Over on the Adafruit Learning System Playground, where community members can post their projects for free, Anne Barela has created a Note documenting her mini-IBM PC build.

Based on the Adafruit Fruit Jam board and its powerful Raspberry Pi RP2350 microcontroller, it runs Charlie Birks‘ Probably Average Computer Emulator (PACE-32) IBM emulation software. It runs vintage software such as MS-DOS and Wolfenstein 3D.

The build has two USB ports for keyboard, mouse, and gamepads. And an IBM compatible joystick port made by Adafruit also. It has working hard drive and floppy lights and a red tactile on/off paddle switch.

Amy Lendian remixed a Thingiverse design for the case and monitor.

Anne has used it with various keyboards (below) including vintage IBM Model F and Model M devices along with some modern scaled boards which have a vintage look like Vortex and 8BitDo.

See more in the Playground Note.

Over the decades the number of Linux distributions has effectively exploded, from a handful in the late ’90s to quite literally hundreds today, not counting minor variations. There lately seems to be a counter-movement brewing in response to this fragmentation, with Project Bluefin’s Distroless project being the latest addition here. Also notable are KDE’s efforts, with KDE Linux as its own top-down KDE-based distro, but now with a switch to BuildStream from Arch likely as a distroless move.

It should be clear that there is no obvious course here yet, and that opinions are very much divided. The idea of ‘Linux’ becoming a more singular OS appeals to some, while to others it’s the antithesis of what ‘Linux’ is about. This much becomes clear in [Brodie Robertson]’s exploration of this topic as well.

The way to think about ‘distroless’ is that there is a common base using the Freedesktop SDK on which the customization layer is applied, such as Bluefin, KDE or Gnome’s environments. You could think of this base as the common runtime, using the Freedesktop standards for interoperability for a user-selected layer that’s installed on top. This way the idea of basing a distro on a specific distro is tossed out in favor of something that’s vaguely reminiscent of the Linux Standard Base attempt at standardization.

It’ll be fascinating to see how things will move from here, as there are definite arguments to be made in favor of less fragmentation and resultingly less duplicated effort. In many ways this would bring Linux closer to for example FreeBSD, which avoids the Linux Chaos Vortex problem by having a singular codebase. FreeBSD ‘distros’ like GhostBSD and NomadBSD are therefore essentially just specialized customizations that target a sub-group of FreeBSD users.

Of course, when we start talking about package managers and other base-distro specific features, we may very well risk igniting the same problems that tore apart the LSB so many years ago. Will we also standardize on RPM over DEB package files and kin, or something else?

Retro Inspired

Build an Apple IIe inspired 3D printed enclosure for the Adafruit Fruit Jam. This project is designed to pair nicely with the Apple IIe Emulator on Fruit Jam.

This guide covers the 3D printable CAD files, case assembly and keyboard setup. There is no soldering required making this a great project for beginners!

– A step‑by‑step guide to 3D print and assemble an Apple IIe‑inspired enclosure for the Adafruit Fruit Jam, including CAD files, an easy‑open access cover, and modular internals requiring no soldering.
– The guide also walks through fitting a 43‑key RGB mechanical keyboard (KPRepublic BM43) with custom QMK firmware, housing an SD→microSD adapter for the Total Replay Apple II software, and using USB‑C power, HDMI video, and an extra USB‑A port for peripherals.

– Adafruit 512MB micro SD Memory Card — https://www.adafruit.com/product/5252.
– Adafruit Fruit Jam (project hardware target referenced in the guide) — https://www.adafruit.com/?q=Fruit+Jam.

Read more at Apple IIe Fruit Jam Enclosure

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Feather or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!

This is a Morse code practice oscillator for Fruit Jam with super clean sine wave tones and a 3d-printable straight key. The key uses a Kailh Cherry MX compatible keyswitch for reliable switching and flexures to make a precision hinge that works well when printed in PLA. Set screw adjustment lets you shorten the keyswitch travel. The audio output chain uses an audiofilter.Filter to bandpass filter the output of a  synthio.Synthesizer for smooth note attacks and releases without keyclick.

Overview