Not true. I have an old Performa 5260 with a 100Mhz 603e running 8.6. Sure, it's slow, but it runs.
I could even use Coldstone on it.... if I felt like melting what little RAM (48 MB) is under the hood... 
Hmm. Let me take a quick spin through the KBase Kat... I think I remember reading a while back that 8.5 was released for free, and 8.6 has always been a free update for 8.5. I'll be back soon. 
(Updated). Hmm. No, it appears that MacOS 8.5 isn't free... and you can't really buy it from Apple any more either. I suppose you could always pay for a system update... I suppose you could always try to install CarbonLib onto system 8.1, if you wanted. I know that some people in the past have done so, although it really shouldn't make a difference since the actual system doesn't utilise CarbonLib until system 8.6.
Bit of a bind there, really.
-Andiyar
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"Any good that I may do here, let me do now, for I may not pass this way again"
(This message has been edited by TarnΔlion Andiyarus (edited 05-29-2003).)