[Mageia-dev] i686 must be Pentium II ?

Sat Sep 25 20:37:02 CEST 2010

2010/9/25 Giuseppe Ghibò <ghibomgx at gmail.com>:
+>
+> IMHO the problem is not finding an architecture to fit the i586 or i686 rpm
+> flags, rather to find the minimum CPU and memory requirement worthwhile for
+> a decent usage. With KDE if we look at the Mandriva 2010.1, it's barely
+> usable on a P4-3000 with 1-2GB RAM, or a AMD Barton 2500. Barely means that
+> windows and applications are pretty slow to open, switching is slow, etc.;
+> since netbook are so popular we can consider the minimum requirements as
+> those of a typical 2010 netbook, which has ATOM 1.6Ghz processor and 1GB
+> memory. In other words we can consider as default the presence of the SSE
+> instruction set. ATOM has even the SSE2, which would be even better, but
+> that would left out some AMD CPU (some older AMD, like 1.2Ghz has only the
+> 3DNow and not SSE). I would drop compiling for old ISA drivers in kernel
+> (think to some old ISA 3com card, like 3C505, etc.).
+
+Since the vast majority of new processors are 64-bit capable, I see no
+point in *only* supporting the newest of the old CPUs.  All the 32-bit
+stuff will eventually die on its own anyways.
+
+I *definitely* do not want to see dropping support for everything that
+doesn't do SSE2 (which was discussed in the Fedora thread you linked).
+
+IMHO, just sticking with i586 support is the path-of-least-resistance
+and doesn't alienate people who must use older hardware out of
+financial or geographic necessity.
+
+I would not use KDE as a basis for ruling out support of older
+hardware.  Mageia will offer many lightweight alternatives to KDE.
+
+Because the kernel is modular, excluding older drivers may save some
+hard disk space, but won't affect the actual kernel size much.  As
+soon as you exclude support for ISA, someone will come along wondering
+why their $VeryImportantOlderHW no longer works.  ;o)
+
+I've heard absolutely no complaints about how Mandriva runs on SSE2
+capable, 32-bit only systems.  In fact, I have heard quite the
+opposite.  People coming from other distros are saying Mandriva is
+*faster*.
+
+Executive summary: If it ain't broke, Mageia should't fix it.
+
+But that's JMHO.  :o)
+