Re: Debian PC Requirements
On Tue, Apr 09, 2002 at 06:32:47PM -0400, Stephen Ryan wrote:
> On Tue, 2002-04-09 at 18:23, Ron Reinhart wrote:
> > >It requires at least a 386 to run. The kernel of the GNU/Linux system
> > > (Linux) is a 32 bit kernel and 386 is the start of 32 bit chips from
> > > Intel.
> >
> > I hate to date myself so badly but it seems to me that professors where running
> > Linux on 8088's and 8086's around 1990 or so before 32bit Intel chips. I was
> > running OS9 on a CoCo3 at the time so I can't say from my own experience.
> > Regards,
> > Ron
>
> Linux, no. Minix, maybe. However, the Intel 80386 had been available
> for a couple of years already by 1990, and Linux was started as an
> experiment to use the "advanced features" of the 386, and so was 32 bit
> right from the start.
>
And just to come full-circle, there is now a port of linux to the 8086
called ELKS. See it at <http://elks.sourceforge.net>. I have half a
mind to try it out on an old PC I have here.
dt
--
Dave Thayer | If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about
Denver, Colorado USA | cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all
dave@thayer-boyle.com | the time, for no good reason. - Jack Handey
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