[zeugma]

Was a professional unix admin in the 90s ...

You ought to do just fine then ;-)

Tools are better today than they used to be.

here's something you might like...
PS1=\w `if [ $? = 0 ]; then echo :\\); else echo :\\(; fi`

That will make your prompt a smiley if the last command succeeded, and a frowny if it failed. Take out the \w if you don't want the system name to preface the prompt

zeugma1:~ :) true
zeugma1:~ :) false
zeugma1:~ :( true
zeugma1:~ :)
 

[ShadowAce]

I like this one--I use it all the time:

GREEN='\[\033[32m\]'
RED='\[\033[31m\]'
NC='\[\033[37m\]'

PS1="\u@\w \`if [ \$? = 0 ]; then echo ${GREEN}:\\\)${NC}; else echo ${RED}:\\\(${NC}; fi\`"

[NorthMountain]

Just got ubuntu up and running.

That old machine seems to run faster than it ever did with WinXP ... The user interface is a lot slicker than the X based stuff in IRIX and SunOS/Solaris I remember from the ‘90s. Software is a lot more mature as well.