DABDA

I hope in some fashion computers and related technology drop out of mainstream appeal and are relegated to actual nerds and tinkerers again. Not in a gatekeeping sense, but just where the goals are about pushing boundaries for the sake of exploration and not solely profit and personal data acquisition motivated.

as my system chases it’s tale in a silicon frenzy

Nice proofreading, Lazlow J.

I’m just a bit too young to have been part of the BBS scene, but I’ve certainly done plenty of Windows re-installs. I had a friend that would wipe his Windows 98SE drive every two weeks or so, whether or not there was any instability. I recently stumbled across an old backup of some screenshots and found one where I was apparently proud of the 31 day system uptime. Best part of the transition to NT based Windows was definitely the near complete elimination of BSoDs. Kinda blocked out the bad memories of random lockups and blue screens just being an expected part of daily computing life.

fdisk, format, reinstall
doo-dah, doo-dah

To be somewhat close to on-topic with self-hosting, the oldest service I have fond memories of running was a small Hotline server.

I’m guessing it wouldn’t be a valid legal argument, but I liked the thought experiment of claiming that it can’t be piracy if the rights holder is intentionally publicly sharing the content. Like trying to charge trick-or-treaters for theft when they took candy out of the bowl you left out with a “Free!” sign attached.

If nothing else, you should easily be able to determine the amount of RAM by watching during POST (might need to press esc/tab/etc. if there’s just a fullscreen logo or something) or by entering the BIOS/UEFI (check mfg site for specific button, but usually delete or an F-key).

Depending on the friend’s willingness and aptitude there’s also the option of booting a live linux environment with a flash drive (or disc) and using its tools to profile all the detected hardware.