Tax payers get screwed or worse.
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| ColonelPanik Nov 12, 2008 4:15 PM EDT |
The University here (ENMU) just auctioned off a huge bunch of 2002 era computers.
These computers were scrapped because they would not run the newest os from
the Pirates of Redmond. Would not run it at all. Ok, here are the specs: Pentium 4 1.8MHz 512 Megs RAM Here is a real world test: Fresh install of Ubuntu 8.10 I ran a huge torrent DL, my ever present streaming radio, Boinc, IRC, surfing like crazy and watching Flash vids. All at the same time. They all worked, just fine. I bought two fine computers for $70.USD total. Now I can't wait for the next release from Redmond! |
| bigg Nov 12, 2008 4:31 PM EDT |
Wow, wish I could get in on a deal like that. My current home computer was purchased in 2002 and has 512 MB RAM and is 1.6 GHz. I installed Ubuntu 8.04.1 last week (all my other CD's were unfortunately at the office). It's very fast. The only bad thing about running Linux is that you can't justify buying new hardware unless it stops working. If for some reason I wanted a 3D desktop all I'd have to do is add an appropriate video card. Try that with Vista. |
| jdixon Nov 12, 2008 5:16 PM EDT |
> Wow, wish I could get in on a deal like that. Not quite that good, but: http://www.intechraoutlet.com/home/ Dell Optiplex GX270 with 2.4 GHz Pentium 4, 512MB of memory, a 40 GB hard drive, and a CD for $115. No OS included, so you don't have to delete Windows to get started. They're not the only option, but they're one I've used before. |
| theboomboomcars Nov 12, 2008 5:59 PM EDT |
bigg check with any colleges/universities in your area. We have a sale 1 or 2 times a year selling old computers usually $10-$100 for p3-p4 class hardware. We even have some dual cores going now. |
| gus3 Nov 12, 2008 6:38 PM EDT |
@CP: You should consider running a distributed computing client, like Folding@Home or BOINC, on your new shineys. You could really rack up some points quickly using both of them. |
| ColonelPanik Nov 12, 2008 6:54 PM EDT |
BOINC Setiathome has been running for years and years and years
218600.00 units and counting Just wait until I get my cluster running /°_° |
| jacog Nov 13, 2008 8:09 AM EDT |
Quoting:Ok, here are the specs: Pentium 4 1.8MHz 512 Megs RAM 1.8 MHz? *chuckle* |
| techiem2 Nov 13, 2008 9:13 AM EDT |
Well that IS what it would feel like running Vista.... |
| ColonelPanik Nov 13, 2008 11:37 AM EDT |
OOPS, well thank God that you all knew what I meant. How about 1.8GHz? Its those old arthritic digits, with parts missing that cause most of my problems. And my aversion to proof-reading. |
| Bob_Robertson Nov 13, 2008 9:06 PM EDT |
As a devout anarchist, I find the title rather self-evident. Heck, my primary desktop machine right now and for the last 5 years has been a 2.8GHz P4 with 512M of Ram. |
| DiBosco Nov 14, 2008 8:06 AM EDT |
Quoting: Heck, my primary desktop machine right now and for the last 5 years has been a 2.8GHz P4 with 512M of Ram. Yep, mine is very similar (although I installed a couple of gig of RAM as I run a virtual machine at times). It's not particularly fast RAM (wouldn't be with the mobo being three or four years old) and the machine flies. I do have a core duo with faster RAM as well and that for most day-to-day things is no quicker. (Certain things like video encoding are 15-20% faster on that Core Duo machine.) Yesterday I had KDevelop, Firefox, Crossworks (embedded software IDE), Thunderbird, Azureus, kcalc, numerous kwrites and a couple of konquerors open and everything still ran quickly. I break out in hives when I have to run Windows on the odd day I go into the office! |
| Bob_Robertson Nov 14, 2008 12:38 PM EDT |
> although I installed a couple of gig of RAM... Well, this laptop is limitted to 512. But the screen is starting to flake-out, and I've decided to give up on laptops for a while, so I priced a white-box 4-core Phenom with 4G RAM for ~$500, reusing various bits that I already have and not including monitor (or OS!). The screen is the big reason. I've gotten used to this 1400x1050 screen, and with the new "wide" format that all laptops have, getting more than 800 pixels vertical resolution means I leap into the $2K laptop realm. $500 is much more workable, even if I have to pay another $250 for the screen. |
