* Steve M. Gehlbach steve@nexpath.com [021021 22:34]:
gcc 2.96 is not a real release, more of a redhat branch off the 3.0 dev tree that gnu disavows. There are notes somewhere about this but I couldn't quickly find the link.
Which is understandable from their point of view, keeping the user base at a certain level to gain reliable input. On the other hand back when Redhat started using gcc 2.96, it was the only compiler that was actually usable on most no-x86 platforms. (This does not apply for the first release they packed with their distribution, but anything later proved to be worlds better than gcc 2.95, i.e. on Alpha, Sparc, ... gcc 2.96 was also the first compiler to support Itanium)
I would consider anything that 2.96 does or does not do, to be a laboratory curiosity. Can you compile a linux kernel with either 2.96 or 3.2?
The 2.2 kernel needs a lot of fixes to go through 3.2, but compiles and works great with 2.96. For Kernel 2.4 both are perfectly ok.
I think debian installs 2.95.4, but also has a 3.0 version. I use 2.95.x and have no problems.
If LinuxBIOS is up to support non-intel platforms, gcc 3 should be considered a must. If you get anywhere with 2.95.x on those platforms, you are really lucky.
Stefan