce. Now that Pi4 and Pi5 are ramping up production and available again its hard to choose a less mainstream board. My uncle sent me an N100 board to play with. FAST AF, but man howdy do I feel like it has a shelf life in years at best.
These machines will survive. Beloved and curated. Simple to work on and and adapt. Revive is (legalities) aside have at least shown that a machine from this era can be modernized.
Storage is the hard part. Media is rarer and rarer each year. Parts for mechanical drives equally hard. Even cds and optical are hard to come by these days
I was under the impression that mechanical floppy drives are usually replaced with floppy drive emulators which work with standard USB flash drives. A cheap 4GB flash drive emulate thousands of floppy disks, which is kinda nuts.
Yes. From the 8-bit era. Definitely the case. 8–bit Floppy disks can be pretty easily. emulated. But I’m thinking about slightly later gen things like ISA cards for MFM and RLL hard drives. 1.2 and 720/1.44 floppies. I have a Lenovo usb 3.5” drive. But nothing for 1.2 mb 5.25. Maybe almost nobody does. Zip and jazz drives. Gone. Even Sata is stating to dry up.
i'd love a laptop that i could upgrade. something like the https://www.crowpi.cc/ where every 3-4 years i could replace the old pi and get a newer better one. the current versions are really only made for 1 specific version of pi. and wouldn't fit any clone boards.
or perhaps a vt100 terminal connecting to a rasp pi as a terminal. text only for distraction free work. could even get a z80 cp/m based computer for real old school vibes.
i did look into getting a bbc model b and adding a rasp pi as a second processor. http://www.breakintoprogram.co.uk/hardware/adding-a-pitube-c...
I want to hear the fan, the drive head actuate, a monitor thst goes gazong when I power up
At least the 6502 is still being commercially produced, and most TTL 74* chips too, so the original Apple II should easily last 50 years... but I/O is kind of a pain and the lack of full ASCII keyboard and display is crippling.
Random : anyone else posting from mobile get their posts duplicated ?
Storage is the hard part. Media is rarer and rarer each year. Parts for mechanical drives equally hard. Even cds and optical are hard to come by these days