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Xref: sserve comp.os.coherent:9014 comp.os.linux:35485 comp.os.minix:21899 comp.os.386bsd.questions:1872 comp.os.misc:2165 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!haven.umd.edu!uunet!mcsun!sun4nl!philapd!apdnews!baukje.idca.tds.philips.nl!groot From: groot@idca.tds.philips.nl (Henk de Groot) Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent,comp.os.linux,comp.os.minix,comp.os.386bsd.questions,comp.os.misc Subject: Re: Unix OS for 286 Message-ID: <groot.735474426@baukje.idca.tds.philips.nl> Date: 22 Apr 93 10:27:06 GMT References: <C5psFF.Jrp@unix.amherst.edu> <9304203477@drktowr.chi.il.us> Sender: news@idca.tds.philips.nl Reply-To: groot@idca.tds.philips.nl (Henk de Groot) Lines: 56 X-Disclaimer: This opinion is mine alone In <9304203477@drktowr.chi.il.us> magus@drktowr.chi.il.us (Louis Giliberto) writes: >Tim Pierce (twpierce@unix.amherst.edu) wrote: >: Frankly, I think the proper "unfortunate" fact is that 386 machines >Not really anymore. If you have a 286, then you have all the hardware >except for the motherboard. You can get a 386/40 motherb 3 blocks from my house FLAME ON I don't understand this. The guy asked for a 286 unix and all I read is how to upgrade to a 386. That was not the question! I'm sick and tired of this, every time someone asks a question regarding old hardware immediately people start saying 'its old, upgrade!' Maybe the guy already has 3 486 66Mhz PC's and a Pentium but just wants to make use of his old 286, or maybe a 286 is just enough for him (like it is for me). Please, if the guy wanted to upgrade he would have asked a different question I'm sure! Also questions about upgrading PC's don't belong in the '.os.' groups! FLAME OFF To answer the question: Minix 1.5 will run fine as a UNIX system on a 286. Of course there is an 64K+64K limit, but that's because its a 286. As far as I know every 286 Unix has this problem. I own Minix 1.5 and I'm happy with it. Only if you need large programs to run you have a problem but since you asked for a 286 Unix I think you were aware of it's limitation. There are various programs available for MINIX, and because it is a UNIX version you can get all kinds of utilites for it (look at the archive sites in comp.sources.unix and comp.sources.misc, most of them don't exceed the 64K+64K size. You have to have expirience with porting programs, but it is not an impossible task) There are also cross-compilers for MINIX so you can generate programs with Turbo-C for minix (using a special library and the minix .h files). I don't know about other 286 Unixes, but Minix can 'grow' with your system if you upgrade to a 386, the updates are available on various FTP sites. Minix is moving towards POSIX complience and development is still going on, I don't know if other 286 Unix systems are enhanced anymore. I think most of them are 'end of life' and replaced by 386 versions. Note that MINIX will run on 8088 and 8086 systems too, but that was not your question... Kind Regards, Henk. P.S. Sorry for the FLAME, I cooled down now thank you. -- / / Henk de Groot | Dep.: IISS-SE (System Management) /---/ __ __ / Loc: V2/A05 | Mail: groot@idca.tds.philips.nl / / (-_ / / /( Tel: +31 55 432104 | Digital Equipment Corporation