Some time ago I had the opportunity to buy an old IGEL M310C thin client for about 16 EUR. This was a thin client based on the VIA Nano U3400 CPU, clocked at 800 MHz, once sold by the German company IGEL Technology GmbH. Since 2022 that company no longer sells hardware, concentrating on its IGEL OS, which is a Linux-based operating system that allows access to virtual desktops. IGEL M310C without the CompactFlash card

It has been a (very) long time since I last posted here, but now I’m back! This time I will write about Vivaldi, an interesting alternative to Google Chrome for privacy-aware users. Vivaldi uses the Chromium code base and features an integrated ad and tracker blocker. It is available for a variety of platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and even iOS. Vivaldi also features an integrated e-mail client, which is useful in particular if you want to access a Gmail account not through a browser.

I’ve been using NewPipe, a privacy-aware YouTube client for Android, for some time now and I’m quite happy and impressed by it. So I wondered if there was a Linux desktop client that could match NewPipe’s features. The answer is yes! With FreeTube there is an Electron-based client for Windows, Mac and Linux that allows you to access YouTube more privately. FreeTube allows you to manage channel subscriptions without the need for a Google account and you can easily import your existing YouTube subscriptions.

Some time ago I decided to build myself a new PC for retrocomputing and programming. For one part I wanted to be able to install the latest version of FreeDOS on modern hardware, on the other side I was very eager to install, at last, Arch Linux on a dedicated PC. As I expect this project to become a sort of exploration journey in an unknown territory, I decided to name this new PC atlantis.

After I succeeded in installing NetBSD on the HP thin client t5710, I wanted to see how well it would work under Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition (SE). Thin Client HP t5710 - Front view The biggest problem you run into when trying such an installation is that, in general, you need a floppy disk to boot the Windows 98 SE setup. To perform the installation from a USB stick I followed the steps described in detail in an excellent online article by James MacKenzie.

I recently bought several old HP thin clients t5710 on Ebay, mostly because I wanted to install FreeDOS and other DOSes on bare metal. And since each box did cost only about 17 EUR, I thought it might be a good idea to give them a try. Thin Client HP t5710 - Front view Thin Client HP t5710 - Rear view with the ports The t5710 thin client features some interesting hardware components:

Welcome to our blog! Here we will post hopefully interesting stuff about computers. Some of the themes we will cover here are: Retrocomputing Programming in new and old languages Raspberry Pi and other single-board computers (SBC) Simulations Serious games Please send us a mail at mail@geekscave.com if you have questions!