On Sun, Apr 24, 2005 at 08:03:08PM -0400, David Ecklein wrote: > OK, so Jim Lynch's system is not a "hot rod" to Jenkins and some others. > But it is far enough beyond the average system in current mass deployment > (let alone those obsoleted by M$'s high cholesterol XP) that it really isn't > an appropriate test bed for a product like Linspire, given its particular > ambitious target.
I reallly can't agree with you. Linspire 5.0 is today's software, written to be run on today's computers. The average system in current mass deployment is probably something like 3-4 years old, and definitely not spec'd to run today's software. > Newegg has 160 Gb Samsungs for $80. I wouldn't touch one, given my own > experience with Samsung. I don't know what your experiences were, but I do know from experience that people often make irrational decisions based on anecdotal experiences... AFAICT, Samsung generally makes good products. They make some of the best rated LCD panels and DVD burners around, for example (though I haven't seen any reviews on their high capacity hard drives). The fact is, even well-designed hardware can fail, and no hardware vendor is immune. You have to look at overall failure rates, and how the company responds if you do experience a failure. > Any video card that sells for over $200 better be not merely "good" but > "insanely so". This comment also seems unrealistic to me... It's extremely common in the computer hardware industry to pay a BIG premium for an extra 10% (or less, even) of performance at the top end. Graphics cards are one example of this phenomenon, and CPUs are another. There are plenty of others... > That's more than the Walmart Linux machine sells for. A > card like this might be found in a serious gamer's box. It's been said by smart people in the computer industry that gaming is what drives home PC sales... This is precisely what makes people willing to pay that extra 100% of price for an extra 10% of performance... People are willing to pay big money to be entertained. If you don't believe me, try buying Sox tickets for you and your family... The problem is pervasive throughout our society. > Whatever the shortcomings of my post, I do not feel Jenkins addressed the > core spirit of it. That is, how will some variety of Linux (Linspire or > others) rescue these older but useable machines? The question is a useful one, but probably not very relevant to the review previously metioned. You can buy these new systems for not much more than what it will cost you to dispose of the old one at your town's landfill. These older systems ARE still usable, depending on how you want to use them... A 486 with 16MB RAM still could make a decent firewall, but simply isn't capable of running a full-blown modern desktop environment. A 300MHz pentium II system is still fine if all you want to do is read e-mail and surf the web... But don't expect to play any sort of modern games, and listening to MP3's might make things a bit choppy for you. And again, if you want to run a serious desktop environment, lots of RAM is what you need. Older systems just can't keep up with today's software, plain and simple, whether we're talking about Linux or MS or anyone else's products. If you want to run systems of that vintage for general use, download Slackware 3 and you'll be all set. -- Derek D. Martin http://www.pizzashack.org/ GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02 -=-=-=-=- This message is posted from an invalid address. Replying to it will result in undeliverable mail. Sorry for the inconvenience. Thank the spammers.
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