Shall we drop i386 / 32-bit? If you think no, please test

[Doug]

On 07/24/2017 10:13 PM, BRM wrote:
> Sorry a little late to the discussion...
>
> Personally I have an old Pentium M laptop (2003 era) that I'd like to 
> run Kubuntu on; however
> since the proc isn't even PAE Ubuntu is a PITA any way. But it's also 
> got other issues (WiFi, 1.25GB RAM, etc)...I doubt I'll ever really 
> get to revive it any more.
>
> That said...from trying Kubuntu on an RPi2 and RPi3 (2GB RAM), and 
> recently on a Pine64 (4GB RAM) Laptop :D...
>
> 4GB of RAM for KDE even with turning of nearly all effects tends to be 
> a bit of a limiter unless you have a really good video card to go with it.
> It's not that it doesn't run - but things are a bit slow; 
> Chrome/Firefox are nearly impossible, though rekonq is decent. So it 
> comes down to the tools you want to use.
>
> That said, Intel is still releasing 32-bit x86 CPUs - which I've 
> pointed out in other forums (G+/Ubuntu) on this same question - and 
> that's not necessarily embedded either.
>
> $0.02
>
> Ben
>
> http://ark.intel.com/Search/FeatureFilter?productType=processors&FilterCurrentProducts=true&EM64=false&InstructionSet=32-bit
>
>
Everything is going to 64 bit, there's no holding that back. However, it 
MIGHT be possible to update the machine to that. I discovered that it is 
possible to update a
Dell Inspiron E1505 to 64 bit by changing out the CPU! (You can look 
this up on Google.) That same machine came with 1Gib ram, and Dell says 
2Gib is all you can have.
WRONG! You can put in 4GiB worth of silicon. However, you can only use 
about 3.3 GiB of it. Better than 2!  If you do this, get the fastest CPU 
of the group that fits the
socket. Taking the whole laptop apart and changing the CPU is a hassle, 
and you must be very careful to keep track of how it came apart so that 
you can put it back
together again! And put new Arctic Silver on the new CPU after scraping 
off the remains of the old on the heat sink assembly.  You may need ot 
update the BIOS.
This will not get you a new superspeed laptop, of course, but it will 
let you keep using your operating system, and even installing the 
fastest 64-bit version, It may
even run a bit faster, since you will have installed a faster CPU. 
Windows will also work in 64 bit, if you lean that way, but I don't 
think you can upgrade Windows--you'd
have to obtain a 64-bit install version. (The old windows will still work.)

--doug
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