You get a bit newer software, and even X.org, I think. Nothing revolutionary, and the article doesn't at all answer the question it claims to answer...
(I have long since given up on Slashdot's quality control. This is a non-story.)
Huh? 10 years ago was the age of the 486 and early Pentium. I can hardly remember tower cases from back then. Most were desktop-sized cases with the monitor on top. (Oh, the horror!)
In the age of the 386 five years earlier, before the CD-ROM and after the 5.25' floppy drive had finally died, cases were even smaller. And quiet, too!:-)
Look to languages other than English to find examples of groups that are still "healthy". I subscribe to some 20-odd Norwegian groups, and I think I have about three people in my killfile. The overall behaviour is good, flaming is rare, and Usenet still has a reputation for being useful and reliable.
The key to success is probably the (relatively) low number of users. The successfull English-language groups I've seen have had a narrow focus.
That is what happened last time Sweden was hit by an accident this large. When the ferry Estonia sank in 1994, 800 or so were killed. This experience is the most important reason why the list of missing/dead Swedes has not been published yet.
A laptop is small and quiet. Even if you have to place it in your bedroom or living room, you can keep it running 24/7. If there's any juice left in the battery, it's even got a built-in UPS. I've got no problems imagining how to use my aging laptop, once I can afford replacing it with a Powerbook.
There's an immense difference between degenerated English and a language created from scratch with no prior knowledge of words, grammar, etc. That is why some people are very suspicious as to whether this really is a case of evolution from "nothing".
But, relating to your comment, I recently read about neglected Norwegian five-year-olds who communicated by banging their heads in the wall. One child spoke a dialect she learnt from TV, because her parents hardly ever spoke to her. Tragic cases, which the child care never knew about until now:(
Getting rid of a noisy and unreliable harddrive is a definite plus, as anyone who have heard the noise difference between a classroom full of Win95 computers and the same computers running as Linux thin clients without hard drives will agree.
That said, Linux thin clients (LTSP) can easily boot from a floppy or a PXE network card, without needing expensive, specialized flash drives.
Yeah, one hour of "24" is 45 minutes in Norway:) It's more fun to watch David Letterman as well: "We'll be right back"... logos and jingles... fades to black, and back again!
On my desktop computer, the hard drive is definitely a bottleneck. Even though it's an aging 450 MHz system, the only time it feels *really* slow is when the hard drive is grinding. Some of it is swapping, and some of it is just reading lots and lots of data. For example, OpenOffice.org takes ages to start, even though the CPU monitor doesn't show much activity. (I think it's loading fonts or something, and it has been getting better with recent OOo versions.)
Would raid-0 make a difference? Oh, yes! Will it be less reliable? Certainly, but I've got backups and put all my important work in CVS.
After having owned a Psion 5mx for many years, I'm still not impressed by the Zaurus clamshell models. Now, if Sharp could only come up with a decent keyboard. It's not like it's impossible, given that Psion had it already in 1997.
Well, as others have said, Apache is plenty fast enough for most hobbyists, even on old hardware.
Setting up, running and experimenting with Apache gives you "real-life" experience that could turn out to be valuable. When was the last time you applied for a job that required thttpd experience?;-)
I'd suggest getting KDE 3.1 from ftp.kde.org, which provides excellent Debian Woody packages. There are also a lot of packages available at backports.org and apt-get.org. (I think there is a pretty good Gnome backport out there as well.)
I use Sid (unstable) on my laptop, but on my new desktop PC I haven't bothered to upgrade from Woody, other than KDE 3.1, OpenOffice.org, Privoxy, and a few home-compiled apps. Actually, I find it refreshing to have a rock-solid and stable system. On my Sid laptop, I get all kinds of weird problems. Not often, but occasionally... Like when the printer stops working, or the USB mouse doesn't work anymore, or when X is no longer 3D accelerated. These are the kinds of issues you have to deal with once in a while when running Debian unstable. Not a big deal, but if I could choose again, I would have chosen Woody (with a few selected upgrades) on the laptop as well.
Ah, Cascade, which caused the letters on the DOS text screen to tumble down to the bottom. Not the first virus, and not the most damaging virus, but certainly one of the more amusing ones;-)
Our company has no one on staff with the skills to modify OpenOffice. A consultant or two would run the cost up past MS Office easily.
