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:
