this post was submitted on 24 May 2024
29 points (87.2% liked)
Linux
48182 readers
1221 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It ran like absolute ass on 386 hardware though, and it required at least 4MB of RAM which was also not so common for 386 computers. Source: I had a 386 at the time, couldn't play Doom until I got a Pentium a few years later.
Even on lower clocked 486 hardware it wasn't that great. IIRC, it needed about a 486 DX2/66 to really start to shine.
I ran it perfectly on a 33MHz 486 with 4mb RAM for a long time. Even Doom II with some of its heavier maps ran fine.
But the point was that the hardware requirements were low enough that it could be ported to just about any hardware. It ran on SNES which was like 4MHz
"Perfectly" would mean it ran at 35fps, the maximum framerate DOS Doom is capped at. In the standard Doom benchmark, a dx33 gets about half that: 18fps average in demo3 of the shareware version with the window size reduced 1 step. Demo3 runs on E1M7, which isn't the heaviest map, so heavier maps would bog the dx33 down even more.
I'm sure you found that acceptable at the time, and that you look back on it with slightly rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, but a dx2/66 and preferably even better definitely gave you a much better experience, which was my point.