I have 12 mb on my new machine.

[Pete10016]

How best to use lots of megabytes?

[robertva]

Post by Pete10016
How best to use lots of megabytes?

Did you buy that machine in an antique store? Twelve Megabytes hasn't
been considered a "lot" of RAM for at least 15 years. Perhaps you meant
Gigabytes. Using all of 12 Gigabytes of RAM would probably require a 64
bit operating system, which would normally be acquired with the
computer, since aftermarket "full version" operating systems are often
MUCH more expensive that the computer manufacturer supported OEM
versions that are usually included with new computers.

Responding with information about which Operating system is installed on
the computer and which model CPU is installed in it may enable someone
to offer more specific advice.

[philo]

Post by Pete10016
How best to use lots of megabytes?

with that small amount of ram

you can run win95

[Mike Smith]

Post by philo

Post by Pete10016
How best to use lots of megabytes?

with that small amount of ram
you can run win95

DamnSmalLinux? Or use the box as a firewall/router, there are verious
os-on-a-floppy systems that'd do that well (possibly a print server, if you
print a lot)

Regards

Mike

[philo]

Post by Mike Smith

Post by philo

Post by Pete10016
How best to use lots of megabytes?

with that small amount of ram
you can run win95

DamnSmalLinux? Or use the box as a firewall/router, there are verious
os-on-a-floppy systems that'd do that well (possibly a print server, if you
print a lot)
Regards
Mike

I fool with low-end machines a lot

and even Damn Small Linux will not function in the GUI mode with only 12
megs of RAM

Win95 is about it

[Andrew Smallshaw]

Post by philo

Post by Mike Smith
DamnSmalLinux? Or use the box as a firewall/router, there are verious
os-on-a-floppy systems that'd do that well (possibly a print server, if you
print a lot)

I fool with low-end machines a lot
and even Damn Small Linux will not function in the GUI mode with only 12
megs of RAM

I wouldn't say it is out of the question - X itself is fairly
lightweight. The problem is with the tens-of-megabytes bloatware
on top of it (Gnome, KDE etc) that many in the Linux community seem
to feel are absolutely essential. Sure they give it the look and
feel of Windows but also the speed and smell of Windows.

On 12Mb X, Motif and a few lightweight apps (e.g. xterms, text
editors, a graphical debugger) will run quite happily. Emacs will
be slow on 12Mb but things like nedit will be fine. The biggest
problem is likely to be a decent web broswer. I remember Netscape
3.0 ran quite happily on 16Mb so maybe there are realistic options
even for that.

I still have an 8Mb Mac SE/30 here that runs NetBSD and X quite
happily but you do of course need to be careful what you try to do
with it.

[philo]

Post by Andrew Smallshaw

Post by philo

Post by Mike Smith
DamnSmalLinux? Or use the box as a firewall/router, there are verious
os-on-a-floppy systems that'd do that well (possibly a print server, if you
print a lot)

I fool with low-end machines a lot
and even Damn Small Linux will not function in the GUI mode with only 12
megs of RAM

I wouldn't say it is out of the question - X itself is fairly
lightweight. The problem is with the tens-of-megabytes bloatware
on top of it (Gnome, KDE etc) that many in the Linux community seem
to feel are absolutely essential. Sure they give it the look and
feel of Windows but also the speed and smell of Windows.
On 12Mb X, Motif and a few lightweight apps (e.g. xterms, text
editors, a graphical debugger) will run quite happily. Emacs will
be slow on 12Mb but things like nedit will be fine. The biggest
problem is likely to be a decent web broswer. I remember Netscape
3.0 ran quite happily on 16Mb so maybe there are realistic options
even for that.
I still have an 8Mb Mac SE/30 here that runs NetBSD and X quite
happily but you do of course need to be careful what you try to do
with it.

Years ago I did get Monkey Linux to run a a low end machine

I think it was a 486 or P-1 with 16 megs of ram


Today, with all the graphics-rich web pages

even browsers just a couple of years old are pretty well obsolete though

[Ron Hinds]

Post by philo

Post by Pete10016
How best to use lots of megabytes?

with that small amount of ram
you can run win95

I don't think so. You can, however, run Win 3.11 just fine... Or as fine as
it ever ran, anyway ;-)

[philo]

Post by Ron Hinds

Post by philo

Post by Pete10016
How best to use lots of megabytes?

with that small amount of ram
you can run win95

I don't think so. You can, however, run Win 3.11 just fine... Or as fine as
it ever ran, anyway ;-)

Wow, this thread still going?

FWIW: Win95 will indeed work fine with 12 megs of ram...
My first machine was a p75 with 8 megs of ram and worked great.
Of course back in those early days one could get by without a virus checker.

Win3.11 will run with 2 megs of ram

and win 3.0 will actually work with 640k

[Andrew Smallshaw]

Post by philo
FWIW: Win95 will indeed work fine with 12 megs of ram...
My first machine was a p75 with 8 megs of ram and worked great.
Of course back in those early days one could get by without a virus checker.
Win3.11 will run with 2 megs of ram
and win 3.0 will actually work with 640k

12Mb is probably the most you could sensibly use with Windows 3.1.
With 16Mb you invariably ran out of resources before you ran out
of memory.

[philo]

Post by Andrew Smallshaw

Post by philo
FWIW: Win95 will indeed work fine with 12 megs of ram...
My first machine was a p75 with 8 megs of ram and worked great.
Of course back in those early days one could get by without a virus checker.
Win3.11 will run with 2 megs of ram
and win 3.0 will actually work with 640k

12Mb is probably the most you could sensibly use with Windows 3.1.
With 16Mb you invariably ran out of resources before you ran out
of memory.

Of course back in the days of win3x 12megs of ram would have been
essentially unaffordable