From owner-freebsd-questions Sat May 2 15:39:45 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id PAA27874 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Sat, 2 May 1998 15:39:45 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from 208.16.24.125 (pn8-ppp-125.primary.net [208.16.24.125] (may be forged)) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id PAA27856 for ; Sat, 2 May 1998 15:39:29 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from sysadmin@mfn.org) Received: from w3svcs.mfn.org (unverified [204.238.179.11]) by mail.mfn.org (EMWAC SMTPRS 0.83) with SMTP id ; Sat, 02 May 1998 17:41:54 -0500 Received: by w3svcs.mfn.org with Microsoft Mail id <01BD75F1.3536E4C0@w3svcs.mfn.org>; Sat, 2 May 1998 17:39:07 -0500 Message-ID: <01BD75F1.3536E4C0@w3svcs.mfn.org> From: "J.A. Terranson" To: "'FreeBSD Questions'" Subject: Old does *not* mean dead! Date: Sat, 2 May 1998 17:39:05 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Sat, 2 May 1998, Jason wrote: > I have a rash of older equipment here and wanted to know how compatible > 2.2.5 or 2.2.6 is with older hardware and how well it will run if at all. I > have a rash of 386 boards with 2-16 megs of ram. Will FreeBSD be of any use > for on these sort of machines? I already decided that the 286s won't work > and need to hit the dump :) I am writing this on a 386SX/16, with one of those old 4mb "static-column" RAM boards (you remember, the $2,500.00 job!:) This machine, and 6 others just like it are being used here as subnet routers just fine. Of course, they are on so-called "archive" subnets (i.e., SLOW!!!). I wouldnt want to have these turkeys anywhere near a regular (or living) user, but they were headed for the trash, and we decided to "see if they would load". For what they are doing, they have saved us a *bundle* of $$$! We also have a couple of 386/33's with 10MB of the old Static-Col stuff acting as routers on "live" (/28) subnets: no problems. Although I am told that 2.2.5-R needs more than 4mb to load, I have *not* seen it - every one of the SX's were ok at 4mb. BTW: all these boxes are running IDE 170mb drives (we got a case of em *cheap*), so I don't know if MFM will cut it. Thats most likely gonna be your choke point. Hope this helps! J.A. Terranson sysadmin@mfn.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message