> I mean correct me if you have actual data to prove me wrong, but my memory at the time is that build times were really not a problem.

I never had cause to build quake, but my Linux kernel builds took something like 3-4 hours on an i486. It was a bit better on the dual socket pentium I had at work, but it was still painfully slow.

I specifically remember setting up gcc cross toolchains to build Linux binaries on our big iron ultrasparc machines because the performance difference was so huge — more CPUs, much faster disks, and lots more RAM.

That gap disappeared pretty quickly as we headed into the 2000s, but in 1997 it was still very large.