Comment by phendrenad2
5 years ago
KolibriOS is an open-source Operating System for x86 (32-bit, 586-class and above). It is entirely written in assembly (assembled with FASM). It requires only 8MB of RAM to boot. It has a TCP/IP stack and USB support. It has a graphical user interface which is actually on par with most of the "lightweight" Linux window managers, such as LXDE (but I think LXDE is probably larger than this entire OS lol). It fits on a single floppy.
I remember when I could (and did) run Linux on a 486 with 8MB of RAM and 200MB of HD. Ran X11, fvwm, emacs, Netscape. It used to be possible. These things were done in the 90s :-)
fvwm is still updated, and it still consumes very few resources. Apart from Netscape, nothing is stopping you from recreating that experience, heh.
For anyone interested in trying, remember to cut down your kernel. The default kernel on my (64 bit, granted) laptop is 12MB, compressed, without any modules.
NetBSD is a bit easier to run on 8MB systems these days. Still not super easy, but less fat to trim off. I think you might still need to trim down the default kernel, but at least there is a premade config for that (GENERIC_TINY)
If you're daring, it should work on 4 MB machines... ;)
4 replies →
Dillo still exists, if you want a fast, lightweight browser with only vaguely 90s rendering capabilities.
8 MB (and constantly swapping)
Generally Not Used Except by Middle Aged Computer Scientists.
Indeed, my first desktop with GNU/Linux (Slackware 2.0) run on a similar configuration, just with one of the first Pentiums.
That exact setup, except s/emacs/vim, was my setup starting in 1996. Wow, 25 years ago.
I think even 4MB was possible back then
I got my start on Linux with a 386 that had 4mb of ram, but it did not run X11.
I often wished they would put a little os like this as firmware and boot menu.
Does it have any games ?
http://www.kolibrios.org/en/screen
http://websvn.kolibrios.org/listing.php?repname=Kolibri+OS&p...