Someone asked about using RedHat 6.1 on a 386
While theorically it is still possible the fact is that many things in
modern Linux distributions are designed towards more powerful CPUs
than the 386.
Kernels are big since they are now intended to manage large amounts of
memory and processes and this means more complex algorithms than in
1995 Linux.
Glibc is much bigger than libc 5 since it is designed for
multithreaded applications.
And RedHat installs would be sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow
on a 386. When upgrading to 6.2 beta the install spent something like
ten minutes just checking the transaction set of what I intended to
install and upgrade. THis on a Cyrix 166+ who is supposed to be three
times faster than a 486 DX2 66 who is supposed to be supposed to be
three as fast than a 386DX40 with cahe who is roughly three faster
than your average 386SX20 (whose motherboards usually don't have
cache)
That means that this 10 minutes check on a 166+ would take four hours
and a half on a 386SX20 and this if you have enough memory to avoid
swapping.
Admittedly the 6.1 install is faster than 6.2 and install is faster
than upgrade however I advise you to use an older version of RedHat,
the older the best if you will be using a 386.
Regards.
--
Jean Francois Martinez
Project Independence: Linux for the Masses
http://www.independence.seul.org
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