Is 4MB Enough for Interactive?

[Gary Coffman]

In article <1913 at fallst.UUCP> tkevans at fallst.UUCP (Tim Evans) writes:
>Interactive claims their UNIX requires a minimum of 4MB RAM.  I've
>been down this road before, with Microport's System V/AT ('286)
>claiming to run in 512K.  In that case, I started out at 1MB and
>found the system swapping when going from input to command mode
>in 'vi'!  Needless to say, doubling uPort's minimum requirement
>wasn't enough.  I'm now running with 4MB and things are finally
>comfortable.
>
>And I'm just one user.  Minimal software development, with
>a partial USENET feed.
>
>Sooo, now that I'm going to a '386, I don't want to have to go
>down the road of having to upgrade the system after I buy it.
>How well with Interactive perform on a single-usre "personal"
>machine in 4MB?

If you leave out X, you will be comfortable in 4Mb unless you're a
heavy VPIX user, with X or multiple VPIX sessions you'll want at least 
8Mb. Even without X the system runs faster with 8Mb, but not lots faster. 
At current memory prices, I'd go with 8Mb for starters and be done with it.

Gary