Chris, My test-bed for the 1.1 install is a slow 386 with 4MB + 640K . This machine has Linux installed on it several times a week :-) . The RAM disk implementation in the new kernels uses less memory (it used to have a RAM cache of the RAM disk). The installation tools on 1.1 also use less RAM than before. If you are concerned about low memory, make your swap partition and activate it right away. That's why this step is first in the 1.1 installation menu.
Thanks Bruce