Linux Made Easy: Linspire 5.0

Dan Jenkins dan at rastech.com
Sun Apr 24 15:49:01 EDT 2005


David Ecklein wrote:
> Just one general quibble: why do people always test software on platforms
> that are so far from the normal and affordable desktop configuration?
> 
>>...Here are the specs of our test box:
>>
>>*Motherboard* ASUS A7N8X-E
>>*Processor* AMD Athlon XP 3000
>>*Graphics card* MSI FX 5900XT
>>*Hard drive* 160GB WD Hard Disk
>>*Memory* 1GB RAM
 >
> Anything might look good on this hot rod.  

It's not really a hot rod nowadays, just a current, fast 
system. I've seen 160 GB H/D for under $70. The RAM is 
about double what I consider a base system, but is not 
unusual. The CPU and video are good, but not insanely 
so. A client of mine just ordered a dozen similar 
systems (albeit with somewhat slower CPUs) as basic 
desktops. It's getting tough to find systems with hard 
drives much smaller. A hot rod, to me, would involve 
multiple CPUs at least.

Having said that, in-house most of our systems aren't as 
fast. (I'm sending this from a 1 GHz with 256 MB.)

 > I would be more interested in a
> test system which picked three or more different configurations ranging as
> follows:
> 
> (1) By today's standards, an older but useable AT form factor system
> (millions are right now marching off the recycling cliff), say Pentium 200
> class cpu with 1 Mb PCI graphics, 500 Mb HD, 32 Mb RAM, CDROM and diskette
> readers, the usual sound and I/O.  This system will barely run Win98.  Will
> a particular flavor of Linux (Linspire or other) save this machine?

The graphical install of Mandrake 9 & 10 warns if there 
is less than 64 MB. It usually fails if there is 32 MB.
It takes about 1 GB H/D for a minimal graphical install 
and upwards of 4 GB if you install everything.

I've been working on a K12 Linux Terminal Server project 
recently. I've been using Fedora Core 3. On a system 
with Pentium II-300, 96 MB RAM, 10 GB H/D, it runs slow, 
  but it is functional. It's running Gnome. I tried KDE 
on the same platform, and it was unusably slow. (It 
wasn't an apples to apples comparison though, as it was 
Mandrake 9 running KDE vs. Fedora running Gnome. It was 
just to see if it worked at all.)

With 128 MB or more RAM, I find such a system perfectly 
usable as a desktop environment running either KDE on 
Mandrake or Windows 2000. The RAM appears to be the 
bottleneck for the graphical desktops more than the CPU 
speed. (Of course, I don't game, do multimedia, or such.)

> (2) A discount store ATX el-cheapo a couple years back with something like
> 700 Mhz Celeron, 4 Mb AGP, 128 Mb RAM, 10 Gb HD, etc.  After an initial
> period of elation, and consequent addition of every piece of software the
> user (or their kids) can find, these Win9x/xp systems ultimately disappoint,
> requiring major upgrades.  How well will a mass market Linux fare on them
> and reduce the urge to ecologically sin with the machine?  Most dumps make
> you pay before they take them.

 From our experience, that would be a 1999-era system, 
about 5-6 years ago, not a couple. I would say most of 
our clients are currently using a number of systems in 
this class. To be honest, most are running Windows 2000 
(or even Windows 98), not Linux. We use these sorts of 
systems as servers running Linux for a number of smaller 
networks.

> (3) Finally, a decent and timely desktop with a 2-something-Gb cpu, 256 DDR
> RAM, 64 Mb AGP, DVD burner, 80 Mb hard disk.  What advantages will a mass
> Linux product offer, due to this configuration, that will favor it over M$?
> The case here may be weaker for the average user, but it must be made, since
> these machines are now affordable and in the market.

Recently a client bought an HP system at Sam's Club with 
similar specs. It came with Windows XP Home. It had MS 
Office and various other programs preinstalled. The 
software expired 60 days after he purchased it. The cost 
to purchase (and re-activate) all of the bundled 
software came to just under $800 (several hundred 
dollars more than the system itself cost him). We 
converted him to OpenOffice and a few other Open Source 
applications running under Windows.

-- 
Dan Jenkins (dan at rastech.com)
Rastech Inc., Bedford, NH, USA --- 1-603-206-9951
*** Technical Support for over a Quarter Century



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