Re: i386 compatibility & libstdc++
On Sat, Apr 26, 2003 at 05:06:56AM +0200, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
> The options we currently have are:
>
> 1. drop i386 support completely: simple but painful
> 2. create a crippled distro for really old systems (e.g. i386 and i486)
> 3. keep everything the i386 way: slow and incompatible
> 4. like 3, but provide alternatives for new systems (i686+):
> needs a lot of work and ftp space.
No, 4 is not an option -- it would leave too many people in the
"unnecessarily binary-incompatible" bracket. If you want to do a
split at 686+ then you need *two* splits, one there and one at,
say, 486+.
I don't believe it's reasonable to leave people with Pentium-class
machines with systems that are not binary-compatible with other
distributions, and without the ability to use certain 3rd-party
software (in fact I think it's debatable whether or not we could
reasonably leave 486 users out in the cold in that way).
It may be relatively cheap and easy for *you* to buy a two-year-old
system, but I don't believe that in this case you are representative
of nearly enough of our users to be a useful example.
Cheers,
Nick
--
Nick Phillips -- nwp@lemon-computing.com
Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
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