package lists for older machines
Greetings everybody.
I've been running [GNU/]Linux for many years, but only recently have
become a Debian convert. I must say that I thoroughly enjoy apt-getting
my software rather than wading through RPM's dependency hell.
One problem I see with the dpkg/apt-get model of Debian is that the
package database is enormous. Normally this would present no problem to
modern-day machines, but for those of us who wish to run Debian (testing
and Woody) on an older machine (in my case, a 486 sx-33), parsing the
package list is extremely CPU intensive. dselect, for example, consumes
nearly all available RAM and takes up to a minute to build the
dependency tree.
Thus, there ought to be a database for "Debian lite" -- only those
packages that would make sense on a slower machine. For example, this
list would not have any of the mp3, DVD, kde, or gnome packages. It
think this would be an extremely useful addition to the Debian system.
What are your thoughts on the feasibility of this?
--
Jason Tang / tang@jtang.org / http://www.jtang.org/~tang
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