I think they already had the 3.x kernel as a modular component, and it was of course smaller than 95 - remember that they had a floppy version of the Windows 95

I think they already had the 3.x kernel as a modular component, and it was of course smaller than 95 - remember that they had a floppy version of the Windows 95 installation media (a dozen of them). It's well known that 3.x is small enough to boot and run from a floppy, but perhaps 95 was just a bit too big for that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39489748 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39489748