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From: info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA
Newsgroups: fa.info-vax
Subject: Re: How big is VMS?
Message-ID: <4271@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 20-Jan-85 10:25:32 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.4271
Posted: Sun Jan 20 10:25:32 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 21-Jan-85 04:11:14 EST
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From: ihnp4!utzoo!henry@UCB-VAX

> A recent posting to net.unix-wizards mentions UNIX's smallness as one of
> its virtues.  For comparison, I know of a functioning MicroVMS system that
> occupies a total of 2878 blocks on an RD disk and can be stored as a backup
> save set on 4 RX50 floppies.  The person responsible for this calls it
> "NanoVMS", and points out that "since it can MOUNT disks, and perform COPY
> and BACKUP operations from them, it can grow into a full VMS system without
> any omissions."

Positively elephantine.  MiniUnix (remember that?) could *run* from a
single floppy.  It could mount disks, and perform copies and backups
too.  Running it off a floppy made it kinda slow, but it worked.  It
was pretty close to a full Unix, in its day.

I also worked for a year and a half on a Unix whose system disk was a
single RK05.  This was *not* a subset and *not* a cut-down version; it
was a full V6 Unix.  An RK05 was 4800 512-byte blocks, the last 800 were
swap area, and there was a modest amount of free space on the disk.

				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry