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

[Collins Richey <erichey2@home.com>]

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