Re: i386 compatibility & libstdc++
On Sat, Apr 26, 2003 at 06:38:34PM +1200, Nick Phillips wrote:
> 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.
I also find it hard to believe that the majority of our users do not
have or can not purchase a system that is less than 7 years old. Being
that is how old the i686 sub-arch is... I once attempted to install
Debian 2.1 on a Pentium 90, it took many hours and was a pita to say the
least. Machines old enough to be before i686 are probably also old
enough to be barely usable as a desktop, especially since ram prices
back then were still quite high (~ $40/MB iirc), and disk sizes quite
small (2GB HD was $300 in 1996). What are the theoretical binary-only
apps that these desktops would be using, whizbang 3d games, multimedia
players, or something else? A reduced size 386-586 arch wouldn't be bad
for a server, which imho is about all machines that old are really good
for anyway. (And no Manoj I am not attempting to troll with this post...)
In Dec 1994 I got my P90 with the biggest available ide hard drive
which was 500MB. Compare that size to what sid currently requires for
various installs:
sid chroot install - 160MB
sid standard install - 249MB
sid standard + gnome install - 623MB
sid standard + kde install - 677MB
The point being Debian sid with only one of the standard desktops (with
no extra packages and no swap space) is already bigger than most
machines from 1995 and older can support unmodified anyway...
Chris
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