At 09:11 PM 7/6/02 +0530, SP wrote:
On Fri, 05 Jul 2002, Q u a s i wrote:
What about customising the Kernel and a distribution to work on Low end (read obsolete) PC's like P-100s ?
Why ? I am running PCQlinux 7.1 and Woody w/ dual boot on a P120 w/ 48mb ram with the *stock kernels*. It would be like re-inventing the wheel. Why fix it if it ain't broken ? And I compile most of the programs that I use regularly like mutt, gpg, and even the kernel. I even use the gui sometimes :).
I have run X with Netscape on my 386 with 8MB - and not for fun. I used it for around 6 months. What I meant by customising the kernel was compiling it to work on older machines. It was not a big deal. Just collect useful software and compile them to run on slower machines with low RAM. Ditto the Kernel. Create such a ready to use distrib and maybe it can be put to some use. It is not reinventing the wheel - rather it is about selecting the right size wheel for one's vehicle. The stock kernel comes compiled for the 386 as it is supposed to work on most machines. But due to the same reason it has a _lot_ of unnecessary support built in it. I think the stock vmlinuz is around 950K while the one I use is around 445K.
Have you tried getting 16Mb 66MHz EDO RAM? It is almost impossible. Most of the older machines one finds has about 8-16-32 Mb RAM at the maximum. I was talking about old old machines. Which people are willing to donate. For example I have a 386 motherboard with 8Mb RAM which I can donate. But what school will accept it without seeing it do some useful work?
q