Mail tfurrows [at] sdf.org
Picked up an old HSTNC-003-HC Thin Client at a thrift store for $5 the other day. It's an older system, but x86-based, so I thought I'd see if it worked. It booted into XP Embedded without any problems.
Well, except that XP Embedded itself is a problem. The BIOS was easy enough, just F10 at boot (even though it was a black screen with no prompt.) Then set it to boot off USB to see what other OS might fit.
Turns out, the unit has 1GB of solid-state storage, which is not a lot to work with for today's OSes. I thought about doing DOS, but settled on TinyCore Linux 8.1, frugal install to the SSD.
The installation was dead simple, and worked the first time. TinyCore is a pleasure on 1GB of disk space, and it's easy on the RAM too. I am of course writing this on the unit. Performance is good, and there is enough space to do some work on here without getting too cramped. At least, my kind of work.
In all, a great little computer for <$10 total (bought a 1280x1024 LCD monitor at another thrift store for $4, already had keyboard and mouse.) It's amazing what can be had these days for so little.
