IBM Thinkpad X23 video memory inadequacy

RH 7.3 allowed me to configure XFree86 with 24bpp on an IBM Thinkpad
X23.  Also enabled glx and dri, and there turns out to be an obscure
warning message in /var/log/X* that more memory is actually needed.

For a few months I have been dealing with unpredictable lockups in X
using this platform.  It has taken browsing what has seemed to be the
entire Internet to find any clue.  The warning message, along with a 
bug report about stuff only working at 16bbp, from the DRI web pages, 
has finally led me to conclude that reducing pixel depth to 16 
bpp will solve the problem.

Why is it that X software cannot alert users to obvious hardware
limitations such as this?  A warning message in /var/log/X* is
inadequate.  Why is this not an error, it is now a mere warning?

Why do you think you can penetrate a user desktop market with such 
shoddy configuration software?  I really want Linux on desktop to
succeed, but the transactions I have read have demonstrated such 
hubris that I question the viability of the concept.

-- 
|--------------------------------------------------------------|
|      Rod Oldehoeft      |      rrorro"at"ix.netcom.com       |
|--------------------------------------------------------------|
| On conflicts of interest:  "A visitor was ushered in just    |
| as President Truman was taking a postage stamp out of his    |
| wallet and affixing it to an envelope.  The visitor          |
| expressed surprise, having believed that the White House     |
| enjoyed franking privileges.  'Ah yes,' responded Truman,    |
| 'but this is a letter to my daughter, and franking           |
| privileges belong to the President of the United States.' "  |
|                      Josef Martin, "To Rise Above Principle" |
|--------------------------------------------------------------|