Feature changed by: jpxviii jpxviii (jpxviii) Feature #307603, revision 5 Title: Migrate x86_32 architecture to i686 openSUSE-11.3: Unconfirmed Priority Requester: Desirable openSUSE-11.4: Unconfirmed Priority Requester: Desirable 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