'folks with enough money' (was: LINUX-MINIX) Linux Inside
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'folks with enough money' (was: LINUX-MINIX)

 Hi,
 
 In one of the previous articles, ast wrote:
 
 >             Just for the record, as of about 1 year ago, there were two
 >versions, one for the PC (360K diskettes) and one for the 286/386 (1.2M).
 >The PC version was outselling the 286/386 version by 2 to 1.  I don't have
 >figures, but my guess is that the fraction of the 60 million existing PCs that
 >are 386/486 machines as opposed to 8088/286/680x0 etc is small.  Among students
 >it is even smaller. Making software free, but only for folks with enough money
 >to buy first class hardware is an interesting concept.
 
 Hmm... can I do a little math here?
 
 define: configuration 1: 8088 PC, 2 floppydrives, monitor.
         configuration 2:  386 AT, 2 floppydrives, monitor.
 
         let A be the price of config. 1 at the time of
         MINIX' conception.
 
         Let B be the price of config. 2 at the time of
         LINUX' conception.
 
 Question:
         What are the chances of 'A >= B' being true?
 
 My answer:
         I would say, better than average.
 
 The point I am trying to make is: nowadays, students buy 386s.
 Not because students are rich, but because 386s from Taiwan
 come VERY cheap. (Many of my fellow students have 386s)
 So 'the folks with enough money' bit is kinda naive. IBM's 8088s
 used to sell at the price of small cars, in the old days.
 I would favor LINUX, even if it were only for the lack of
 proper object files in MINIX.
 
                                 Bram Stolk