Re: some statistics on using bz2 for packages

[Frank Copeland <fjc@wossname.apana.org.au>]

Terry Katz wrote:

>So, are there still people actively using 386's?  The lowest end machine I
>still use is a P-90 which is acting as a masquerade for my home network (and
>it does the job perfectly ;-)... we still have a bunch of older thinkpad's
>with 486's, but their re-deployed as bookends and door stops currently..

The low end also includes m68k machines like my Amiga 2000, and old Sun
boxes. I have two 486s in active use and no intention to replace them any
time soon. However, the issue isn't so much raw CPU power as lack of RAM to
feed dpkg's voracious appetite. Doing package management on any machine with
less than 16MB installed is a deeply painful exercise, both for the computer
and for me who has to listen to it suffer. Any change that tends to increase
dpkg's memory footprint should be considered *very* carefully.

Frank