One correction, the maximum amount of ram for this machine is actually 10mb. It's been so long since I've turned it on that I totally forgot. The LEM article you linked is actually for the Mac Classic, which is different than the Classic II. I'm guessing you actually have
this machine, like mine.
I guess I was also off on the maximum OS it would run, technically. LEM claims 7.6.1 is the highest that it will go . . . however, I do remember hacks that would let you install 8.x on unsupported 68k machines with the 68030.
You can find out the size of the HD by just clicking on the hard drive and looks in the window . . . it will say something like "25.5mb available."
You might want to look into hfstools, or mactools -- there's some Debian package that has a number of tools for working with Mac filesystems and disks. Using a SCSI zip drive with this isn't a bad idea for moving big chunks of data if networking isn't an option (hell, it's probably faster).
Any modern router, switch, or hub will auto sense between 10 and 100mb. That means you need to find a cheapo 10mb hub and attach it to your current router, switch, hub, or whatever to force it to recognize the Asante adapter as a 10mb device. There's no workaround for this -- it's just like that -- no matter the model.
Netscape will be a dog on that machine. iCab is almost (un)usable (the only 68k browser still in development). Stick with browsers from its era. Mosaic and the very first version of Netscape perhaps. The
best (meaning functional) browser I found for this machine was
Wannabe, a text based browser that works with many modern sites. MacLynx would be nice, except that it expands beyond the small screen of the classic and I can't figure out how to resize it; Ircle has the same issue, so I haven't found a usable IRC client either (that would be cool).
what? that's useless! this is one thing apple does peeve me off about. for no reason, they change all their specs so that their technology is not compatible over a gap of more than a few years.
Trust me, it's a good thing. Appletalk sucks. One of the reasons MS sucks is because they hang onto so much legacy garbage that should be trashed. Apple is about innovation, not whether or not it's convenient to move forward. If you're a network admin who still has Appletalk machines on your network -- well, I don't know . . . the heads up on this probably arrived 10 years ago.
which one's the serial port? is it the circular one to the right of the scsi one? that's something i am a little lost about.
The serial port is the port with a phone beside it, since it was usually used with modems. Never bothered with it -- perhaps your adventures will motivate me.
Shufflepuck really rocks. There was a Linux clone of it made called TuxPuck that rocks too. I'm still trying to find an OS X binary somewhere (I hate playing it over X11 from another machine). While it's true the compact Macs had B&W displays, the games were designed with it in mind -- so a lot of times you really ended up with cool and innovative stuff that looked
good in shades of gray. That's in contrast to the shitty CGA games that PC users had to endure, which were usually designed with EGA users in mind where 4 colors were substituted for 16.
