On 20-May-06 Bob Dove wrote:
Hi Guys,
BBBG [Big bad Bill G] wants to 1/ Rule the World, or 2/ Own the World, or 3/ At least dictate how you use and what you use on your computer.
The power requirements for Vista are such that I can't imagine anyone actually giving in to the dictat except to use Linux instead and write really powerful programs to emulate BBBG. Then of course, there are people out there with more plastic than grey matter who will spend the ever increasing amounts of dosh BBBG wants. And there'll always be 'pooter' builders keen to provide the necessary hardware.
Personally, to run Quark and PhotoShop - which is all I want to do really - it is all overkill and I'll stick to 'doze 2K. Of course, it is the gaming fraternity who need the blistering power that BBBG is tapping into. Problem is of course, BBBG makes a pretty point and press desktop full of apparent usability while Linux won't let brick brains in! I must say that even (to my wife's intense annoyance) a dedicated box for Linux has (or would have if I had any) caused hair pulling and revision of Anglo Saxon usage. I have been watching the thread as to how little you really need to run a minimum Linux distro - and the little is in fact quite large. Mind you, Solitaire in Linux is much prettier than 'doze!
Good points, Bob, and nicely put! I'd like to comment on your final one though -- "how little you really need to run a minimum Linux distro - and the little is in fact quite large".
It depends what you want to use it for! Some applications these days are really heavy, and you need heavy kit to run them well.
But for much of my usage (and I do a lot of different things) I've been getting on well with quite modest kit, for the most part.
Ranging from my first Linux back in 1992 (no X then!) installed on 25MB of HDD with 2MB RAM, to my current "stable" which has
1. Desktop: 733 MHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB HD space 2. Laptop: 366 MHz CPU, 128 MB RAM, 6 GB HD space 3. Desktop: 75 MHz CPU, 64 MB RAM, 6 GB HD space 4. Laptop: 486 DX/4 CPU, 18 MB RAM, 256 MB HD space
I've not often felt pressed for resources. Even No 4, which runs X quite happily and can browse with Netscape (ancient version), can be used for a variety of applications provided the particular demands of a job are not too big. I can also for instance run the GIMP on Nos 1, 2 and 3.
The only one which comes near the "Vista" spec is No 1, yet for linux usage it zips and very rarely shows signs of load. And with VMWare I can run Win98 when needed, at the same time as anything Linux-wise.
However, no doubt there are some linux applications for which even No 1 would be overloaded -- though I'd be curious to know what they are!
Best wishes, Ted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 20-May-06 Time: 10:27:27 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------