On Wed, 9 Dec 1998, John R. Lenton wrote:
> o Are/were there 386 SMP's?
No, Intel MP spec 1.4 says 486, Pentium and above.
Anything outside of Intel's specs does not exist (officially) and if
it does exist - should be ignored ;).
> o Why does CONFIG_BLK_DEV_CMD640 default to yes? On the same
> lines, why does CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RZ1000 default to yes? Are
> they _that_ common? I understand that most new PC's are PCI
> based, so that's fine, in the same way most people have a
> ATAPI CDROM, but these chipsets? Or maybe you just got
> flooded by "Linux sucks! my cmd640 says so!", and decided
> that the lesser evil was to have it as a default?
Because Linux is a very conservative operating system, and rightly so.
By default, Linux is very slow (and yet faster than anything else!).
This means that you can optimize your system to be many times (maybe
even orders of magnitude) faster than what you get "out-of-the-box".
If you chose between Linux and non-Linux then Linux is for "real men", the
rest is for "dummies". Same thing applies when you chose between Linux
"out-of-the-box" and Linux "tweaked-by-a-careful-hand".
>
> o [Here I'm sure I'm showing off my ignorance. See how nice
> and shiny it is. You probably have caught glimpses of it
> before.] When I upgraded from my xt to my 386 I had to throw
> out (well, shelf. My mom threw it out.) my xt's hard drive
> because it wouldn't work with the 386. Was I ripped off? Or
> is there some trick to using these (ugly slow chunky
> gas-eating monster) drives on [345]86's? I could probably
> get hold of a (ugly slow chunky gas-eating monster) 20 meg
> "diskette" :) if this were so.
Yes, XT drives are supported. Question is - will you be able to plug it in
somewhere. It probably won't plug in to an IDE controller as it's a
different standard.
> o I have a 386 and a p200 on a small ethernet LAN and I
> connect to internet via ppp from my p200. This isn't all
> that uncommon (I think), but I have no idea if I should/how
> I would use the dummy thing or not. I've red the NET3-HOWTO
> and the Ethernet-HOWTO and the NAG, and didn't glean much
> from there. Well maybe I'm comprehension-challenged, but a
> couple of hours ago I seem to think I didn't think I though
> so.
what is the "dummy thing"? The 386? Or the "dummy network interface"?
> o Is the EtherExpressPro/100 _that_ popular that it's the
> default? I don't mean to be nasty or anything, just that
> around here most cards are NE2k's, which is lowsy and
> matches our GNP.
On i386 defaults are what Linus wants them to be. On SPARC - what DaveM
wants them to be etc etc. It is kind of "policy" :)
> o Again, around this neck of the woods PS/2 mouses aren't at
> all common. Neither is the TI Travelmate, but maybe they're
> being used as doorstops up north?
> <translation>
> Why are CONFIG_PSMOUSE and CONFIG_82C710_MOUSE *on* by
> default, and why is CONFIG_MOUSE *on* by default?
> </translation>
PS/2 mouse *are* most common. Travelmates are not, but if it saves Linus'
time it is better that way for all of us.
> o [I think this'been discussed too] Why is /proc even an
> *option*? is there _anything_ you can do with a Linux box
> w/o the /proc fs? And /please/ don't send me to the khg,
> it's been dead for ages.
Yes, quite a lot. You can do absolutely anything you like (as
long as it does not require /proc :) ).
> o Shouldn't you complain if one of the fs's that use NLS are
> yupped and you don't yup at least one pair of codepages?
> Isn't there a suitable default, in the same way there is a
> suitable default for various other choices? What do most
> people use? (Probably: Codepage 437 or 850, and ISO 8859-1,
> but I'm biased). While I'm here: cheers to whoever put in
> the (region) info into this section.(Axel Boldt?)
I agree, English should be the default.
> That's about it. Long-winded, aren't I? If you've got here
> without falling asleep, there's a crate of cabernet
> saubignon, or petit syrah (your choice), just to make sure
> you _do_ go to sleep :)
Alcohol gives humans headache - not recommended :)
> Cheers,
> John
>
Regards,
Tigran.
> Oops my dog ate the crates.
Poor dog, is his name Biff(1)?
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