IBM and the Open Software Foundation are investigating the possibility of doing a cut-down version of the OSF/1 operating system that can run on IBM’s low-end RS/6000 workstations, including the cheapo entry-level model expected to be revealed during the second quarter. The problem is that OSF/1 requires at least 2Mb of main memory to run, and more to be comfortable. The trimmed-down version has already been grusomely dubbed OSF/1 Lite by those close to the project, says Computer Reseller News, and is especially noteworthy with regard to IBM’s plan to converge all its disparate versions of its AIX Unix with OSF/1 over the next few years.
