On 5/8/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Krzysztof Lichota</b> <<a href="mailto:krzysiek@lichota.net">krzysiek@lichota.net</a>> wrote:<div><span class="gmail_quote"></span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
>> Laptops use also some memory for video memory (in my case it is 16 MB, but<br>>> one other person reported it as 32 MB), so it is less than 256 MB in<br>>> reality.<br>><br>> Then we should talk about the amount of memory they actually have.
<br><br>In common understanding they have 256 MB of RAM because this is what is<br>put on the sticker (like pseudo-gigabytes on hard disks).<br>And user experience would be "I have enough RAM, my system freezes =>
<br>Linux sucks".</blockquote><div><br></div>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.
<br><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">256 MB and less is rather typical configuration of computer in Poland<br>and possibly other countries. If the system does not install on such
<br>machines, user base will be cut down.</blockquote><div><br><div>
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.<br>
<br></div></div></div><br>-- <br>Carlos Ribeiro<br>Consultoria em Projetos<br>blog: <a href="http://rascunhosrotos.blogspot.com">http://rascunhosrotos.blogspot.com</a><br>blog: <a href="http://pythonnotes.blogspot.com">
http://pythonnotes.blogspot.com</a><br>mail: <a href="mailto:carribeiro@gmail.com">carribeiro@gmail.com</a><br>mail: <a href="mailto:carribeiro@yahoo.com">carribeiro@yahoo.com</a><br><br>