Comment 39 for bug 930447

     I know that this is a bug report and not a forum. But my 2 cents... First, it's a damn shame the Pentium M shipped without PAE, otherwise this would not really be as much of an issue. I don't use my Pentium M any more but it was a great machine, and I am planning to give it to someone to use shortly. Other than lack of PAE it's a significant upgrade for them...

     1) Regarding the argument that people should just upgrade hardware... this isn't the Linux way. Linux (and UNIX before that in general...) let people keep using their system until it was either too slow, or they couldn't cram enough RAM into it, to run current software. Not forced obsolescence. I would say, if anything, those running 4GB+ of RAM should be encouraged to get a 64-bit system, rather than expecting people who have already shown they are not interested in the upgrade treadmill (by having old non-PAE systems) to replace a working system.

     2) 2 constructive solutions. I would ship the CD with the non-PAE kernel, then have a little something similar to the "Additional Drivers" app that runs on first boot and presents the option of installing a PAE kernel on PAE-capable systems. (As opposed to the current situation where I'm sure some users miss out on PAE's benefits since they have to know to choose it in the package manager, this would allow a 1-click choice.)

      Barring that, I do urge Canonical et al. to at least have an alternate non-PAE build available (at least once it's out of alpha), perhaps just note that Pentium M users should select this build. I'd guess there are more Ubuntu users with Pentium Ms than users of the Ubuntu ARM builds (as much as I'd love to have an ARM notebook, I don't...)