Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ucbvax.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!info-vax 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 Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Organization: University of California at Berkeley Lines: 23 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