Hi, On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 3:15 PM, Mike Eriksen <thinstation.m...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Neither XP nor "light" Linuxes typically run well (if at all) in even >> 128 MB of RAM, so saying 20 years is a bit of an exaggeration, even 10 >> years isn't supported well. I'm not knocking Linux, just saying, I've >> honestly tried, and it doesn't always work on such "old" machines. But >> your mileage may vary (and of course I can't test 300+ distros). > > I'm not here to advocate Linux in one way or another. I like FreeDOS > and that's why I keep signing up on this mailing list.
Obviously. And there's nothing wrong with using Linux or even discussing it here (ahem, DOSEMU). Even all the bigwigs in FreeDOS use it heavily. Even I'm on it now (Lucid Puppy 5) on this old P4 (mostly because my laptop's wifi flaked out, again, both in Windows and Fedora, go figure, though it was fine yesterday). > But claiming Linux is struggling on 128 MB is way out. I tried two liveCDs, and both wouldn't even boot in 128 MB of RAM. Granted, like I said, I can't try 300+ distros, but most of the "light" ones specifically say they are targeted at 128 MB or more. Most anything less is only using older tools and esp. kernel (2.4, 2.2), which is far from ideal. > My email address gives away I'm involved in a Linux thin client and this > one runs happily with 24-32 MB RAM on and no hard disk. With graphics, > mouse, networking, USB support, audio support blah blah. Graphics or X11? I'd be surprised about GUI stuff. Sure, I've tried BasicLinux and DamnSmallLinux, even briefly TinyCore, but they all seem to be too minimal or have other issues. I'm not saying it can't be done, but, 99% of the time, it never worked right for me. GCC alone can sometimes eat up 100s of MB of RAM for relatively small source files. (I'm actually thinking of a specific case using G++ here, so it may not be totally accurate. But you get the idea.) It really all depends on what you want to do. I'm just saying, the days of low RAM usage are over. People don't even bother testing on old machines anymore, only whatever they can find, which is usually new stuff with gigs of RAM. So while an expert or two may know how to do it (LFS?), typically canned distros fail miserably. Please don't take this the wrong way (as most do, despite my best attempts), it's just very frustrating for me. There is no easy (obvious) solution. > FreeDOS is still relevant and I like it and I love following it. Good! And I guess you know my feelings .... :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Simplify data backup and recovery for your virtual environment with vRanger. Installation's a snap, and flexible recovery options mean your data is safe, secure and there when you need it. Discover what all the cheering's about. Get your free trial download today. http://p.sf.net/sfu/quest-dev2dev2 _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
