Key Takeaways
- MS-DOS 4 revived on IBM PS/2 for a blast from the past – beta disks rediscovered and system brought back to life.
- Arc Browser aims to shake up the market, challenge Chrome dominance – built on Chromium, requires Windows 11.
- Drama surrounds Rabbit R1 – accused of being just an Android app, past involvement in NFTs, negative review from editor.
If you didn’t keep up with the news this week, you missed some cool projects. There were a ton of cool Raspberry Pi projects this week, plus someone reviving a PC from the late ’80s with MS-DOS 4. Plus, if you’re thinking about getting the Rabbit R1, perhaps you should check out the recent drama surrounding it before you fork over any money.
5 Someone built MS-DOS 4 on their PS/2, because old habits die hard
Putting MS-DOS 4 on its rightful home
A little while ago, Microsoft made MS-DOS 4 open source after someone located some of the beta disks for the build. It’s a pretty old system, released in the late ’80s with help from IBM. People have been getting the operating system running on all kinds of devices, but someone went the extra mile and build MS-DOS 4, while using MS-DOS 4, on an IBM PS/2 which had a processor that topped out at 16 MHz. It took over an hour to complete, but it managed.
4 The long-awaited Arc browser finally launches on Windows, and it’s well worth a try
Shaking up the browser market
Sick of the current browser selection? Then Arc Browser may be what you’re looking for. Its aim is to bring innovation into what its creator, The Browser Company, believes is a stagnant market. It has its sights set on de-throning Chrome, but people who have sworn off Google’s tech will be displeased to hear that Arc does run on Chromium. Still, if you don’t mind that, you can give it a try; just be sure you’re using Windows 11, as the browser doesn’t work on Windows 10 or below.
3 Now (was) the perfect time to add this ultra-powerful supercomputer to your collection for an absolute steal
It’s gone now, but it was still cool
Okay, so you can no longer buy this ultra-powerful supercomputer, and it did not go for an absolute steal. But at the time of writing, a Cheyenne supercomputer was selling for $31,000, so some of our readers may have had a shot at buying it. But when the bidding ended on May 3rd, it sold for $480,085. So, maybe not the bargain we were hoping it’d be, but at least it was cool to see a supercomputer go up for auction.
2 Drama emerges around the new Rabbit R1
Maybe not the revolution some were hoping for
Source: Rabbit
So, how about that Rabbit R1? This little device was marketed as an AI-powered companion that you could bring with you. However, things began to look grim once people accused Rabbit R1 of just being an Android app in a bespoke shell, which doesn’t bode well for the company asking for $199 per unit. Then someone did some digging and discovered that Rabbit used to be in the business of NFTs, which made matters worse. And in a final nail in the coffin, our all-powerful editor-in-chief Rich Woods slammed the Rabbit R1 in his review, giving the unit a 2/10. Maybe save your money this time.
1 Someone just made a GPU from scratch in two weeks, saying it was “harder than expected”
Some people just have high expectations
Finally, someone went from not knowing how to create their own GPU to building their own in the space of two weeks. It took a lot of research and reverse-engineering of Nvidia’s tech, but they did it anyway. They said it was harder than they expected, which makes us think about what about building a DIY graphics cards was easy. Still, it’s a massively impressive feat; expect this guy to be on Nvidia’s payroll in the near futrure.