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Article #72053

Re: Why are GNU products so BIG?

#72053
From: Rich Braun
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1992 15:07
22 lines
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sourada@iastate.edu (Steven D Ourada) writes:
>Although I know most GNU programs incorporate many functions into one
>package, it still seems to me that the size/functionality ratio is a
>good bit high. Anyone know a good explanation for this?

Size is a relative term.  Fifteen years ago, a typical system program
on a PDP-10 took about 5Kwords (~20KB) of memory.  A big PDP-11
system had 64KB of memory.

A typical program nowadays requires between 500K and 2M of memory.  Gnu
programs are actually quite small compared to many (most?) commercial
applications.

I'm not convinced that the size vs. functionality ratio for Gnu programs
is "high".  I think they do quite a lot.

On a typical Unix system which has 8 to 32M of memory, what's half a
meg?  Even most new DOS applications require a good number of available
megabytes.  Look no further than Microsoft Windows, the wave of the
future...

-rich
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!stanford.edu!ames!agate!spool.mu.edu!hri.com!noc.near.net!eclectic.com!kronos!richb
References: <sourada.703809667@vincent1.iastate.edu>

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From: richb@kronos.com (Rich Braun)
Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss
Subject: Re: Why are GNU products so BIG?
Message-ID: <1992Apr24.150745.5495@kronos.com>
Date: 24 Apr 92 15:07:45 GMT
Article-I.D.: kronos.1992Apr24.150745.5495
References: <sourada.703809667@vincent1.iastate.edu>
Organization: Kronos Inc. / Waltham, MA
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Disclaimer: This posting is a personal opinion and not that of Kronos Inc.