old source and compiling

[nikola]

Hi, I am not totally new to linux but do not understand the source related packages, so here it goes:
My goal is to run linux on an old laptop (266P1 with 96Mb). I understand that if source packages are compiled on this laptop they will run at their fastest.
1) Will source packages, no matter how old always be able to be compiled by the newest compilers?
2) is it possible to install an old distro and then take a source package which is rather new (like enlightenment 0.17 or programs for use of wireless pcmcia-card) and compile it with the old distro?

helpless for now..Nik.

[stumbles]

It sounds like to me your asking for a whole lot a work. There are significant differences between the 2.x and 4.x GCCs.

Some source will compile correctly with gcc-4 and others will not without a patch. You won't really know without a lot of research or just giving it a go and see what happens.

As for mixing an old distro with the newest stuff. Well, some of it might work and some of it might not. In the end I suspect you would have to upgrade that old distro.

[nikola]

Thanks for the reply. So the GCC program is not necessary backwards compatible... That leaves one option: going for a rather new distro. You saved me already a lot of time :-)
Nik.

[stumbles]

A newer distro would be better in the long run if only from the point of them supporting newer hardware and having ironed out bugs and such with older hardware, especially with laptops.

On the point of distros, any one of them will do. Which is a matter of your own choice. You will probably find some performance issues on your laptop, notably the graphics part. So you would want to use some thing other the KDE or Gnome.

[nikola]

Yep, I am aware of performance issues. I was looking to old distros bcs I had no sound issues with them and X worked ok too, but the newer distros give problems with them, especially sound. Guess I have to wrestle my way through.

Ok, then already made my choice: vectorlinux with E (0.17), which should address the performance issues (i hope, with 96M). It is my intention to completely adapt this distro to the laptop. So I assume that if wanted to install a newer kernel in a year or two, I would be still able to use the same compiler coming with this distro of today.

Actually, I want to install, tune and then never change anything again, but unfortunately, the speed of hardware changes these days keep us from doing this.

thanks again for the comment!
Nik.