@3rz @Gammitin @rasteri The problem may be that there are no PCI-X / 64bit #PCI->#PCIe chips available (at a reasonable price) to warrant such cards.

• Chips like the #PEX8112 make it relatively easy to adapt PCI->PCIe so entry-level Graphics Cards could be made with new GPUs that only support #PCIexpress and get some lifetime out of an old system.

I had an #ATi #HD3450 from Sapphire with that bridge-chip that I got for a low-end system back in 2009.

• Unlike #ISA there isn't much of a hard dependency that kept 64bit PCI / PCI-X around for long and PCIe is certainly the superior interface and 1:1 software compatible and transparent to the underlying OS.

@cleverboi @FandaSin @BrodieOnLinux @neal @OS1337 I mean, I wish I was wrong, but #ISA can't be well-tunneled like #PCI can be tunneled in #PCIe.

Otherwise @rasteri and others wouldn't go out if their way to deal with #ISA & #PC104...

At least #TexElec started to build new #Floppy Controllers with the #QuadFlop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjNBPHjUSHE via @TechTangents

https://texelec.com/product/quad-flop-four-port-isa-floppy-controller/
https://infosec.space/@kkarhan/114739012019769556

@enigmatico @lispi314 @kimapr @bunnybeam case in point:

• #Bloatedness was the original post topic and yes, due to #TechBros "#BuildFastBreakThings" mentality, #Bloatware is increasing given that a shitty bloated 50+MB "#WebApp" with like nw.js is easy to slap together (and yes I did so myself!) than to put in way more thought and effort (as you can see on the slow progression of OS/1337...

• Yes, #Accessibility is something that needs to be taken more seriously and it's good to see that there's at least some attemots at making #accessibility mandatory (at least in #Germany, where I know from some insider that a big telco is investing a lot in that!) for a growng number of industries and websites...

• And whilst one can slap an #RTX5090 on any laptop that has a fully-functional #ExpressCard slot (with #PCIe interface, using some janky adaptors!) that'll certainly not make sense beyond some #CUDA or other #GPGPU-style workloads as it's bottlenecked to a single PCIe lane of 2.0 (500MB/s) or just 1.0a(250MB/s) speeds.

Needless to say there is a need to THINN DOWN things cuz the current speed of #Enshittifcation and bloatedness combined with #AntiRepairDesign and overpriced yet worse #tech in general makes it unsustainable for an ever increasing population!

• Not everyone wants (or even can!) indebt themselves just to have a phone or laptop!

Should we aim for more "#FrugslComputing"?

• Abdolutely!

Is it realistic to expect things to be in a perfectly accessible TUI that ebery screenreader can handle?

• No!

That being said the apathy of consumers is real, and very frustrating:

People get nudged into accepting all the bs and it really pisses me off because they want me to look like ab outsider / asshole for not submitting to #consumerism and #unsustainable shite...

@simonzerafa @NanoRaptor @ActionRetro ...at least woth like #RaspberryPi5 / #CM5 modules and #PCIe and/or #USB 3.0 to interconnect them...

• Add to that a #NeoFloppy for literal Terabytes of #SSD-#Storage!

@lonseidman I did consider a #ThinkstationTiny ages ago and for their size they pack a lot of power, tho for an entry-level #compact #workstation they also cost a lot and whilst very maintainable, they ain't as versatile and upgradeable.

• I wished #Lenovo would offer them with @ubuntu / #UbuntuLTS and #RadeonPro W7500 or W6600 card or a blank, single #PCIe x16 low profile slot as an option.

What did surprise me on that loaner unit you got sent in for #testing is that they kneecapped themselves with a single DIMM and a single NVMe SSD, which really kills at least 30-60% performance each, making no sense when it has the biggest GPU + CPU combo.

• At least unlike the previous generations (i.e. #P360 Tiny) they chose to make it a dual-fan setup instead of having the #GPU needing to dissipate it's heat with a headpipe and finstack in the exhaust of the #CPU fan, making the system louder and hotter than it could be in the build volume it has...

Also whoever at #YouTube decided to shove shitty #dubbing over it:

• Tell them STOP IT! It's an insult to me as a German native speaker to have worse quality than some #Memes and #Syncros people did 20 years ago!

If you paid for that voiceover, you should demand your money back!

@puppygirlhornypost2 the #Pi500 is basically the #Pi400 with the #Pi5's #SoC onboard.

• Sadly AFAIK without #RTC, #Reset / #PowerButton and no #PCIe...

@alterelefant @Heidi As of now, we can see stuff like the #ExaDrive, a 100TB 3,5" SSD for #online - #archival storage.

• As #Helium-filled #SMR-#HDD|s struggle to meet the demand for storage at an acceptable thermal & power envelope and price, #SSD|s will inevitable take over as not only the more robust media but also cheaper, more dense and easier to use.

As for the #NeoFloppy that thing could be made - I'm just not good enough layouting PCBs with the precision needed for #PCIe signalling...

• Needless to say if constant write speed and lifetime in writes is secondary, then a stack of cheap #SATA-SSDs already beats #LTO-9 tapes unless you need to backup literal #Petabytes and need the fancy features like #WORM media.

That being said, it's inevitable that even WORM as a feature may be copied over.

• In fact #ZFS can already offer many features of #LTFS, including read-only snapshots and thus append-only #archives.

Until there are #COTS solutions tho, LTO #Tape and other options will OFC remain dominant and relevant.

• Still I'd happily see storage vendors take up the NeoFloppy and build something off it.

-- :please_boost: :boost: :boosted:

Speaking of #ROMs for #ix86 / #amd64: Does anyone know a good way to implement something like #Linux in #ROM like the #Tandy #1000RL & #1000RLX did with #MSDOS & #DeskMate (as @vwestlife showed)...

• Or is this something that requires either going down the #PCIe -> #PCI -> #ISA rabbit hole?

I mean, it would be a way cleaner setup to boot OS/1337 to than booting a #CDROM?

• If noone has an Idea how to make this happen, is there any good way or existing solution to basically make a hardware write-protectable / #readonly #USB flashdrive to boot from?

Ideally something that can take #BIOS-style ROM Chips that one can put on a board without write-enable connected so they're read-only!

• And yes, @landley may see similarities to his [deprecated] Aboriginal Linux nee #FirmwareLinux ...

Still having like a #minimalist #Linux distro in Boot-ROM would be nifty, espechally when it comes to making a #SecureComputing "#SSH #Terminal"...

• Maybe @ActionRetro, @mos_8502 and others can point this question to people who are firm in boot ROMs and potentially even have something at hand.

(I don't expect something like a PCI(e Mini)Card but I'd not be against it!)

@snaki which reminds me that I've never seen a real #PCIe x32 slot (even when it was specificed by PCI-SIG)...

• Tho I've seen more #cursed #RiserCards and I even own a Radeon HD3450 with a PCI -> PCIe switch cuz at that time I needed a new GPU but couldn't afford a new board with PCIe.