In article <A6adnQlm4Lbdx4DfRVn-rg@rapidnet.com>,
David Jastram <djastram@siouxvalley.net> wrote:

Can I run the command line version in good ol' DOS? 

Assuming this refers to SETI@Home.  All command line versions are at
least 32 bit applications; they handle arrays with over one million
entries.  DOS only runs 16 bit applications without a DOS extender.
The NT command line version is a Win32 Console mode application and
will not run under MS-DOS.

If you want a minimal resource system on an Intel Architecture machine, you
will need a minimum of a 386 processor.  The minimal footprint is probably
using a hand customised Linux system.  It may be possible to shoe horn this
into 16MB without too much disk thrashing (the client working set is
about 13MB), 20MB should definitely be achievable, and 24MB ought to be
possible without too much skill, and should easily allow a diskless
implementation, if you have the skill.