🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi,

I have seen the posting on gnu.announce that the GNU kernel is about
ready.  There have been lots of rumours about this beast on the net, and
now is probably the time to clear them up.  So I have some questions that
I hope some knowledgeable people will answer.  My questions have a slant
towards the UNIX-PC machine since I own one.

1) What is sort of the minimum hardware configuration on which the GNU
	kernel will run?  A typical UNIX-PC (typical AT&T 3B1 - not a typical
	IBM PC clone running un*x!!) has between 40-70 M of disk, 1 to
	2 M of physical memory, 4 M of virtual memory per process (I think
	there is hardware support for this, it's a 68010 machine.)

2) How big and slow is it?  This was one of the rumors, "you'll need a
	25 MHz machine to run it."  My preference would be for something
	that followed the "old" unix model which was 'small and simple is
	good.'  mostly since in my experience small and simple means
	reasonably quick, although that can be carried to extremes. (the
	3B1 is a 10 MHz machine.)

3) On what machines will there be official support to start with?  Will this
	be only dependent on the CPU or on the whole machine (i.e.
	will the statement be more like 'runs on any 680xx class machine' or
	'runs 	on Sun-2,3,4 models and the alliant'.)

4) Will there be some provision for a 'stripped-down' model for single-user
	or single-node machines (somehow i got the idea that a big deal
	with Mach was intercomputing.)

	Just curious ... when I bought the 3B1 I was told that the 'OS was
out-of-date with no hope of upgrading' (the 3B1/UNIX-PC/7300 is a discontinued
model) - when I saw this announcement I wondered if that might no longer be
true.  Either way, I am very happy with the FSF products (especially GNU
Emacs and GAWK which do run on the 3B1, as well as on the ultrix and VMS
machines I use frequently) I am able to use.  Keep up the good work.

					Jeff Templon