9 Jun
2013
9 Jun
'13
10:04 p.m.
On 6/8/13 7:23 AM, "Mr Ian Primus" <ian_primus at yahoo.com> wrote:
Linux runs fine on older hardware. Sure, it's a bit sluggish - ssh, for
instance, is pretty processor intensive, and is slow to initiate on a
machine this old. This is to be expected. Compiles are also very slow -
building the kernel took well over a day. But, by and large, most stuff
runs OK, and the system is very usable. Definitely would not want to run
X, however...
My first Linux machine was a 386SX, and I ran X on it. I don't recall how
much working store I had, but I can guarantee you it wasn't much. I used
the FVWM (Feeble Virtual Window Manager) and I thought it was totally
cool. Granted, I wasn't trying to do much with it - I probably had two or
three terminal windows, a clock and xeyes running. But I also had rsh to
a local college and I started playing with networking applications and
utilities.
Yes, kernel builds were slow. But I had so much fun!
The modern distributions are jam-packed with lots of stuff that someone
apparently thinks "everyone" needs and, as a result, they are HUGE. On
one hand, they're trying to meet the expectations of the Windows crowd,
but IMHO they go too far and load up with lots and lots of *stuff* that I
for one never use. There was a message on this thread that reminded me of
installing the "base" and "dev" packages and calling it good,
installing
other tools as I needed them. After all, how hard is it to un-tar and
make?
I think that 386SX may have been a 4MB machine. Slow, but it got there.
-- Ian