Feature changed by: jpxviii jpxviii (jpxviii) Feature #307603, revision 8 Title: Migrate x86_32 architecture to i686 Hackweek V: Unconfirmed Priority Requester: Important openSUSE-11.3: Unconfirmed Priority Requester: Desirable openSUSE-11.4: Unconfirmed Priority - Requester: Important + Requester: Mandatory Requested by: Refilwe Seete (referenceseete) Partner organization: openSUSE.org Description: openSUSE currently builds i586 binaries with a couple exceptions. As it currently stands openSUSE 11.1 permits a Pentium 1 but requires at least 256MB of RAM with 512MB recommended [1]. The likelihood of a person having a system with an original Pentium and 256MB (esp. 512MB) of RAM is quite low. Since the i686 architecture was introduced in 1995...2010 or 2011 is a suitable time to migrate the x86_32 target architecture without adversely affecting the majority of users. The Fedora Project is making this same transition for Fedora 12 [2]. Any growing pains they experience can be used as guidance for the transition in openSUSE 11.3 or 12.0. [1] http://www.novell.com/products/opensuse/sysreqs.html [2] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/F12X86Support Business case (Partner benefit): openSUSE.org: By moving to i686, openSUSE should receive a slight performance increase while maintaining support for an incredibly broad range of x86 chips. Any boost is helpful on systems with less processing power, such as netbooks/nettops or older systems (Pentium 2, original Athlon etc.). Moving to i686 is a way to boost performance the performance of openSUSE at the margins without having to delve into experimental or otherwise under-tested methods. Discussion: #1: Jan Engelhardt (jengelh) (2009-09-03 14:32:49) What does i686 bring? Just the CMOV instructions. That alone does not convince me, and binaries are already at least compiled with - mtune=i686. #2: jpxviii jpxviii (jpxviii) (2010-08-10 21:59:19) Hi, I have read and heard much criticism from people with different expertise on computing and many say suse / opensuse is heavy and slow. For example it is one of the disadvantages of Distrowatch (Top Ten Distributions, advantages and disadvantages http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major) perhaps you can improve system performance by optimizing the most modern hardware and current ( common, frequently found in the home and office). If there are surveys that can observe the number of users who have older computers would be good to go up the link. Greetings. -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/307603