Me too (though it was 20 years ago). I think Sibelius and a few others were alternatives installed on the machines but I didn't use any of them in depth.
Even better, you can get a 15m Ethernet cable that brings the network to the point of power (with the standard 15m power cable).
I had my Mini set up outside and extended the power line as far as it would go, but then once inside, the Wifi signal was very weak, even just 30' away.
So I've ordered the Ethernet cable, and will attach it to a simple Wifi extender that's also at the point of power, so the inside signal is strong.
They really should have thought of this in the design -- going through walls is always a challenge.
The idea design would have the router combined with the power adaptor ("wall wart"), so the signal originates inside.
Solar power of course, the problem is: who will manufacture new chips for our salvaged computers?
A specialized civilization like ours has a small window to reboot before tech degrades and scavenging becomes harder. After that short window, securing food, shelter and defense would be the primary goals.
I still really like the idea of Collapse OS. I've loved computers all my life, and if bandits are going to raze my precarious settlement, I want to leave this mortal coil with a retro microprocessor in my arms.
I started my own software company 34 years ago after 10+ years in tech (operating systems & networking at a laser printer spinoff from Knuth's TeX project in SV and a mini-supercomputer spinoff from Josh Fisher's VLIW research at Yale (CT)).
So I effectively vanished into our own little world (the world of print publishing), building plugins for first QuarkXPress and now Adobe InDesign. We've been a 4-man company for some decades now, all working from home long before it was cool. ;-)
After all this time, I've lost almost all contacts with folks from SV. Don't really miss it.
It's certainly going on today, especially in various three-letter agencies trying to control the narrative and keep the truth from public view -- see the Twitter Files by Taibbi and others.
Which ideas "become a thing" also feels very controlled to me. I feel like NGOs kinda form a global para-empire that the US uses to form and control counterelites. Idk really but that's my completely ignorant conspiracy statement lol
And, of course, the Asteroids Atari game sure looks like a version of the original Star Wars game on the PDP-1 from MIT I used to play in the Harvard grad computing center...
