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I really like this! I want to see it get a little easier to be carried around, but I want to build one! I'll be able to use my Sony Mavica to take pictures on floppy disks and my floppy-walkman to listen to music from floppy disks!

Now I also wonder what other horrendous uses of floppy disks there could be... I'm thinking it could be fun to store server web pages (without caching)... Or maybe to play some video feedback?

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Around 1996-97, there was a Linux-based firewall/router that booted from a single 1.44MB diskette. iirc, it needed a very small amount of RAM too, something like only 8MB. The diskette could be used with write-protect enabled to prevent accidental (or malicious for that matter) modifications to the diskette contents. I believe it also had an SMTP relay. It was particularly useful for sharing dial-up and DSL connections at a time when commercial solutions would’ve been much more expensive than a stripped down repurposed spare computer with no hard drive. A bit hard to imagine now, but back then it was pretty fantastic to have an Internet connection shared between computers on a home or small business network.

Edit: Found its Wikipedia page! [0]

[0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Router_Project

Boy, does that bring back memories. I used precisely such a repurposed PC with this back in the day, to juggle two DSL circuits into our office.

Of course, a thumb drive can host a far more sophisticated router these days.

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