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> I know that modern FreeBSD can bootI to a single user process with something like 32M RAM on 32-bit systems with a very stripped down kernel configuration. W
by nils-m-holm 8y ago
> I know that modern FreeBSD can bootI to a single user process with something like 32M RAM on 32-bit systems with a very stripped down kernel configuration.
Wow! My first BSD box (386BSD) had 8 megabytes of RAM and that was plenty! You could even compile moderately large programs without any swapping. But then, feeping creaturism has always been a BSD tradition! :)
- loeg 8y ago> But then, feeping creaturism has always been a BSD tradition! :) In general, living software adapts to the constraints of the hardware developers use and care about. The most visible case of this is probably web browsers (and web sites). If BSD developers were interested in a minimal memory configuration, they could make it happen. It just hasn't been anyone's priority, and machines have many orders of magnitude more RAM today than they did in ~1992.
- nils-m-holm 8y agoMy comment was not intended as criticism, but merely as an "oh, look how times have changed!". If anything, it was intended as an expression of affection. I have used BSD ever since as my only OS. That being said, software development in general is in a desolate state these days with unnecessary layers of abstraction and bloat all over the place. The featurism of ancient BSD looks pretty harmless today.