i386 vs i686?

[GammaPoint]

Hi, I'm trying to upgrade to Fedora 7 from FC6 and looking for the Live images to download. However, on this site I only see live images for i686 architectures. There is a DVD version for i386 but I don't have any DVDs to burn it on so I wanted to use the Live CD.

I'm guessing that what I should be doing is downloading the i686 version. If this is correct, could you tell me why sometimes it's listed as i386 and other times the listing is under i686?

Also, looking at Fedora 8 they have some torrents with the name i686 in the file name but the descriptor is that it's for i386.

Please explain

[marcrblevins]

Does it matter, what is your processor? Your computer is build before 1990?
We will have i386 & i686 packages on Fedora, those i386 was compatibility to run with i686.

Mind sharing what link you are looking at for the Live CD?

[GammaPoint]

Oh, and also I see two live CDs, one with KDE and one without. Is this just KDE vs GNOME? And if so, is Fedora switching to KDE or will it continue to offer both choices with future versions?

[GammaPoint]

Originally Posted by marcrblevins

Mind sharing what link you are looking at for the Live CD?

You can go to the link by clicking 'site' in my first post. Alternatively, http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/

And yes, my computer was made in ~2004. So you're saying that i686 works for i386 processors?

[stoat]

Originally Posted by GammaPoint

And yes, my computer was made in ~2004. So you're saying that i686 works for i386 processors?

If your computer was made in 2004, it does not have an i386 processor. The i686 thing includes most Pentiums (Pro, II, III, 4, M), Celeron, Xeon, Athlon, Duron, Sempron, etc. I doubt that your 2004-built computer has a processor that predates all of those. So it should handle Fedora 7 from just that standpoint (there are plenty of other hardware related considerations that may come to bear).

EDIT: The original Pentium processor is referred to as i586 and was introduced in 1993.

[GammaPoint]

Originally Posted by stoat

If your computer was made in 2004, it does not have a i386 processor. The i686 thing includes the Pentiums (Pro, I, II, III, 4, M), Celeron, Xeon, Athlon, Duron, Sempron, etc. I doubt that your 2004-built computer has a processor that predates any of those. So it should handle Fedora 7 from just that standpoint (there are plenty of other hardware related considerations that may come to bear).

Okay, thanks. Mine is a Pentium 4. I just was under the impression that I had a i386 all this time

[RahulSundaram]

Originally Posted by GammaPoint

Oh, and also I see two live CDs, one with KDE and one without. Is this just KDE vs GNOME? And if so, is Fedora switching to KDE or will it continue to offer both choices with future versions?

We will be offering both GNOME and KDE based Live images and maybe more choices like XFCE based images in the future too.

[A.Serbinski]

Originally Posted by GammaPoint

Oh, and also I see two live CDs, one with KDE and one without. Is this just KDE vs GNOME? And if so, is Fedora switching to KDE or will it continue to offer both choices with future versions?

I think that to precisely answer your question, BOTH are provided. Some users prefer (for whatever reasons) one over the other. With a livecd, space is severely limited, so both do NOT FIT, therefore in order to provide a livecd with each (ie, to satisfy the greater number of users), two livecds must be provided. You just download whichever one you prefer.

[lazlow]

Off point, but this still irritates me. Fedora does not support CPUs pre-i586. So it makes absolutely no sense to go back to the i386 builds. The furtherest back we should be going should match the CPU support (i586 currently). I know there is very little speed differences between most i386 builds and i586 builds (on the same machine) but every little bit helps.