Hi, On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 6:43 AM <userbeit...@abwesend.de> wrote: > > Afaik there is no Linux that will run with only 8 MB of RAM.
Linux started in 1991 on a 386 with 2 MB of RAM. Granted, newer releases need a tad more. ;-) While outdated (and I'm no expert), for future reference, here's some lightweight Linux distros (and old Minix): * https://distro.ibiblio.org/baslinux/ * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZipSlack * http://download.minix3.org/previous-versions/Intel-2.0.2/ In fact, they should all run atop FAT16, and yes, they will run in very low amounts of RAM (like 8 MB or even less). Minix 2 used segmentation for code and data separation and reuse. Having swap also helped (e.g. ZipSlack). > Not even Windows NT will work with that amount of RAM, but NT 3.x needs 16 > MB, NT 4 needs 32 MB. > > This is where DOS+Windows 3.x excells! Word. (jk) Debatable. I had low-end 486s, which were quite slow and starved for RAM. I would still be interested in running such machines for nostalgia and benchmarking. I know how to do "some" simple and fun things, so I wouldn't mind too badly, BUT it's much more fun with at least a Pentium (and FPU). Just to reiterate, yes you can do a few things (fun or useful or both!) in such low-spec'd machines, but it's not as easy as it sounds. We've lost the touch, generally speaking, to care for older "classic" hardware with decent (slim) software. Niklaus Wirth wrote "A Plea for Lean Software" back in 1995. He obviously was referring to his [quasi open source] OberonOS with compiler and tools. I don't think most people took his advice. He has had a lot of good ideas over the years, but as even he will tell you, it takes a lot of effort (and a genius) to get things done in such lowly conditions. FreeDOS probably isn't exactly what he meant (although we have compilers for most of his languages). His "Project Oberon" (revised in 2013) is still worth a look. * https://inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/ * http://www.projectoberon.com/ _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
