Linux Made Easy: Linspire 5.0

[David Ecklein]

Derek-

I would not be particularly interested in running Linspire on high end
systems, but there may be some who are.  You are among that group, perhaps,
and the Lynch review methodology may be appropriate.  But if you have a
high-end system, you might aspire beyond Linspire, don't you think?

"Today's computers" to you means those in the shops waiting to be sold.  Not
those in actual use, as you yourself admit.  My interest is in those systems
in actual use, or which had been in actual use prior to the dumbing-down of
available software.  So far, that has meant M$ - I hope that in the frantic
effort to match the Windows GUI slickness and other resource-consuming eye
and ear candy, Linspire and other Linux packaging does not wind up mirroring
M$'s resource gluttony.

Agreed, the Samsung CDROM readers, CDRW units, etc. seem OK in my limited
experience.  My bad impression had only been with Samsung hard drives, and
that is dated and limited to my own small computer business activity, not
"anecdotes".  Failure rate was higher than any other brand I had used.  But
these brand characterizations wax and wane.  I formerly preferred Western
Digital, but they have slipped lately - I have experienced more WD failures
lately and hear this (albeit "anecdotes") from others in the racket.
Perhaps Samsung has cleaned up their disk act since my sampling of their
wares a few years ago.  But once burned, twice shy...

Also, I admit I don't personally understand how people can get so
emotionally invested in games that they will lay out $200 or more just for a
graphics card.  Let alone for a ball game ticket.  But everyone to his
taste, said the old lady as she kissed the cow.  My curmudgeon bias has
nothing to do with my critique of this card turning up in a Linspire
benchmarking system.  Even so, the review did not compare running with a
plain vanilla VGA (whatever that might be), or contrast the performance of
the FX5900 under Linspire with anything else.  And Lynch presumably gets
paid for this!

Are there really new systems that cost "not much more than what it will cost
you to dispose of the old one"?  If "not much more" means less than 100%,
most of us could (and probably would) buy a new system for well under $100,
even at the ridiculous rates charged by the dumps these days.  Also, I would
retract all my rash and foolish statements.  Probably.

"Today's software" humph!  I still do all my business (except ads) on a DOS
system;  it is much faster than Windows at actually doing something, and
people are amazed at how quickly it boots up.  Besides, it NEVER crashes,
and (admittedly with no internet) escapes virii and spyware entirely.  I am
not going to reveal what it runs on, I'll be hooted out of the group.  On
second thought, reading some of the intervening gnhlug mail, I may be in
good company.  Why get rid of grandpa just because he's old and slow?  Put
him to work at something he can do well, with appropriate tools.  Call it
nostalgia if you wish.  I also save string and rubber bands.

Final disclaimer and/or disclosure:  I mainly use a higher order of coded
nonsense (W98se) for pleasure (this posting for instance) or, in business,
for occasional orders over the internet, and ads.  Linux could do the same,
but on my W98 platform, there isn't the incentive to switch over with all
the work (a particular pet peeve) that it will entail.  I continue to
experiment occasionally with Red Hat (up to 9 now), but as yet it is only a
laboratory curiosity and learning curve exploration here.

With all due respect,

Dave Ecklein


--- original message ---

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
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