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[Doc Shipley]

Alexey Toptygin wrote:
> 
> That must be the simplest set of x86 hardware that you can write a 
> networked, protected VM OS on; all long-lived, well-defined interfaces, 
> and only one set. No disk drivers even :-) Could you fit into such a 
> small footprint with their stock kernel? I doubt it; I think this was a 
> special build.
> 
> Then there's their entirely in-house userland. Could you fit a variety 
> of things written by different groups? Again, I doubt it; code would be 
> duplicated, and it would be hard to remove everything non-essential 
> without removing something essential attached to it.
> 
> I don't hate QNX, but for some reason this demo has always irked me; I 
> don't feel it's fair to compare a nifty trick to a complete minimal 
> system. If you want to do something practical on x86, you'll need a lot 
> more than one floppy. Today's debian installer needs 2 1.44 floppies of 
> drivers on top of the most common ones built into the kernel (which 
> lives on its own 1.44 floppy).

   It was a *demo*.  It wasn't meant to be anything but that.  QNX is 
essentially an embedded OS, so I doubt that it was any more special than 
some production builds.  Even if it was, and even stipulating that it 
was all hand-picked code, it was, and still is, a damned impressive 
DEMOnstration.

   The statement that you can't do anything useful from a single floppy 
is also simply not true.

   http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw


	Doc