| ColonelPanik Nov 14, 2008 2:56 PM EDT |
Old eyes? |
| Bob_Robertson Nov 14, 2008 3:17 PM EDT |
Naa, not old. I broke my Unix teeth, as it were, on HUGE Sun monitors, then had to deal with 1024x768 windows machines for years. You might say I have good eyes, and so "pixel size" matters. Bigger pixels just make for nastier pictures. Ah, those Sun monitors, dual heads on top of the line SPARC-10s.... I don't even want to think about how much they cost at the time. |
| DiBosco Nov 15, 2008 7:03 AM EDT |
Quoting: The screen is the big reason. Hmmm, screen area is one of the reasons I usually use a desktop rather than laptop at home. I have two 22" widescreen HP monitors what are just brilliant for things like having datasheets open while coding, so you can look from one screen to another rather than minimising windows. Also great when laying out a PCB for similar reasons. Big screens are so cheap these days! You get 1680 x 1050 on these screens which is also great for coding as you can get long indented lines of code without them wrapping. I do get the same resolution on my 15" laptop, but as you can imagine that is far more of a strain on the eyes! |
| Bob_Robertson Nov 17, 2008 9:16 AM EDT |
> You get 1680 x 1050 on these screens... Yep. Never going less than x1050 again if I can possibly help it. |
| Sander_Marechal Nov 17, 2008 12:20 PM EDT |
If you're a real coding nerd you should get a widescreen1920x1280 monitor. Turn it sideways so you have 1280 wide and 1920 high. Use xrandr to rotate your output accordingly and don't forget to set your display subpixel rendering to horizontal RGB (System -> Preferences -> Apprearence -> Fonts -> Details on GNOME). If you think it's nice to view a 180 character line without scrolling then you'll be amazed how nice it is to see an 80 line function without scrolling. The only downside is that you really need a HD monitor. Standard widescreen monitors do not have enough vertical resolution (which is to become your horizontal resolution after turning it 90 degrees). |
| jezuch Nov 17, 2008 4:15 PM EDT |
Quoting:If you're a real coding nerd you should get a widescreen1920x1280 monitor I got one at work very recently. The thing is, this is a laptop monitor. The pixels are ultra-tiny so I had to increase font sizes everywhere (You'd think that the higher DPI setting in X would handle that? You wish! And Firefox/Icewesel is the biggest culprit here.). The enlarged fonts look amazing at this resolution, but the old way of bitmap icons HURTS. Fortunately KDE4 is promoting all-vector future, and even more so I felt like experimenting and installed it on the lappy ;) [BTW: My team at work has total freedom regarding our software use. When I had to call internal support to set up the network (on their side), they asked me if they needed to send someone to install an OS on my computer, to which I answered "I already installed Debian". There was a not-so-brief silence on the other side and then an "Oh...". It's those small things in life... ;)] |
| ColonelPanik Nov 17, 2008 5:32 PM EDT |
jezuch, That was a smile for a week. |
| gus3 Nov 17, 2008 5:53 PM EDT |
@jezuch: The DPI setting in your desktop environment might be overriding the X server's settings. |
| Sander_Marechal Nov 17, 2008 7:43 PM EDT |
@jezuch: I have the same with my laptop screen, but I like the small fonts (young eyes :-) But for a monitor that you rotate 90 degrees, you're really looking at a 23" monitor. Anything smaller and the vertical size (horizontal after rotating it) becomes too small. |
| jezuch Nov 18, 2008 3:12 AM EDT |
Quoting:The DPI setting in your desktop environment might be overriding the X server's settings. Ah right, I'll have to check this... |
| gus3 Nov 18, 2008 5:22 AM EDT |
My hack for GNOME: gconftool-2 --type float --set /desktop/gnome/font_rendering/dpi `xdpyinfo | grep "resolution" | sed 's/x.*//' | awk '{ print $2; }'` Only needed when you might be logging in either locally or remotely, and have two different X displays with different DPI's. If you use only one system, with one display, then it isn't needed; just get the DPI from "xdpyinfo" and enter it into your Font Properties dialog. |
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