Minix

[Scott Stevens]

On Thu, 17 Nov 2005 00:38:07 +0000 (GMT)
ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote:

> > That is exactly why I did not buy the 3 ed.  Minux has been re-wrtten 
> > from a 8088 to a 386+
> > in the 3rd ed. 8 meg of ram min is needed, 16  recomended. I was buying 
> 
> BLETCH!!!
> 
> That means it wouldn't run on this PC (too little RAM), for all I am 
> running an old version of linux with no problems.
> 
> The reason I bought Minix in the beginning was that it would run on my 
> PC/XT machine (the only PC I had at the time). And I learnt a fair bit 
> about OSes and enough C to be dangerous by playing about with it.
> 
> 8MB and a 386 is not a small machine!
> 

It is small for any 'modern' version of Linux.  Most 'distros' now are being built with compile options that don't even allow it to run on a regular 386.  There isn't the same problem for Net or OpenBSD.  Probably one of the reasons I like the BSDs more than Linux:  the fact that they support as 'equal' all those old architectures 'keeps them honest' and keeps the install system from by default installing a horrendous amount of bloat.  I have the same basic compliment of binaries, built from the same source tree, on a little old Sparc IPX and on a Pentium III system.

Early versions of Linux are reaching the age where they are 'technically' on topic here.