Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sun, 19 Jul 1998 22:25:03 -0700 (PDT) | Subject | Re: Memory Rusting Effect [re: Linux hostile to poverty] | From | sinster@darkwate ... |
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Sprach "Albert D. Cahalan" <acahalan@cs.uml.edu>: > No. Where do you place the limit? Shouldn't Linux run on machines > with only 640 kB of RAM? If that, then why not 64 kB too?
Sounds good to me. Thanks for volunteering to do that patch. :)
> Can't we increase system requirements with time? If not, then we > must abide by the limits of the original PDP-7 hardware. That means > we should be able to run Linux in 4096 18-bit words.
Nonsense. Linux started on the 386, so if we never increased the limits, the 386 that Linus used at the beginning would be our 0-line. Restricting ourselves to PDP-7 would be _lowering_ the requirements.
> An OS optimized for the PDP-7 just isn't going to be very good on > more normal 1998-2001 hardware. You can still get 1.0.9 too.
Optimization can be done with #define, except when the change is a fundamental algorithmic shift. One would hope that a new algorithm could be tweaked through #define or whatnot to continue supporting old hardware.
-- Jon Paul Nollmann ne' Darren Senn sinster@balltech.net Unsolicited commercial email will be archived at $1/byte/day. "I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." James Madison, speech, Virginia Convention, 1788
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