Defiant

Defiant was Jaeger's primary desktop computer from approximately 1995 through November 1999. After that, it served as a server in various capacities before finally being decomissioned in 2004.

Defiant and Yukon in Culver Hall room 239.

Defiant began life sometime in the pre-history of Festing, probably around 1995, although its hardware may have existed as early as 1994. It began life as a 40 MHz 386 with an 80 meg hard drive. It was named after the starship USS Defiant; through much of its life the computer was accompanied by an unpainted model of the starship. In June 1996, Defiant was upgraded to a 133 MHz AMD K5. Its disk space was upgraded many times throughout its life.

Defiant initially ran DOS 6 and Windows 3.1. Jaeger began experimenting with Linux on Defiant in early 1997; by fall 1998, Defiant ran only RedHat Linux.

By 1999, Defiant was showing its age; Jaeger built Ziyal, an all-new computer, in November 1999, replacing Defiant as his primary desktop computer. Defiant was then relegated to a secondary role; it served the Commune's webcam in early 2000 and performed other minor tasks before suffering a remote root attack in spring 2000. Defiant was taken offline. Jaeger installed FreeBSD but didn't spend much time with the operating system.

Defiant sat idle for more than a year, until it was recomissioned as a Debian-based router for the Boulder Compound in fall 2001. It served in this role for three years until the Boulder Compound itself was decomissioned in summer 2004. Defiant was finally retired in August 2004 [1].