[conspire] want a 386 BOARD etc.

[Rick Moen]

Quoting bruce coston (jane_ikari at yahoo.com):

[text from your friend David Christensen]

> It should be able to run Linux or *BSD, if you can find a distribution
> that will install into 8 MB.

Which is actually a bit of a challenge.  

"Small Linux" on http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Admin has a list of possibles.
With 8MB RAM, no math chip, and a 400MB hard drive, you could then run a
single-purpose Linux (or BSD) box, such as a firewall, or a small
SMTP/IMAP/POP mail server.  But understand that the machine's ancient
(probably about 15 years old), and so is in imminent danger of hardware
failure.  The first essential part that fails, it's a doorstop.  (It
makes no sense to spend money to fix, let alone expand, a PC that old.)

Because of the latter reason, I'd say don't use it for any function you
need to be reliable.