Hardware Modems Expensive?
on
LinModems?
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· Score: 1
Lats time I have checked on www.priceatch.com, you can buy a "REAL" 56k USR Internal ISA hardware modem for $55. It has jumpers on it and stuff, I have used 4 different OSes on this PC, and it never gave me any problems. Is that luxury? No The only reason why winmodems are popular is because the freaking PC manufacturers always put the cheapest hardware they can find, even in their high end systems. Last time I checked Micron defaults its Millennia MAX (P3-500) systems to winmodems. But you can always change it when ordering from their website.
Show me another compiler that runs on +30 platforms and supports as many programming languages. I don't care that SUN Workshop or CodeWarrior produce better code, I want my stuff to be portable.
s RedHat (the best, IMHO), Slackware, Debian, SuSE, Caldera, Mandrake, Power Linux (or something), McLinux,
RedHat, SuSE, Debian... RedHat is the most broken of those three. 5.0 and 6.0 are broken beyond repair. SuSE can be thought of as the less broken version of RedHat, and Debian is on top of all of them (see my post in response to the very 1st comment) any ways.
The kernel is Linux, but distribution are different. I have played with RedHat and Debian a lot I all I can conclude is that Debian is superior.
1) Debian has more flexible installation thethods (direct ftp install over modem, anyone?) 2) Debian does not detect any hardware during installation. Nebies might think this is a nightmare, but I have seen people who got stuck because redhat installer did not detect their hardware correctly. 3) Overall quality of packages is way better on Debian. 4) A way superior suite of package management tools. Dselect + apt-get + dpkg. You do not have to worry about dependencies at all. Whever you select a package, all dependencies and conflicts are solved automatically from dselect (of course you can alter those if you want). Also you do not need to download and install packages by hand. Just say "I want window maker", Dselect will download window maker and a bunch of packages that it depends on and install them. Another nifty feature, apt-get update;apt-get upgrade, will sync your system with the one on ftp server. In redhats case you have to visit erratas page once in a while and if there is something new download and install by hand. 5) Finally, installation and configuration of "difficult" packages like sendmail and apache is rediculously easy, because dpgk asks you configuration questions during install.
ATI RagePRO is a about the WORST 3D chip around. It does not do well even on Desktop PCs with FAST CPUS. Overall it is slower that the old Voodoo1 with 4 mb. Just to get an idea how bad it is.. I was reading a review of a laptop with a P2-366mhz CPU and this video chip (with 8mb) they got about 24fps on Q2 timedemo. Now, I have a computer with the old good PentiumMMX 233 + RIva128(8mb), abd I get THE SAME FPS on Quake2 timedemo at that resolution. Not to mention that a P2-366mhz laptop with a any 3D card will cost you an arm and leg.
I am not buying K7 until I know for sure that there is a STABLE motherboard and chipset, when I know for sure that 3D games don't freze because of their hardware problems (When the first Super 7 motherboatd came out they came with AGP but not AGP card would work on them right) I also want to wait because the first K7 systems will be using PC100/133 RAM, not the 200mhz RAM as promissed.
Ok, 70 fps is useless, agreed. But think about the future.. more grahpically boated games. I have bought a Voodoo2 card a while ago, Quake2 was FAST at 800x600, I was more than happy. Now I got Q3Test. It is still playable but the frame rate is lower than with Q2 and I play in lower resolutions now..
May be you are wrong. I read his book. It's nice. The only things that I really did not like about his methods are:
1) He ditched Perl in favor of a broken thing known as tcl. Perl, the language that is loved and successfully used by so many. When he talks about perl or C, is usually to remind us how much both of them suck and how much Lisp rules over them..
2) On one of his lectures (in California) he mentioned that Apache is not really supported and no one distributes it in binary form. He also mentioned that back in 1993 he could no compile apache.. but come on, compiling linux and gcc back in 1993 was not much fun either. But today, apache and gcc will compile and install on any unix box with simple "./configure;make;make install" from the source directory as long as you have a C compiler, C header files and make.. and there are also lots of places where you can find compiled binaried (ftp.apache.org comes to mind) All linux distributions come with binary apache packages, MacOSX, etc.
3) He ditched vi in favor of emacs. That hurt my feelings:-)
These drivers will have to go a long way before becomming actually usable. I have riva128. Quake2 timedemo scores 24 fps on windows and 10 fos under linux. And 3Dfx although are supported, run slower than under windows...
Bullshit, show me a hardware configuration under which Linux GL Quake2 will run faster than on windows98. And linux does not even have yet the drivers for the fastest video card on market out there (TNT? TNT2? S4? G400? Rage128? anyone?)
