[gentoo-dev] Gentoo for non-686 systems

[gentoo-dev] Gentoo for non-686 systems

[Collins Richey]

Daniel,

A plea from a happy Gentoo user.  It's not really a "good idea" to release
a distro compiled for use only on the latest and greatest Pentium
processor.  There are thousands of Linux enthusiasts out there  (like
myself) who might be interested in Gentoo, but who can't make the grade
with the latest hardware.

I've been running Gentoo for several months now with code compiled for the
486, and my system (K6/II) performs very well.  It boots and shuts down
faster than any distro that I've used, even those optimized for 586.  I
don't believe that anyone other than those who run a very heavily loaded
server are going to see any real benefits from the optimizations, and I
don't believe (IMHO) that server people are going to queue up for a new and
(in their view) untested distro.

I'm trying to sell your product on my user list
(http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users), but they like to see
someone who has tried it first, and of course I don't qualify with my
K6/II.  I would be downloading the latest Gentoo right now, if I could use
it.

I believe this is a big mistake.

Thanks,
-- 
Collins Richey
Denver area
gentoo system

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo for non-686 systems

[Achim Gottinger]

Collins Richey wrote:
> 
> Daniel,
> 
> A plea from a happy Gentoo user.  It's not really a "good idea" to release
> a distro compiled for use only on the latest and greatest Pentium
> processor.  There are thousands of Linux enthusiasts out there  (like
> myself) who might be interested in Gentoo, but who can't make the grade
> with the latest hardware.
> 
> I've been running Gentoo for several months now with code compiled for the
> 486, and my system (K6/II) performs very well.  It boots and shuts down
> faster than any distro that I've used, even those optimized for 586.  I
> don't believe that anyone other than those who run a very heavily loaded
> server are going to see any real benefits from the optimizations, and I
> don't believe (IMHO) that server people are going to queue up for a new and
> (in their view) untested distro.
> 
> I'm trying to sell your product on my user list
> (http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users), but they like to see
> someone who has tried it first, and of course I don't qualify with my
> K6/II.  I would be downloading the latest Gentoo right now, if I could use
> it.
> 
> I believe this is a big mistake.

We planed to relase optimized versions for i [456]86 systems, but we
where abit short in time.
I'm currently packaging an 586 version here and it should be available
on monday or thursday for download.

bye achim~

> 
> Thanks,
> --
> Collins Richey
> Denver area
> gentoo system
> 
> _______________________________________________
> gentoo-dev mailing list
> gentoo-dev@cvs.gentoo.org
> http://cvs.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo for non-686 systems

[Collins Richey]

On Sun, 01 Jul 2001 22:22:14 +0200 AGottinger@t-online.de (Achim Gottinger)
wrote:

> Collins Richey wrote:
> > 
> > Daniel,
> > 
> > A plea from a happy Gentoo user.  It's not really a "good idea" to
> release
> > a distro compiled for use only on the latest and greatest Pentium
> > processor.  There are thousands of Linux enthusiasts out there  (like
> > myself) who might be interested in Gentoo, but who can't make the grade
> > with the latest hardware.
> > 
> > I've been running Gentoo for several months now with code compiled for
> the
> > 486, and my system (K6/II) performs very well.  It boots and shuts down
> > faster than any distro that I've used, even those optimized for 586.  I
> > don't believe that anyone other than those who run a very heavily
> loaded
> > server are going to see any real benefits from the optimizations, and I
> > don't believe (IMHO) that server people are going to queue up for a new
> and
> > (in their view) untested distro.
> > 
> > I'm trying to sell your product on my user list
> > (http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users), but they like to see
> > someone who has tried it first, and of course I don't qualify with my
> > K6/II.  I would be downloading the latest Gentoo right now, if I could
> use
> > it.
> > 
> > I believe this is a big mistake.
> 
> We planed to relase optimized versions for i [456]86 systems, but we
> where abit short in time.
> I'm currently packaging an 586 version here and it should be available
> on monday or thursday for download.
> 

And not a moment too soon <grin>.  I wasn't trying to be a pain in the
butt, but I believe in the long run you would be better off packaging a
more generally usable release first and later the optimized versions.

-- 
Collins Richey
Denver area
gentoo system

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo for non-686 systems

[Daniel Robbins]

On Sun, Jul 01, 2001 at 08:30:50AM -0600, Collins Richey wrote:

> I'm trying to sell your product on my user list
> (http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users), but they like to see
> someone who has tried it first, and of course I don't qualify with my
> K6/II.  I would be downloading the latest Gentoo right now, if I could use
> it.
> 
> I believe this is a big mistake.

I agree; from now on, we'll be releasing a 100%-compatible build first.

Best Regards,

-- 
Daniel Robbins					<drobbins@gentoo.org>
President/CEO					http://www.gentoo.org 
Gentoo Technologies, Inc.