> 
> Minix would run great on a machine like that.  (it even runs on a 286). 

Actually, Minix will run on an XT with only 640k of memory...

> 
> Unfortunately, there are not very many applications for minix, and the
> installation is primarily manual.  

The only problem I can see if he ran Minix on it, is lack of ethernet
support.  Minix only supports a handfull of ethernet cards, none of them
PCMCIA, that I know of.  One could check the hardware compat list to be
sure.

> I also believe (last I checked), it is not free.  

It's probably been a while since you last checked.  Minix was re-released
under the BSD license about a year ago.

> I hate to say it, but you might be best off using DOS.   Being a
> responsible Linux geek also requires admiting areas where Linux
> probably wouldn't be so hot...    

I have to agree here.  If you can get DOS to see your ethernet card, you'd
pretty much be set.  There's probably even an ssh port :)

Gabe
-- 
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Gabe Turner				       |  	   X-President,
UNIX Systems Administrator,		       | Assoc. for Computing Machinery
U of M Supercomputing Institute for	       |    University of Minnesohta
Digital Simulation and Advanced Computation    |       dopp at acm.cs.umn.edu

"Get out of my trash!  I'm telling you for the last time!  A man works
 hard for his filth, just to have vagrants steal it.
 It's a cryin' shame."
			- George Liquor in "The Boy Who Cried Rat!"
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