Re: some statistics on using bz2 for packages
Frank Copeland <fjc@wossname.apana.org.au> writes:
> 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
If anyone uses a 386/16 4 MB and wants to use X11, he will have to
suffer the extra swap and time for bz2 decompression and he will
probably suffer a lot, but he must realy like suffering, otherwise he
wouldn´t install X on a 4 MB maschine.
With 16 MB ram, uncompressing something with bz2 shouldn´t swap to
much.
Also please note that you pay ~25 cent per MB download over modem (or
a lot more during normal times) and thus saving even 1% on the
download may mean a lot of money, whereas the time spend on
uncompressing just costs spare time. You can do something else while
waiting. People using Debian comercially don´t have slow maschines and
thus don´t loose much time, which means money, but they still save
download costs.
May the Source be with you.
Goswin
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