[SGVLUG] New kernel 2.6.21 supports my video card

[Emerson, Tom (*IC)]

> -----Original Message----- Of David Lawyer
> 
> A few weeks ago I read about the 6.21 kernel and installed it 
> on my Pentium I, 100 MHz.  It's claimed that it now correctly 
> supports the old S3 video cards like mine (c. 1994).  [...]
> With this, can I use multimedia (movies)?

Short answer: probably not, unless you are going for very low resolution
movies (QVGA [320X240] or even QQVGA [160X120], though I think there is
also another "acronym" for this very small format, I just can't remember
it offhand -- it's often related to early webcam resolutions...)
biggest reason why: P1 @ 100mhz -- admittedly, I *did* do some
video-editing with a processor this slow, but I also "supporting
hardware" for the capture and playback...

Longer answer: you already outlined the reasons why not -- IRQ conflicts
and the need to "manually" deal with them (and/or buy hardware that
doesn't conflict), lack of concern by developers for supporting "such
old hardware", etc.

> So it's poor people that should be using this old hardware 
> that they can now get for free I suppose.  But these people 
> are not likely to know how to get it working.

They need to learn the same way the "rich" folk did when they first got
their shiny new $2000 computer...  [what, you don't think the early
pioneers had the same problems on "day one" when this stuff was
introduced?  Why do you think the hardware evolved to the point where
these are no longer problems?]