unix and memory, sigh (was Re: What Happens If You Have > 9 Meg??

[David Kessner]

In article <1991Jan26.002917.21545 at lavaca.uh.edu> jet at karazm.math.uh.edu ("J. Eric Townsend") writes:
>There's no reason the Amiga UNIX should need more than a few megs, as long
>as you don't run some sort of windowing system (other than a bunch of
>virtual ascii terminals).

>J. Eric Townsend     Internet: jet at uh.edu    Bitnet: jet at UHOU

Ah.  you hit on the problem.  Anyone who runs UNIX on a 386 or A3000 WITHOUT
a windowing system is crazy.  

Here are a few RAM sizes to take into consideration:
	My ESIX (System V 3.2.2) kernal is 770K
	It takes 2 meg just to boot, after all the dameons,mail and other
		network drivers are loaded.
	Bring up X Windows with MOTIF, open Xclock, Xbiff, and three Xterms
		and your total RAM useage is just under 8 meg. (one user!)
	The average X-program is one meg of executable.
	GCC's executeable is about 1.8 meg.
	GNU Chess is about 1.5 meg.
	When compiling, GCC takes up a meg of RAM just for DATA.

Now, sure, UNIX has virtual memory-- but it is not the Holy Grail.  It provides
a nice 'catch' for when you do run out of RAM.  It also provides a way of
telling you when it has done so-- it starts swapping to disk every time you
switch windows!

If I had about 4 average users, and no X-Windows, then 4 meg of RAM would
probably work fine.  But I have 2 heavy duty users, X-windows, and Netnews.
 
Also.  How can you not run X-Windows on an Amiga/UNIX?  It's not like your
console's native mode isn't ggraphical windows or something... :)'


					- David

David Kessner - kessner!david at csn.org                 |
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-- 
David Kessner - david at kessner.denver.co.us            |
1135 Fairfax, Denver CO  80220  (303) 377-1801 (p.m.) | This space for rent.
This is my system so I can say any damn thing I want! |