Ubiquity installer not usable on machines with <= 256 MB of RAM

[Carlos Ribeiro]

On 5/8/06, Krzysztof Lichota <krzysiek at lichota.net> wrote:
>
> >> Laptops use also some memory for video memory (in my case it is 16 MB,
> but
> >> one other person reported it as 32 MB), so it is less than 256 MB in
> >> reality.
> >
> > Then we should talk about the amount of memory they actually have.
>
> In common understanding they have 256 MB of RAM because this is what is
> put on the sticker (like pseudo-gigabytes on hard disks).
> And user experience would be "I have enough RAM, my system freezes =>
> Linux sucks".


As for the "real amount of memory": onboard VGA controllers steal some of
the memory for the use as a frame buffer. The amount of memory "stolen"
ranges from 8 MB to 32 MB of RAM (typical) depending on the resolution and
color depth. These VGA adapters are *very* common in low end machines and
laptops.

256 MB and less is rather typical configuration of computer in Poland
> and possibly other countries. If the system does not install on such
> machines, user base will be cut down.


Here in Brazil it's still pretty common to have machines with 128 MB or 256
MB. In fact I have one PC at home (with an AMD Duron CPU) and only 128 MB of
RAM. It ran Breezy, I dist-upgraded it to Dapper, and it's running fine; but
I didn't try the live CD installer/Ubiquity.


--
Carlos Ribeiro
Consultoria em Projetos
blog: http://rascunhosrotos.blogspot.com
blog: http://pythonnotes.blogspot.com
mail: carribeiro at gmail.com
mail: carribeiro at yahoo.com
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