Welcome!
Welcome to my personal website.
It’s under construction, feel free to visit my blog at Wordpress about retro computers.
My name is Eugene Bolshakoff, I am from Uzbekistan (Uzbek SSR those times) and now based in Berlin.
I’m a UNIX/BSD/Linux enthusiast with over 20 years of experience in system administration and a deep passion for retro computing. I love exploring long-lasting systems, interested in the history and internals of classic hardware and software. For me, this is both a profession and a lifelong hobby.
Home Lab
I have a kind of home lab where I experiment with stable UNIX-like systems.
In the lab, I have the following machines:
- Sun: Blade 100 and Ultra 60
- SGI Indy
- IBM RS/6000 Model 380
- Apple: PowerBook 520 and PowerMac G3 (both with classic Mac OS)
- Compaq Contura 4/33 (a laptop running MS-DOS)
- …some other i386-based machines
Solaris is my “favourite” UNIX since 2000s, I have a blog post with the story.
There will be dedicated pages about all those machines, they are now under construction.
I spend some time on using pkgsrc on Solaris 10 SPARC (running on Sun Blade 100).
This is the page about my progress: pkgsrc on Solaris 10 SPARC in 2024. Feel free to contact me to exchange the experience!
If writing emails isn’t the best way for you, just comment in my blog.
Computers from the USSR
Because I am from the USSR, my big interest is Soviet computers, especially PDP-11 compatible.
My collection includes:
- Elektronika BK-0010-01 - a home computer (with a floppy controller, I use real floppies)
- Elektronika UK-NC - a school computer (not working)
- Vector-06C - a “game-oriented” Intel-8080 based computer (unfortunately, not working too)
- Iskra-121 - a Soviet calculator (1976) with nixie tubes (more or less working but needs some repairing, capacitors replacement, I think)
Because “bigger” machines used in institutions (Elektronika DVK et al) are very rare and not available (especially in Europe), I have FPGA-based DVK simulator running DEMOS, a Soviet UNIX variant.
My page on Vintage Computer Festival 2020 about BK-0010-01
There will be more information about resurrecting Vector-06C. The pages are under construction.
Systems in Daily Life
I do not use Mac OS X. It feels like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. I’m not the right person to ask for help with Mac OS X software or troubleshooting, and I would not use a Mac OS X-based laptop for my work.
Also, I disagree with Apple’s current policies and prefer to avoid their modern ecosystem. Mac OS Classic looks much better, anyway.
In my daily life, I use Devuan Linux - a systemd-free Linux distro.
Contact information
- WhatsApp/Telegram: +49-170-475-8557
- Email mercurius(@)elming.org
- Please no phone calls without prior arrangement.
Language Note:
Please contact me in Russian, English, or Ukrainian.
I do not speak German — and I’m not going to.
Sure, I can read German messages using translation tools and reply in English, but please don’t. It makes me nervous and uncomfortable, and honestly, it kills good communication before it even starts. So, if you want to talk to me, please write in English.