Oh, give me a break. The market a 233MHZ processor as M2-300 and and with their PR ratings clearly try to imply that it is just as good as PII-300mhz. But their integer performace is only just as good as the P300, and the floating math is worse than even the old good Pentium 233 mmx. I wish their stoped this PR rating crap. I myself try to evaluate the CPU speed by looking at SPEC results not the MHZ it can clock..
IO read somewhere that TNT2 based video cards will have support for flat screen monitors. TNT2 are killer 3D cards and have good drivers for Windows and Linux. Can someone confirm if they have tried this SGI flatscreen with TNT2?
John Carmack said in his.plan that the card that comes with this flat screen is NOT a good 3D card. So, if you want this flat screen and good OpenGL support, you have to buy SGI Visual PC or TNT2 video card which suppsedly has support for such screens.
By submitting Content to any Yahoo property, you automatically grant, or warrant that the owner of such Content has expressly granted, Yahoo the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and fully sublicensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed. You acknowledge that Yahoo does not pre-screen Content, but that Yahoo and its designees shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to refuse, edit, move or remove any Content that is publicly available via the Service. Without limiting the foregoing, Yahoo and its designees shall have the right to remove any Content that violates the TOS or is otherwise objectionable. You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with, the use of any Content, including any reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of such Content. In this regard, you acknowledge that you may not rely on any Content created by Yahoo or submitted to Yahoo, including without limitation information in Yahoo! Message Boards, Yahoo! Clubs, and in all other parts of the Service.
Linux can not beat Windows in the ease of use area until someone builds a Linux distribution that can completely be operated and tweaked WITHOUT using shell or a text editor. If there is a distribution that completely hides text editor and shell from a user and at the same time remains moderately flexible and configurable then we could win..
1) Can you install base system from floppies? 2) Can it do ftp install? 3) Can it do ftp install OVER modem? 4) Can it do network install over NFS? 5) Does it let me select individual packages or groups of packages during install ? (Looks like not) 6) Can you donwload Caldera OpenLinux Light WITHOUT registering on their site? (Again, I could not figure how to download it without registering, there were no simple links on website) 7) What will your average user do if he/she has unsupported hardware (c'mon folks, hardware support lags at least 6 months behind Win***s if there is any), and he she needs to find and install some alpha/experimental driver? (Unsupported sound, video, etc) 8) Can you update the system with the one on the main ftp mirror with a couple simple commands? 9) Are you sure all those "RedHat 5.2/6.0" RPMS will install cleanly?
wew, I am sticking to Debian.. not just because of technical merits but also because of its freeness, excellent support, and their development model.
Re:Not Running to buy one right now... will wait
on
AMD Athlon (K7) Ships
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· Score: 1
I was talking about stability of the whole architecture (CPU + Motherboard/chipset + Video card combination) FOR 3D Gaming. All I was saying was this new untested combo might not perform at its best during the first 8 omnths or so, because there is lots of work that has to be done on chipset side and drivers side to make this work well for 3D gaming (K6-2 optimized RivaTNT video drivers shipped only a month ago, although the card existed for a while already), heck even the software developers might have to do K7 specific tweaks to for better performance, better compilers, etc..
If you play games a lot, don't buy K7 now.. Why? Because there is no a tested motherboard and chipset for it, you are not guaranteed that your prefered 3D video card will work without crashes.
Don't get me wrong. I talk from experience. When the first super 7 (socket) motherboards appeared they were as unstable as hell at doing 3D stuff. They supported AGP but once you pushed them hard the system would just freeze or your game would not run. It took about a year of waiting until decent Super 7 motherboards apperared that would actually work with AGP 3D accellerators without your game/system freezing. Even right now, Super7 motherboards still have issues with my latest and fastest 3D cards. Even at faster CPU clocks speeds AMD would systems would get lower fps than Celeron systems while both using the same TNT video card.
But if you don't play a lot I guess it is a nice number cruncher for server or compiling kernels...
Guys, you must be confused. The Latest SavageS4 video card is pretty good at 3D. If you look at benchmarks you will see it performs up to par with others (Banshee,TNT). Even Id people have said (someone in their plan) that they like it..
Overclocking is stupid. Why shoud I overclock AMD 233? My PC scrolls text fast than I can read. Any processor on the market is fast enough for about anything. And the gamers are sick people anyways, if you want a fast machine buy one. Don't pretend that your slow CPU will work as reliably and fast as the CPU with higher clock speed. Geez, they buy PIII and already think about overclocking it..
