On May 30, 1996 at 07:50, Bill Grimsley of 3:640/305.9 wrote:

 BG>> What, no DOS apps or utes either?
 db>> None - that's what a DOS boot partition is for!
 BG> A PITA having to reboot though.

Well, it's not often that I have to run something from DOS anyway, so the
problem doesn't really exist.

 BG> Why not compromise and create a "Boot from A" session
(will those work
 BG> with PROTECTONLY=YES?).

I don't think so - with "PROTECTONLY=YES", full VDM support
disappears and memory management is made a touch more stable.

 BG> Sure, but with RAM as low as $12/Mb now, does it really matter any more?

Absolutely - whilst I can afford to rebuild my entire PC from scratch (and
perhaps make it even bigger/better than it was when bought a few months
ago), I actually want to use that money *elsewhere* .. like, eventually on
a car.

 BG> Quite likely, but I can see even entry-level PCs coming with 16Mb (and

I'm not planning on buying another PC anytime soon.  :-)

 BG> people baulking at an upgrade to 64Mb for another miserable $400 or so

Depends .. that's a lot of social outtings, some small/medium trips, lotsa
public transport fares .. yes, I really am a scrooge.  ;-)

 BG> Interesting times, methinks.

Indeed!

 db>> Of course .. and that swap file exists on a Flash RAM card, doesn't
 db>> it...  :-)
 BG> Good point.  Whatever happened to the much-touted flash-RAM of 2 years
 BG> ago?

Probably led to the development of contemporary hot-swappable PCMCIA cards.

 db>> The equivalent under Linux would be around 20-24 processes with 16Mb RAM
 db>> free;  quite a difference in the number of concurrent tasks with a much
 db>> smaller resource requirement.  ;-)
 BG> Is that with or without a resource-hungry GUI running?

*With*.  I ran a test a few hours ago - booted Linux, ran X11 (GUI), then
listed the number of processes and available RAM: 20 and 19Mb,
respectively.  Built-in networking, printing services running .. as I said,
not bad.

 db>> That's my focus - server stuff, not running crappy DOS/Windows apps.
 BG> Sounds fine for specific purpose use, but I can't see too many SOHO users
 BG> rushing out to buy it just yet.

Who gives a shit about SOHO users?!  I only care about myself!!

 BG> Careful Dave, or you'll have Rod calling you a FRZ as well...  :)

Who?

    - dave
    d.begley{at}ieee.org

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