*BSD News Article 11534


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From: pauls@css.itd.umich.edu (Paul Southworth)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: QUESTION: "minimum happy" system requirements?
Date: 18 Feb 1993 15:05:22 GMT
Organization: University of Michigan ITD Consulting and Support Services
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In article <1lvhpfINNpq6@darkstar.UCSC.EDU> banshee@cats.ucsc.edu (Wailer at the Gates of Dawn) writes:
>	YEAH I DID JUST READ THROUGH THE FAQ.

Thank you for sharing, here's your gold star...

>	Whats the lowest 386bsd goes and still is "happy"?  386/25 with 8meg?
>386/16 with 4 meg?  Give me a feeling for the system size; the FAQ covered
>disk space quite well.

It's pretty relative, especially based on what kind of performance you
are used to getting out of unix boxes, and your attitude toward speed in
general.  If you use a Sun 3/50 regularly, any 386 is going to seem plenty
fast.  I was running a bulletin board and a busy ftp site on a 386sx-25
with a 23ms hard drive and 4mb RAM, and it worked.  I'm certainly happier
with my 486 and 8mb RAM with a 17ms hard drive.  If you have a 386dx-25
with 8mb RAM that sounds pretty happy, and that sounds like about the 
bottom configuration for running X at all.  (Though once again, if you're
used to X on a Sun 3/50 with 8mb RAM, it will seem fast on your PC.)

Paul Southworth
pauls@umich.edu