Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

live · Joined: 10 Feb 2010 Posts: 108

i686 processor are already more than 15 years old...

Now at the era of i386, some might remember, that floating point core were not always part of the processor, only from Pentium class (i586) all processor had a floating point arithmetic core.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_point_unit

Having none optimized compiled code, means a waste of energy, more waste to the planet...

How much energy would be save by if all would update for an i686 build?
Probably not much on a PC, but definitely on a laptop's like; but we would all have a faster Puppy.

OK 64bits are another issue, as not everybody has now a days a 64bits processor.

Yours.

2XL · Joined: 15 Dec 2011 Posts: 6

I respectfully disagree. I think it should be kept as i386. In any case, personally, I leave my systems on 24 hours a day 7 days week so at least in my case, no energy would be saved.

live · Joined: 10 Feb 2010 Posts: 108

2XL · Joined: 15 Dec 2011 Posts: 6

arcanis · Joined: 30 Oct 2011 Posts: 86 Location: Columbus, Ohio

I've been thinking about this for a long time: it is also responsible behavior to keep old hardware out of landfills. Many older PC's will run acceptably on Puppy or AntiX or whatever and can still be used instead of being allowed to pollute our groundwater. I have a number of older PC's in my basement which I use in one way or another, and which I'm sure can be of use for some years to come.
Whatever I have that I cannot use I donate to a local charity which refurbishes old hardware with Ubuntu and then ships it off to non-Profits or schools in the third world.
Anything I find which is so fried as to be useless is converted to cyber-art.
I want the latest and greatest, but I must also establish priorities for what I think is important, and in my case, I feel keeping old hardware alive is vital to our survival here on a small planet.