Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: why use minix?
From: cangel@famvid.com
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On 1999-10-20 my.name@wintermute.org.uk said:

CA>> This  may  have  been it's origin but I'd wager that recent
CA>> versions  will not install on the XT's with 640k memory and
CA>> a 10 meg hard drive and monochrome monitor.... 

MY> I  downloaded  Minix  myself  the other day (first time I've
MY> dabbled  with  it  since  around  '93).  There  are  several
MY> distributions  available on the web site; I have one of them
MY> running fine right now on my laptop, 

    Which one? Filename? URL? 

MY> it's  an  XT  clone with 512K of RAM, twin 720K floppies and
MY> no hard drive! 

    My  guess  is  you manipulated the files on another system first
    then moved it to the laptop - yes? 

CA>> One  floppy  disk  -  OK,  what  size?  360k, 720k, 1.2meg,
CA>> 1.44meg?  XT's  generally  don't  have anything larger than
CA>> 360k  although some can work with 720k disk drives (or so I
CA>> am told). 

MY> Real  IBM  XT's  come in two flavours, the straight "XT" and
MY> the  later  (less  popular)  "XT-286".  The  former has 360K
MY> drives and the latter 1.2Mb ones. 

    Never saw an XT with 1.2meg floppies. 

MY> Most    XT    clones   I've  come  across  over  the  years,
MY> particularly  laptops,  have tended to have 720K 3.5" drives
MY> in  them  -  the  standard XT floppy controller is perfectly
MY> capable of handling these. 

    Support  in  DOS  for  720k  floppies was 3.2 or 3.3 if I recall
    correctly.  I  have  an AT&T 6300 that has a dip switch that, if
    toggled,  supposedly  allows  use  of the 720k format but I have
    not tried it (1981 machine). 

    MSDOS  3.3  was released during the '286 days and there may have
    already  been  '386dx being sold - not sure since I wasn't using
    Intel hardware at the time. 

MY>> What  compiler  did  you  use  on  an  XT with a 10meg hard
MY>> drive?  How  much memory did this system have with a 10 meg
MY>> hard drive? 

MY> Try  Borland's  "Turbo  C",  I  used  to  run v1.0 on a 640K
MY> machine  off  of  a  360K  floppy  - I think it'll run in as
MY> little  as 256K, though I've never tried it on anything less
MY> than a 512K machine. 

    My  version  2.0  of  Borland's  'C' took up something like 5-10
    megs  to install. It does run with minimal memory and definitely
    would  run  in 512k or better. I've used it on the AT&T for many
    years now. 

MY> In  any  case,  I'm  the  wrong  person  to  comment  on 'C'
MY> compilers  since  I  avoid  the  language  like  the  plague
MY> wherever possible. 

    I can relate to that. 8)

Charles.Angelich@Angelfire.com

