I tried this on my machine, which is a 486 (ghasp!), with memory limited
to 8 MB. I started a compile (of binutils), then started X, started
loading netscape 4.04, and then ran a find /. I was logged in on 4
consoles and there was needless to say a lot of swapping, but no matter
how fast I switched VCs the machine didn't crash. I probably switched
back and forth from X to console at least fifty times while netscape was
loading. Obviously it was pretty slow, but switching to console and back
actually got faster as I did it more and more. At the end I killed -9 the
X server, no problems.
I have a Western Digital WD90C24 graphics adapter, and granted it was not
in high res. Although it's quite possible this is a unique case, perhaps
the problems with X crashing could more easily be solved by just fixing
the bugs in the X server code which has problems, because mine definately
doesn't have those problems.
Also, I was impressed by the fact that in 8MB ram and 20 MB swap, while I
was compiling and such, netscape still loaded after several minutes, and
the machine, although it's only a 486, was still decently fast. This was
in 2.0.33--I think I'll try it in 2.1.90 for comparison.
Long live the thing king!
(obscure VMM joke.)
Sincerely,
Kyle Cronan
<kyle@pbx.org>
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