Date: Sat, 30 Sep 1995 00:01:57 -0700 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> To: hackers@freefall.FreeBSD.org Subject: FreeBSD 2.1 will require a minimum of 8MB for installation. Message-ID: <15228.812444517@time.cdrom.com>
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Well folks, we've hit that wall we all knew was there and heading for us at 120Mph.. The GENERIC kernel has simply gotten too big to fit within 4MB now and no amount of paring back will deny a basic fact of life: To fit in all the drivers we need to cover a reasonable set of devices required at installation-time, we need more than 4MB and if we didn't need it today, we'd need it tomorrow. Now some of you will immediately go "ARGH! What about my custom router! What about my 4MB laptop!" and I know how you feel, so please don't write me 5 page impassioned letters in defense of the last of the 4MB users. If it were easy for us to continue to support 4MB installs you may rest assured that we *would*, and we have in fact worked very hard up to now to continue doing so for as long as it was humanly possible. But we all also knew that we couldn't keep doing it forever and that *someday* we'd face this decision. It looks like someday just got here! :-( It's not like there isn't precedent. Even Windows '95, so pointedly an OS for the masses, apparently will no longer even run in less than 8MB. We, at least, aren't saying *that*. It's still perfectly possible to generate a custom, stripped-down kernel that'll run on a 4MB box (though not very fast), you'll just have to lay your hands on an extra 4MB to get it through the installation. I'm sorry about this, and if I could have forstalled this event even longer without crippling or excessively complicating the installation for others (and myself) you may rest assured that I'd have done so. I'm no masochist, and I certainly was never looking forward to the prospect of having groups of 4MB users throw tomatoes at me for this kind of decision. Sometimes that's just life. Just FYI.. You can at least say I warned you.. :( Jordan
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