On Wed, Jan 14, 2015 at 7:03 PM, Manuel Wolfshant <wolfy at nobugconsulting.ro> wrote: > On 01/15/2015 02:56 AM, PatrickD Garvey wrote: >> I want to use CentOS to explore the aspects of operating systems that >> I was not allowed to explore with a proprietary system. I had a couple >> of 32-bit machines I intended to make into my lab, but the Linux >> community seems to have moved on to 64-bit images. > > If the microprocessors you have were built this decade, they probably > support PAE in which case CentOS 6 should run just fine. I am in the process > of [slowly] phasing out 8..12 yrs old machines which still run quite happily > CentOS5 and I am deploying C6 on their replacements. > In other news, the new procs have much lower power consumption so beyond > offering access to a larger set of applications, new systems pay themselves > via saved energy > If the microprocessors I have were built this decade, it was at the farthest chronological end of that period. I have spent some time examining the various Linux sub-communities and that, I'm afraid has essentially obsoleted my hardware. Additionally, I'd rather start with the most current edition of the OS so any knowledge will be applicable to what comes next. I seem to understand there has been quite a shift in the init system details from C6 to C7. Since details are what I enjoy studying, I prefer to study what will be around for a while. Thank you for your encouragement. I'll get some hardware soon and proceed from there. Learning to manage a cross-compiling environment could be an interesting study that would include both sets of machines.