Compaq Armada E700 Operating System Support for Compaq Portable Products - Page 17

Operating System Support for Compaq Portable Products 17 Feature Miscellaneous Features Description Fully Y2K ready. Support for Euro Key. Data/fax application included. For more information about these and other Windows 2000 features, refer to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/professional/. Linux Linux is fast becoming viewed by some as an acceptable alternative to the Windows NT operating system. As such, Compaq now supports this operating system on many of its servers, workstations, desktops and portables. Many customers are using Linux to perform various functions throughout their corporation. The Linux operating system was originally developed on desktop Intel Architecture systems. As such, Linux was developed without portable features. Recently, Linux added support for features that portable users expect such as Advanced Power Management (APM), PCMCIA cards, and XWindows video drivers for LCD panels. Many other features of portables are so implementationdependent and have no analogy in the desktop world that the Linux developers have not considered adding these features. For example, each portable manufacturer has their own implementation of device swapping and docking stations. Linux Hardware Requirements The Linux kernel's small size and its efficient memory management contribute to Linux's low hardware requirements. If run in a text-based mode, Linux requires less processing power for graphics, unless X-Windows or a Graphical User Interface (GUI) is used. Depending on the type of GUI used, the minimum hardware requirements will vary slightly for each distribution of Linux. Table 10 outlines the minimum hardware requirements for running Red Hat Linux 5.2. Table 10 Minimum Hardware Requirements for Red Hat Linux 5.2 Requirement Intel 386SX processor 16MB memory 120MB Hard Disk Drive for a minimal custom Most video cards supported53 CD-ROM drive 3.5" floppy disk drive Linux Feature Considerations Linux has most major features and subsystems of a modern-day Unix operating system, including (but not limited to) NFS, TCP/IP, X-Windows, send-mail, BIND, shell command-line interpreters, editors, and other tools that the Unix market expects. Additionally, Linux has a large amount of Microsoft compatibility in the form of file system support, PCX networking, and floppy management utilities. 53 Refer to http://www.redhat.com/support/docs/hardware.html for additional information NA120D/0199