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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msuinfo!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!paladin.american.edu!darwin.sura.net!sgiblab!pacbell.com!amdahl!amdahl!agc From: agc@uts.amdahl.com (Alistair G. Crooks) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.apps Subject: Re: Great Expectation Message-ID: <9aF303Mee0m000@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> Date: 12 Jan 94 11:17:30 GMT References: <CJEson.M2w@eng_ser1.ie.cuhk.hk> <JKH.94Jan11175600@whisker.lotus.ie> Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA Lines: 44 In article <JKH.94Jan11175600@whisker.lotus.ie> jkh@whisker.lotus.ie (Jordan K. Hubbard) writes: >In article <CJEson.M2w@eng_ser1.ie.cuhk.hk> hkng2@cuse1.se.cuhk.hk (Ng Hin-Kwong Benson) writes: > Someone told me FreeBSD no longer support 4MB 486. > Is it true? > > [ Discussion of "How FreeBSD team has re-vamped VM" deleted] > > BSD is good but what's the point if I cant even use it with 4MB > ram in even just a text mode?! > >You CAN use 1.0 in text mode, just don't try to recompile everything! >If you're just compiling relatively small programs, or using it for >exploration and editing, you'll probably motor along quite happily. I would agree wholeheartedly with this statement. I have a 386DX/40 with 4MB, and it runs NetBSD 0.9 fine, and I've also run NetBSD-current on it. I also run XFree86 2.0, and it's slow, but usable. It's also immensely faster than a 386 with 7MB that I had running Interactive and X11(R3+ admittedly). >That said, If you want to make more serious use of your machine with >4MB, then you should wait for FreeBSD 1.0.3 or FreeBSD 1.1 to come out >(1.0.3 is an imminently planned update, while 1.1 is slated for the >March time frame). It should also be noted that 4MB is unrealistic >for just about ANY flavor of UNIX, excepting perhaps those designed to >be _small_ from the ground up, like MINIX or Coherent. FreeBSD is >not Coherent, and probably never will be. If you're looking for >something really stripped down, you're probably looking in the wrong >place. Buy Coherent, it's only $99! I wouldn't agree with this at all - just load your *BSD of choice, and try XFree86 with it - and see if it's acceptable for you, or not. If so, then go with it, and be happy. If not, then spend that extra $99 on some more memory, and see what difference that makes. (This isn't meant as a slur upon MWC or Coherent - as far as I know, they see their market as being different, with recent emphasis placed on running SCO binaries etc) Alistair -- Alistair G. Crooks (agc@uts.amdahl.com) +44 252 346377 Amdahl European HQ, Dogmersfield Park, Hartley Wintney, Hants RG27 8TE, UK. [These are only my opinions, and certainly not those of Amdahl Corporation]