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Don't expect bazing graphics on SGI Linux boxes
Lats time I have checked on www.priceatch.com, you can buy a "REAL" 56k USR Internal ISA hardware modem for $55. It has jumpers on it and stuff, I have used 4 different OSes on this PC, and it never gave me any problems. Is that luxury? No
The only reason why winmodems are popular is because the freaking PC manufacturers always put the cheapest hardware they can find, even in their high end systems. Last time I checked Micron defaults its Millennia MAX (P3-500) systems to winmodems. But you can always change it when ordering from their website.
Show me another compiler that runs on +30 platforms and supports as many programming languages. I don't care that SUN Workshop or CodeWarrior produce better code, I want my stuff to be portable.
I know that Emacs is a very powerful piece of software, a Lisp interpreter in a text editor disguise, but a compiler, it ain't :p
s RedHat (the best, IMHO), Slackware, Debian, SuSE, Caldera, Mandrake, Power Linux (or something), McLinux,
RedHat, SuSE, Debian... RedHat is the most broken of those three. 5.0 and 6.0 are broken beyond repair. SuSE can be thought of as the less broken version of RedHat, and Debian is on top of all of them (see my post in response to the very 1st comment) any ways.
The kernel is Linux, but distribution are different. I have played with RedHat and Debian a lot I all I can conclude is that Debian is superior.
1) Debian has more flexible installation thethods (direct ftp install over modem, anyone?)
2) Debian does not detect any hardware during installation. Nebies might think this is a nightmare, but I have seen people who got stuck because redhat installer did not detect their hardware correctly.
3) Overall quality of packages is way better on Debian.
4) A way superior suite of package management tools. Dselect + apt-get + dpkg. You do not have to worry about dependencies at all. Whever you select a package, all dependencies and conflicts are solved automatically from dselect (of course you can alter those if you want). Also you do not need to download and install packages by hand. Just say "I want window maker", Dselect will download window maker and a bunch of packages that it depends on and install them. Another nifty feature, apt-get update;apt-get upgrade, will sync your system with the one on ftp server. In redhats case you have to visit erratas page once in a while and if there is something new download and install by hand.
5) Finally, installation and configuration of "difficult" packages like sendmail and apache is rediculously easy, because dpgk asks you configuration questions during install.
ATI RagePRO is a about the WORST 3D chip around. It does not do well even on Desktop PCs with FAST CPUS. Overall it is slower that the old Voodoo1 with 4 mb. Just to get an idea how bad it is..
I was reading a review of a laptop with a P2-366mhz CPU and this video chip (with 8mb) they got about 24fps on Q2 timedemo. Now, I have a computer with the old good PentiumMMX 233 + RIva128(8mb), abd I get THE SAME FPS on Quake2 timedemo at that resolution. Not to mention that a P2-366mhz laptop with a any 3D card will cost you an arm and leg.
I am not buying K7 until I know for sure that there is a STABLE motherboard and chipset, when I know for sure that 3D games don't freze because of their hardware problems (When the first Super 7 motherboatd came out they came with AGP but not AGP card would work on them right) I also want to wait because the first K7 systems will be using PC100/133 RAM, not the 200mhz RAM as promissed.
Ok, 70 fps is useless, agreed. But think about the future.. more grahpically boated games. I have bought a Voodoo2 card a while ago, Quake2 was
FAST at 800x600, I was more than happy. Now I got Q3Test. It is still playable but the frame rate is lower than with Q2 and I play in lower resolutions now..
May be you are wrong. I read his book. It's nice. The only things that I really did not like about his methods are:
:-)
1) He ditched Perl in favor of a broken thing known as tcl. Perl, the language that is loved and successfully used by so many. When he talks about perl or C, is usually to remind us how much both of them suck and how much Lisp rules over them..
2) On one of his lectures (in California) he mentioned that Apache is not really supported and no one distributes it in binary form. He also mentioned that back in 1993 he could no compile apache.. but come on, compiling linux and gcc back in 1993 was not much fun either. But today, apache and gcc will compile and install on any unix box with simple "./configure;make;make install" from the source directory as long as you have a C compiler, C header files and make.. and there are also lots of places where you can find compiled binaried (ftp.apache.org comes to mind) All linux distributions come with binary apache packages, MacOSX, etc.
3) He ditched vi in favor of emacs. That hurt my feelings
Yeah, linux supports TNT and TNT2 now...
These drivers will have to go a long way before becomming actually usable. I have riva128. Quake2 timedemo scores 24 fps on windows and 10 fos under linux. And 3Dfx although are supported, run slower than under windows...
Bullshit, show me a hardware configuration under which Linux GL Quake2 will run faster than on windows98. And linux does not even have yet the drivers for the fastest video card on market out there (TNT? TNT2? S4? G400? Rage128? anyone?)
I dual boot Debian linux and Windows on this box.
During the last 12 months I have reinstalled Linux 0 times, and windows about 5 times..
