Mmmm... Must resist... Argghhh...
OSX requires large amounts of memory primarily because it's really multiple
operating systems in one. You're not only hosting MOSX on top of Darwin
(really, the Mach Microkernel), but you're also hosting MOS9 on top of
Darwin. Most of the comments I've heard reported on more developer-oriented
lists are about how not only does MOS9 require massive amounts of memory to
operate with decent performance, but any applications run within "Classic"
(aka MOS9) also require distributing memory first via MOS9 and then out to
Mach, at least from the Classic app's perspective. (Yes, technically, Mach
allocates memory dynamically to MOS9 which then uses CFM to assign a stack
and a heap to the MOS9 app based on the app's total requested memory... but
that's looking at things from the right perspective, not the app's
perspective ;)
So even though MOSX itself can operate quite nicely within 64 MB (certainly
MOSXS could), in order to run both MOSX and MOS9 at the same time requires
more (that 128 MB figure).
Also, please bear in mind that what some call "bloat" others call
"features:" in this case, MOSX ships with a custom display layer instead of
some flavor of Xwindows, although an X server has already been ported... and
Tenon's working on a commercial one... Regardless, "Quartz" does a lot more
than most display layers, and one of the penalties of doing more is
requiring more resources. MOSX ships with both AppleTalk and TCP/IP
networking stacks. It runs Apache as a web server, and has a long list of
other features, all of which use up memory, hard disk space, and CPU cycles.
Yes- I've run Linux in 16 MB of memory... in 1997. X was only kinda happy.
Now my current Linux machine has 128 MB of memory, and for what I'm doing
with it, it's barely enough- QIIIA is a pig, what can I say? :)
I think a better question is not, "Why can't MOSX run in 16 MB of memory,"
but "What is a reasonable amount of memory to expect MOSX to run in?" The
Beta is happiest with 128 minimum, but the target for the final is 64 (what
Apple's been shipping for the last 6-9 months). It's obviously unrealistic
to expect Apple to ship machines with less memory than is required to run
the final version of MOSX, after all.
IMHO, if you're rich enough to afford a reasonably modern (<3 year old)
PowerMac ($799), and rich enough to afford to spend $30 on a beta (meaning
toy until the final version ships) OS, then you're rich enough to spend the
$75 it takes to boost your PowerMac from 64 to 128 MB of memory.
I mean honestly, if we're going to grouse down memory lane, then I want to
complain about the $150 I had to pay for a 4 MB 72-pin SIMM for my Performa
475 back in '93 (-shiver- 7, now almost 8 years ago)!
Just my $.02, and so you know, I'm wearing asbestos pants ;)
-Nathan
-----Original Message-----
From: Kris Feldmann [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2000 8:54 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Duo2400] Re: OS X public beta out!
On Wed, 13 Sep 2000, Fredric White wrote:
> > Ugh, bloated. I wonder if thats ALL for aqua?
>
> Also requires 128MB. I wonder what Mac 128K owners in 1984 would have
> thought of MacOS in the year 2000 needing 3 orders of magnitude more
> memory. Time for us to mentally prepare for MacOS XX in the year 2016
> requiring 128GB.
There really must be a _lot_ of bloat in there. OSX is based on Unix
(BSD), yet any other Unix will run quite happily with far fewer resources.
I have a Quadra 650 with 16MB of RAM running NetBSD, and several Powermac
6100's running MkLinux. All of these boxes are in everyday use. I see no
reason why _any_ OS should require 128MB and a G3. I call that wasteful.
Think of what all that power could be used for if it wasn't busy running
your pretty desktop.
Kris Feldmann
http://rotted.com/
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