i586 kernel [was Re: Module symbol versions in installer kernel]

[David L Norris]

On Sat, 2004-05-15 at 13:28, Matthew Miller wrote:
> Not to doubt you, but what does "plenty of them" mean? Fedora won't even
> install with 32MB, and by the time more RAM than that was common, so were
> newer CPUs, if I remember right.

A local non-profit computer recycler asked me about using Linux a few
months ago.  They tell me that the average system they have donated is a
Pentium 75 MHz with 64 MB RAM.  Some faster, some with more RAM, some
with less RAM.  They make sure each system has 64 MB when they refurb
it.

There are a fairly substantial number of old computers being put back
into service using either Windows 98 or a Linux distribution.  (MS still
offers Win98 to non-profit recyclers _very_ cheaply.  Cheaply meaning
competitive with free.)  As I understand it most of these refurb
machines are being sent off to governments and schools in South America
where they would otherwise be without computers.

It would seem shortsighted to ignore them just because they aren't
i686.  A Pentium is still a powerful machine.  Especially when combined
with LTSP or some other X terminal arrangement.

> I'm very sympathetic to making Linux run on older hardware, but Fedora is
> already pretty unfriendly to those systems as is. Why not just make the
> Pentium Pro the minimum for FC3? That covers us all the way to back to 1995

It does?  What about AMD K6 computers?  They are i586 and they are newer
than 1995 or 1998.  Fedora Core works wonderfully on my 2001 model AMD
K6-2 450 MHz laptop with 192 MB RAM.  It works wonderfully on my 2000
model AMD 500 MHz K6-2 desktop with 256 MB RAM.  If I disable all the
services it works well on my Pentium 90 MHz laptop with 48 MB RAM and
Pentium 75 MHz desktop with 64 MB RAM.  I've experimented with kdrive on
FC1 and it drops memory usage to about 20 MB on the Pentium machines.

-- 
 David Norris
  http://www.webaugur.com/dave/
  ICQ - 412039
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