[wplug] 386 vs 586

[Chris Ott]

Arnaud Loos wrote:
> I'm looking at installing mplayer with apt from here (1.0-pre6)
> but notice that I can choose either mplayer-386 or mplayer-586. I've been
> using 386 versions of packages (kernel-image) which I believe is correct,
> but which architecture are the 586 packages for?

The 586 packages are specifically compiled for Pentiums and above. For 
mplayer, I assume that's because that's when they started adding the MMX 
instructions, which probably make mplayer run a lot better. To be 
honest, I'm surprised they even make a "386" version.

> If I do choose the 386
> version there are 2 files available, mplayer-386_1.0-pre6-sarge0.1_i386 and
> mplayer-386_1.0-pre6-sarge0.2_i386. Is this one file split into 2 parts or
> is the second one a newer build? Which should I tell apt to install?

If you have a Pentium or above, use the 586 package.

> As always, thanks!
> 
> Arnaud-

For future reference, 586 is generally programmer's shorthand for 
Pentium. I'm also reasonably sure 686 is shorthand for Pentium II.

Chris