Date: Sat, 13 Dec 1997 19:35:05 -0500 (EST) From: Michael Graffam <mgraffam@mhv.net> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Free BSD for i286 Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.95q.971213192112.26765A-100000@spice.mhv.net> In-Reply-To: <3.0.2.32.19971214001730.006e726c@pop.sphynx.com.au>
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On Sun, 14 Dec 1997, phil grainger wrote: > i can't believe ppl still want to lame stuff like this ... > how are freeware o/s's ever supposed to evolve if ppl only wanna use them > to save $40-50 ? > catcha > phil Same way they advance anyhow: some smart people take the code and add features that they want. Hack value. Why run Minix on a 286? Well, if you dont need a 386 then there is one answer. If all you need to do in life is to do small text editing, maybe a bit of C programming and connecting to an outside system (maybe some other Unix machine) then Minix and a 286 will suit you fine. If the machine does what you need, and works fine I say use it. I could live happily with just a 286. Why do I have a mess of other machines around? Because I simply love technology.. and when I get more learned in the ways of OS programming, I'll add features that I want or need. In the Linux world there is work to get a minimal Linux kernel working on 8088's and 286's. By getting the code to work on these smaller "dead" processors, the door is opened to bring Linux into embedded, ROM based applications and in several other areas. Hack value? Yeah. A good advance for Linux? Yeah. And as the guy who first started working on it expressed, there is something rather beautiful in getting a back-port of Linux to run on an old DEC PDP-11. I suppose not all people can realize the beauty in this stuff. But I find it great. Michael Graffam (mgraffam@mhv.net) http://www.mhv.net/~mgraffam - Religion, Philosophy, Computers, etc "Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's own understanding without the guidance of another. . .Sapere aude! Have the courage to use your own understanding!" - Immanuel Kant "What is Enlightenment?"
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