2 years was a long time to wait to use the extra memory that Linux could use out of the box.
For 8 years, Linux had the same limitations as Windows. Then for 2 years it was ahead. Pae could always be turned back on with a boot switch. Going back 25 years to criticize Windows is kind of weird but you do you.
(I run Linux on a variety of PCs, SBC’s, and VM’s in my house. I just get annoyed by unjustified Linux fanboyism.)
For 8 years, Linux had the same limitations as Windows. Then for 2 years it was ahead. Pae could always be turned back on with a boot switch. Going back 25 years to criticize Windows is kind of weird but you do you.
(I run Linux on a variety of PCs, SBC’s, and VM’s in my house. I just get annoyed by unjustified Linux fanboyism.)
Not just for 2 years, XP removed it in sp2.
And even when it supported it, many versions wouldn’t let you use it, or would let you “see” it but not use it.
For basically the life of XP.
And as I said, it could still be enabled with a boot switch.
It’s not like all distros in 1999 had PAE enabled by default. You had to find a pae enabled kernel.
And Linux PAE has been buggy off and on for 20 years:
"It worked for a while, but the problem came back in 2022. "
https://flaterco.com/kb/PAE_slowdown.html