Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 14 Oct 2003 05:02:43 -0700 | From | William Lee Irwin III <> | Subject | Re: Unbloating the kernel, was: :mem=16MB laptop testing |
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At some point in the past, I wrote: >> So I tried mem=16m on my laptop (stinkpad T21). I made the following >> potentially useless observations: [snip] >> I guess the upshot is "unbloating" the kernel wouldn't do much good >> anyway, since luserspace isn't in any kind of shape to run in this kind >> of environment anymore either.
On Tue, Oct 14, 2003 at 01:44:31PM +0200, Marco Fioretti wrote: > Wrong. (please read till the end, this is not academic, but a real > call to arms!) Have a look at http://www.rule-project.org/en/, > specifically the pages: http://www.rule-project.org/en/sw/kdrive.php > (how we do without X, solving half of the problem)
Hearing this is about the happiest I can be to be proven wrong.
On Tue, Oct 14, 2003 at 01:44:31PM +0200, Marco Fioretti wrote: > http://www.rule-project.org/en/test/ (the kind of machines we must > work with) There are still a *lot* of lightweight applications giving > real functionality without bloat. Of course, they can make little in > these conditions if constantly swapped out from > the Kernel and/or X. > With 16 or 24 MB or RAM even half a meg less is very important. We at > RULE are doing what we can to select light GUI applications and test > them with kdrive, but have no expertise to look after the kernel. > Any help whatsoever in keeping 2.6 as light as possible, and to > recompile stock 2.4 kernels to lighten them is really needed. > The most important part of this is that it is not a programming > contest, just for the sake of it. > There are literally thousands of schools, all over the world, which simply > cannot afford any money on computers. The "HW is cheap" slogan is > very cruel when recited in places where 64 MB of RAM are one month's > salary. I am not kidding. All these schools have is donated computers > 5+ years old: even if they had the money they could not find spare parts > from them. After food, medicines and shelter a good education is > essential to make a decent living. > It is extremely embarassing to tell these students "you can do > without expensive MS SW, just find the money for a PC almost as > expensive as those which will run Windows". A lightweight Linux is > needed to many more people than the full featured one Thank you in > advance for any support, > Marco Fioretti, RULE project coordinator > PS: Oh, and while I'm at it, I'll even dare to ask for RULE network volunteers, see > http://www.rule-project.org/en/rule_by_email.php
"$FOO is cheap" is a copout for sure; in the wrong country or for the wrong people the limitation to "performant" hardware is a lethal blow to usability. I'm not sure how to say how glad I am to hear of a direct attack on this issue.
If you and/or your cohorts could inform us of kernel usability issues, especially with 2.6, I would be much obliged (all the more so for a cc:).
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