Re: [tlug] Please help with e-learning of Linux OS.

["Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon" <ronfaxon@example.com>]

Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

>    rubioj> Please provide information for hardware for Linux OS.
>
>Any old Windows box will do, and I do mean old.  You will find that
>your Linux-using friends have boxes every bit as new and shiny as the
>ones the Windows and Mac crowd have.  The difference is that Windows
>and Mac OS X are unusable without them; Linux just gives enhanced
>performance.
>
>For example, the mailserver that passed your message to me is an '97
>Pentium running at 120MHz with 80MB of RAM.  (It does have an Ultra
>133 controller and a reasonably fast disk.)  The box I am typing this
>on is my normal workstation, a Pentium II at 450MHz... [snip]
>

Just a quick note on my hardware experience with a few low-end machines.

1) 166MHz P-I, 256MB Compaq - It functioned, but was a bit sluggish and 
frustrating to use sometimes.  I suspect there was something wrong with 
the motherboard on that one though (I picked up for Y1,000 in a junk 
shop), so that probably can't be blamed on the program.

2) 300MHz AMD, 256MB Hitachi - It should be faster than the 166MHz 
machine was, but doesn't (subjectively) seem so.  Are old AMD CPU's less 
suited to Linux than Intel CPU's?

3) 350MHz P-II, 320MB Dell - The computer - overall - is rock solid, but 
it consistently exhibits delays when doing things like sending e-mail.  
It functions well enough, but when you click on "Compose" for example, 
there's a three to four second delay before anything happens.  I've 
gotten used to that, and it's not a problem, but it seemed strange at 
first.

I realize that a proper lean install would transform any of those boxes 
into speedy machines, but for a sloppy graphical interface install, 
that's the type of results I've obtained.  Of the three boxes above, the 
350MHz P-II works quite well, but I do find myself wishing I had a 
little more CPU power and/or electro-chemical computer power to more 
properly use Linux!

Ah - one further note.  The 450MHz P-III, 256MB HP I recently installed 
SuSE 9.1 Professional on was noticeably slower than my P-II 350MHz, 
which seems to come down to the hard drive.  The old HP has an ancient 
7GB drive in it (7.5?) that makes clicky noises that transport the 
listener back to the dark ages of three or four years ago, while my 
slightly older 350MHz has a squeaky-clean new high speed hard drive with 
8MB of internal memory on it.  Come to think of it, while I put in a new 
(old stock) 8MB drive in the AMD-equipped Hitachi, it's an old design 
and the drive may be what makes it run so much more slowly than the 
350-Pentium(?)