Mark Duckworth schrieb:
But how much should Linux hold back because it can't be run on 10year old plus hardware?
This is not about Linux, its about Debian. And it is not sure who is holding back whom. Nowadays Debian needs at least 32MB for install and work and 200MB drivespace. I don't blame debian for becoming more uptodate but then it also becomes nochoise for some users.
This does not only affect m68k systems. Many MIPS, Sparc, Alpha and 386/486 systems already have or will have the same problems shortly.
We really should think about opening some sort of "ancient" or "light" debian, a debian based solution for very small and light systems, using resources from the full debian but only porting what seems reasonable.
So on one hand there is debian-light, aiming for systems with 16Mhz, 8MB-RAM and 100MB-HD. Some light kernels, a trimmed libc, by default no X. Only porting of important software.
And on the other hand you have systems starting at 200Mhz, 64MB-RAM and 1GB-HD.
I think this would also ease the restrictions on the more modern hardware. You could optimize for i586, use bigger libs, more colourful gadgets and better architectural decisions without hurting the old userbase.
This goes quite offtopic now as I feel this alternate system wouldn't resemble much with debian at all. I'll stop here.
Christian Brandt