Oh, give me a break. The market a 233MHZ processor as M2-300 and and with their PR ratings clearly try to imply that it is just as good as PII-300mhz. But their integer performace is only just as good as the P300, and the floating math is worse than even the old good Pentium 233 mmx. I wish their stoped this PR rating crap. I myself try to evaluate the CPU speed by looking at SPEC results not the MHZ it can clock ..
IO read somewhere that TNT2 based video cards will have support for flat screen monitors. TNT2 are killer 3D cards and have good drivers for Windows and Linux. Can someone confirm if they have tried this SGI flatscreen with TNT2?
John Carmack said in his .plan that the card that comes with this flat screen is NOT a good 3D card. So, if you want this flat screen and good OpenGL support, you have to buy SGI Visual PC or TNT2 video card which suppsedly has support for such screens.
Here is the troublesome section:
8. CONTENT SUBMITTED TO YAHOO
By submitting Content to any Yahoo property, you automatically grant, or warrant that the owner of such Content has expressly granted, Yahoo the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and fully sublicensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed. You acknowledge that Yahoo does not pre-screen Content, but that Yahoo and its designees shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to refuse, edit, move or remove any Content that is publicly available via the Service. Without limiting the foregoing, Yahoo and its designees shall have the right to remove any Content that violates the TOS or is otherwise objectionable. You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with, the use of any Content, including any reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of such Content. In this regard, you acknowledge that you may not rely on any Content created by Yahoo or submitted to Yahoo, including without limitation information in Yahoo! Message Boards, Yahoo! Clubs, and in all other parts of the Service.
Linux can not beat Windows in the ease of use area until someone builds a Linux distribution that can completely be operated and tweaked WITHOUT using shell or a text editor. If there is a distribution that completely hides text editor and shell from a user and at the same time remains moderately flexible and configurable then we could win..
1) Can you install base system from floppies?
2) Can it do ftp install?
3) Can it do ftp install OVER modem?
4) Can it do network install over NFS?
5) Does it let me select individual packages or groups of packages during install ? (Looks like not)
6) Can you donwload Caldera OpenLinux Light WITHOUT registering on their site? (Again, I could not figure how to download it without registering, there were no simple links on website)
7) What will your average user do if he/she has unsupported hardware (c'mon folks, hardware support lags at least 6 months behind Win***s if there is any), and he she needs to find and install some alpha/experimental driver? (Unsupported sound, video, etc)
8) Can you update the system with the one on the main ftp mirror with a couple simple commands?
9) Are you sure all those "RedHat 5.2/6.0" RPMS will install cleanly?
wew, I am sticking to Debian.. not just because of technical merits but also because of its freeness, excellent support, and their development model.
I was talking about stability of the whole architecture (CPU + Motherboard/chipset + Video card combination) FOR 3D Gaming. All I was saying was this new untested combo might not perform at its best during the first 8 omnths or so, because there is lots of work that has to be done on chipset side and drivers side to make this work well for 3D gaming (K6-2 optimized RivaTNT video drivers shipped only a month ago, although the card existed for a while already), heck even the software developers might have to do K7 specific tweaks to for better performance, better compilers, etc ..
If you play games a lot, don't buy K7 now.. Why?
Because there is no a tested motherboard and chipset for it, you are not guaranteed that your prefered 3D video card will work without crashes.
Don't get me wrong. I talk from experience. When the first super 7 (socket) motherboards appeared they were as unstable as hell at doing 3D stuff. They supported AGP but once you pushed them hard the system would just freeze or your game would not run. It took about a year of waiting until decent Super 7 motherboards apperared that would actually work with AGP 3D accellerators without your game/system freezing. Even right now, Super7 motherboards still have issues with my latest and fastest 3D cards. Even at faster CPU clocks speeds
AMD would systems would get lower fps than Celeron systems while both using the same TNT video card.
But if you don't play a lot I guess it is a nice number cruncher for server or compiling kernels...
Guys, you must be confused. The Latest SavageS4 video card is pretty good at 3D. If you look at benchmarks you will see it performs up to par with others (Banshee,TNT). Even Id people have said (someone in their plan) that they like it ..
.. I will ditch PCs and buy a G3 PowerMac
Yeah, right. You arguably make your system less reliable and and less stable. And all you gain is 30mhz.. It is not worth it.
Overclocking is stupid. Why shoud I overclock AMD 233? My PC scrolls text fast than I can read. Any processor on the market is fast enough for about anything. And the gamers are sick people anyways, if you want a fast machine buy one. Don't pretend that your slow CPU will work as reliably and fast as the CPU with higher clock speed. Geez, they buy PIII and already think about overclocking it..