> 	I've just helped a freind set up Linux on his 486 box, and noticed that 
> the screen redraws are awfully fast.  Is the 486's video that much faster 
> than the macs, or is the Linux's kernel optimized for such fast screen 
> performance?

It's the video system.  The 486 is probably using some vga or svga card.
Such cards have a "text" mode and a "graphics" mode.  The Macs essentially
just have the latter.

Basically, the MacBSD display speed is slow because we have to draw the
character whereas the PC's just have to say, I want character "x."

Accelerated video cards might very well help, but only if we can make
use of the accelerated features.  Right now, we can't :-(

-allen

-- 
Allen Briggs - end killing - allen.briggs@vt.edu ** MacBSD == NetBSD/Mac **
           Goin' back to school        / Savin' up my tuition
           Gonna rewrite all the rules / On the old blackboard
                                                  - Neil Young

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