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XP On 8-MHz Pentium With 20 MB RAM

Posted by kdawson on from the golden-hourglass dept.

swehack writes "The guys over at winhistory.de managed to get their Windows XP Professional running on a very minimal box: an Intel Pentium clocked down to 8 MHz with 20 MB of RAM. (The installer won't work with less than 64 MB, but after installing you can remove memory.) The link has plenty of pictures of their progress in achieving this dubious milestone. They deserve a Golden Hourglass award for 'extreme waste of time.' What obscure hardware configurations have you managed to get Windows running on?"

27 of 410 comments (clear)

  1. Imagine..... by aneeshm · · Score: 4, Funny

    ....a Beowulf cluster of these!


    Sorry, couldn't resist.

    1. Re:Imagine..... by hummassa · · Score: 5, Informative

      Wikipedia link
      AFAICT, in /. the first was "in California you can always find a party; in Soviet Russia, the Party can always find YOU!"

      --
      It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
    2. Re:Imagine..... by Xichekolas · · Score: 5, Funny

      I dunno... Gentoo has been around for a long time... just welcoming them now?

      (I run Gentoo)

      --

      Self-referential Sigs are cool on /. these days...

      54

  2. My Hardware by abscissa · · Score: 5, Funny

    What obscure hardware configurations have you managed to get Windows running on?

    AMD Athlon 3000+ with 1 GB of RAM. A miracle... I know... and STILL I have to reinstall it every couple of months!!

  3. Yes but does it run by Timesprout · · Score: 5, Funny

    Vista?

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
  4. Not too long ago... by CrkHead · · Score: 5, Interesting
    When Windows 98 came out the installer also checked the memory. I was doing break/fix in a shop and someone insisted we could "upgrade" their OS without them purchasing RAM. I popped in test RAM, did the install, pulled the RAM and sent it home.

    Don't think we ever heard back from them.

    1. Re:Not too long ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Probably because they took it to someone else the next time.

  5. Reminds me of the time I compiled Gentoo on a 286 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or rather, the time I started compiling Gentoo on a 286. It was 2004, and it's still going. I think KDE will be done by 2008.

  6. Cruel. by pushing-robot · · Score: 4, Funny

    Isn't this against the Geneva conventions?

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
  7. Just like 'enemy combatants' by Kadin2048 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Isn't this against the Geneva conventions?

    Sadly, computers don't have rights, so moral arguments aside, I'm afraid it's quite legal to run Windows on them.

    --
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
  8. Let's try a different challenge... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 5, Funny

    How about installing Windows 3.11 on a 64-bit system?

  9. It's all about the Pentiums! by Devil's+BSD · · Score: 5, Funny

    You're using a 286? Don't make me laugh. Your Windows boots up in what, a day and a half?

    --
    I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
  10. So..... by Chas · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's roughly the speed of Vista on a Quad-Core C2 with 4GB of RAM and a 15K rpm RAID-0 array then?

    =)

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  11. Obligatory... by saturndude · · Score: 5, Funny

    20 Megs of RAM? I thought 640K was supposed to be enough for anyone!!!

  12. Mac? by duncanbojangles · · Score: 5, Funny

    What obscure hardware configurations have you managed to get Windows running on?

    iMac with an Intel Core Duo 2?

  13. Think again by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Funny

    "They deserve a Golden Hourglass award for 'extreme waste of time.'"

    Uh... I don't think they'd appreciate that - they probably see plenty of hourglasses already.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  14. Gotta love it... by MooseMuffin · · Score: 5, Funny

    As soon as a new Windows comes out, the old one is suddenly hailed as everything you would ever need, and a marvel of efficient resource usage.

  15. Worst I've seen by Tawnos · · Score: 5, Funny

    When I worked at a computer repair shop, a woman brought in her system and said it was running slowly. I start the system up and expect there to be a bunch of virii. What I saw next shocked me.

    After 30 minutes I'm looking at the default windows XP desktop. Immediately I know this is an illegal install, as the system had no sticker on it, and it looked too old to have had WinXP reasonably on it. I decide to see what service pack she's running, so I right click on my computer, click properties...and almost crap my pants. The system was running on a Cyrix M5 with 48MB of RAM. There were no service packs installed. She had about 30 worms installed and running on her system.

    Sometimes, late at night, I wake up in a cold sweat thinking about the horror of such a system.

  16. Pffft by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 4, Funny

    I got Linux running on a motorized abacus powered by squirrels.

    Then I got Windows CE running on an ancient Mayan claendar.

    Then, utilizing quantum states, I got Mac OS 9 running on a single electron.

    I rule! Bow to me! Argh!

  17. Re:last time by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 5, Informative

    "last time i used thermal compound my cat had silver crap for weeks"

    There's a warning on the thermal compound that you shouldn't take it internally. Now I realize it wasn't specific enough to mention cats....

    --

    "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  18. Seems like by saibot834 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Seems like they are using it as their server...

  19. So, were's the license then? by CFD339 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'd like to see the license they bought for that. Can that thing pass the "WGA" test? Is it patched to SP2 and have the latest security patches? If not, it's just another spam sending zombie. ;-0

    --
    The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
  20. D-Link DFL-700 router by johu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    D-Link DFL-700 router runs WinXP quite well. It has 266 MHz AMD Geode (486 class CPU) and 64MB RAM. Just connect keyboard and VGA to debug connectors onboard (get pinout from Lanier website - they're actual board manufacturer) and plugin laptop HDD instead of non-standard flash-drive they ship with.

  21. Re:last time by Nullav · · Score: 4, Funny

    i used thermal compound my cat had silver crap for weeks
    Could someone explain how this was modded 1, Informative?
    --
    I just read Slashdot for the articles.
  22. Re:last time by AlHunt · · Score: 4, Funny

    >There's a warning on the thermal compound that you shouldn't take it internally. Now I realize it wasn't specific enough to mention cats..

    Even if it did, who's going to teach the cats to read?

    --
    1 in 4 Maine children in struggle with hunger.
  23. Re:Hmph... by svallarian · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So why in the dickens can't someone write a 16-bit wrapper so I can get some of this "32-bit software with a 16-bit installer" to install on Server 2003 x64?

    (Microsoft Great Plains version 9 if anyone cares)

    --
    I patented screwing your mom. But it got revoked for "prior art."
  24. Re:last time by nateb · · Score: 5, Funny

    Could someone explain how this was modded 1, Informative?

    Well, you didn't know that before you read it, did you?

    --
    -- Nate