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Re: GNU/Linux Runs on Old Laptop with 4 MB of RAM

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On Fri, 24 Nov 2006 03:11:43 -0600,
 Quantum Leaper <leaper@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> "Jim Richardson" <warlock@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:q6ai34-tv5.ln1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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>>
>> On Thu, 23 Nov 2006 21:07:01 -0600,
>> Quantum Leaper <leaper@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>> "Roy Schestowitz" <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>>> news:1508627.BqK0d3m6EX@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>> 4mb Laptop HOWTO
>>>>
>>>> ,----[ Conclusion ]
>>>> | You now have a laptop with the core utilities in place and 50 to 70mb
>>>> | spare for whichever extras you need. Don't mess it up because it's a
>>>> | lot easier to modify an existing installation on such cramped old
>>>> | machines than it is to start from scratch again.
>>>> `----
>>>>
>>>> http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/4mb-Laptops.html
>>>
>>> So Linux fixed the problem my friend had when he tried to install it on
>>> his
>>> 4 MB 486 a few years ago.  It would RUN in 4 megs but it wouldn't
>>> install,
>>> so he had to borrow my 4 meg simms.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Depends on the distro. That's a distro thing, not a "Linux" thing.
>>
> Interesting,  why would they even do set the distro up that way?   I don't
> know which one it was but I know it was one of the popular ones a few years
> ago.


Because one size doesn't fit all. 

Mandrake started off as a 486 compiled version of Redhat. Why?
because some people wanted the extra zip of the options available in the
compiler at the time, and didn't care about not being able to run on a
386.

By the same token, even a "few" (how many is a few in this case?) years
ago, 4mb may have been a little light on ram for most computers. Linux
will run on it, and some distros will install on it, some, probably
most today, won't.

Contrary to your claim, it wasn't a problem with Linux that prevented
your friend from installing on a 4mbRAM box, it was a limitiation of the
distro he tried. 

Linux, will happily run in very RAM constrained machines, but there are
limitations to what the machines can do of course. Linux runs on the
ZipIt, which has <=2MB RAM. You won't be running GNOME, or even XFCE on
that machine, but that's to be expected. 


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-- 
Jim Richardson     http://www.eskimo.com/~warlock
Payday came and with it beer.
        -- Rudyard Kipling

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