Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 09:42:09 -0500 From: Leo Bicknell <bicknell@ufp.org> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Can TCP changes be put in RELENG_4? Message-ID: <20011206094209.A60489@ussenterprise.ufp.org> In-Reply-To: <3C0F7F63.90B753F3@mindspring.com>; from tlambert2@mindspring.com on Thu, Dec 06, 2001 at 06:23:31AM -0800 References: <20011205085750.I28101-100000@coredump.scriptkiddie.org> <200112052142.fB5LgVM53167@apollo.backplane.com> <3C0EF953.54CF24DB@mindspring.com> <3C0F0803.7010506@viasoft.com.cn> <3C0F0D02.8AEA9E48@mindspring.com> <20011206081059.A58740@ussenterprise.ufp.org> <3C0F7F63.90B753F3@mindspring.com>
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On Thu, Dec 06, 2001 at 06:23:31AM -0800, Terry Lambert wrote:
> > I'd suggest our target should be a P-III 600 with around 256M of
> > RAM as what Generic should be tuned for....
>
> Can't. The static allocations for that much assumed RAM would
> result in the machine not booting, with the amount of RAM for
> the page tables alone ~1/4M. By default, the 120M KVA space
> mappings are arguably overlarge for small memory machines.
Would result in what machines not booting? As long as a 64M PC
can boot (even if it has only 10 Meg free for user apps) that's ok
in my book. If we're still trying to boot on 4, 8, or 16 meg
machines that's just dumb.
As I've said before, there are two types of FreeBSD users. There
are "users", who want something to replace windows and who really
like the Linux distro's with KDE and all that. These people are
unlikely to build a kernel, and as time goes by are even less likely
to know what a kernel is. They are also likely to have a < 3 year
old PC, probably that they are dual booting. Linux recognized this,
and targest this sort of hardware out-of-the-box.
The second type of user is someone like you, or me, or most of the
people on this list. They will build a custom kernel no matter
how appropriate the default settings. They will tune things for
odd application boxes, like IRC and News servers and the like.
The defaults are virtually irrevelant for these people, provided
sysinstall can finish.
As far as I'm concerned any machine with < 64M these days falls
into the second catagory, where someone should have to futz with
it to make it work. When 256M DIMMs are $18 we need to get with
the program.
This is one area where Microsoft got it right. Worrying about the
hardware isn't worth your time. It will continue to grow at moores
law, making the bloat unimportant. Target what's being sold now,
as if you target last years computers by the time your OS is on
them next year they will be retired.
--
Leo Bicknell - bicknell@ufp.org - CCIE 3440
PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
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