Fair enough, but many won't even do the math. I'm quite astonished to see how many companies totally refuse to consider the alternatives. It's really just another way of buying software: Instead of buying licenses, you "buy" the services needed to switch. I find myself wanting to speak up in the manager's face: "Hey, you're running a business! At least do the math!"
But shouting isn't my thing, really. I just lean back wearily, being happy that somebody is leading the way. The rest will follow, if there's any business sense left in them...
Strange... many people seem to expect OpenOffice.org to be completely free. Don't they see that after saving $100.000 on licenses (not unrealistic in a sufficiently large organization), they can spend $50.000 on tweaking OOo to their needs, and still save $50.000 altogether?
After all, since this is open source, the tweaking possibilities are literally endless!
Umm, the IBM/Hitachi Microdrive is a hard drive, not a flash drive. It just happens to be the same size (about one inch) and have the same interface as a Compact Flash type 2 card.
Being a mechanical device, the Microdrive draws more power and is more fragile than a flash card. Its main attraction used to be high capacity, but Compact Flash is rapidly catching up.
There's a 4 GB version of the Microdrive coming this fall, says Steve's Digicams
Evil is really hackable. I've not done much C programming, and not much X programming either. I still managed to hack evil into using the Windows key instead of Ctrl + Alt and some other minor adjustments. Just code and recompile, it's really simple;-)
I'm not the author, but I've been using evilwm full-time for more than a month. For me, the main attraction was the complete keyboard control. Another nice thing is that the lack of title bars gives me more room on the screen. My folder list in KMail is so long that some folder would "disappear" if I had to use a titlebar. With evilwm, there's just enough room;-)
I hacked evilwm to use the Windows key for most of its operations, instead of Ctrl + Alt. I think it's quite natural to use the Windows key for the window manager. Besides, I use Ctrl + Alt combinations in another application. The evilwm code is small and easy to understand. Even though I'm not very much into C/X programming, I've managed to tweak evilwm to my liking.
At 450 MHz, my computer is very well capable of running KDE or any other heavy desktop environment. But evilwm is just more fun.
Besides, I don't have to lock the screen anymore when leaving the workplace. I just switch to an empty virtual desktop, and nobody will ever figure out how to get back;-)
Slashdot Mirror
You get a bit newer software, and even X.org, I think. Nothing revolutionary, and the article doesn't at all answer the question it claims to answer... (I have long since given up on Slashdot's quality control. This is a non-story.)
Huh? 10 years ago was the age of the 486 and early Pentium. I can hardly remember tower cases from back then. Most were desktop-sized cases with the monitor on top. (Oh, the horror!)
:-)
In the age of the 386 five years earlier, before the CD-ROM and after the 5.25' floppy drive had finally died, cases were even smaller. And quiet, too!
Look to languages other than English to find examples of groups that are still "healthy". I subscribe to some 20-odd Norwegian groups, and I think I have about three people in my killfile. The overall behaviour is good, flaming is rare, and Usenet still has a reputation for being useful and reliable.
The key to success is probably the (relatively) low number of users. The successfull English-language groups I've seen have had a narrow focus.
That is what happened last time Sweden was hit by an accident this large. When the ferry Estonia sank in 1994, 800 or so were killed. This experience is the most important reason why the list of missing/dead Swedes has not been published yet.
It's not the "EU" court of human rights, it's "European". Big difference.
You mean the discrete fan which runs only when I rip CDs and play Quake 3? I can live with that :)
A laptop is small and quiet. Even if you have to place it in your bedroom or living room, you can keep it running 24/7. If there's any juice left in the battery, it's even got a built-in UPS. I've got no problems imagining how to use my aging laptop, once I can afford replacing it with a Powerbook.
There's an immense difference between degenerated English and a language created from scratch with no prior knowledge of words, grammar, etc. That is why some people are very suspicious as to whether this really is a case of evolution from "nothing".
:(
But, relating to your comment, I recently read about neglected Norwegian five-year-olds who communicated by banging their heads in the wall. One child spoke a dialect she learnt from TV, because her parents hardly ever spoke to her. Tragic cases, which the child care never knew about until now
Getting rid of a noisy and unreliable harddrive is a definite plus, as anyone who have heard the noise difference between a classroom full of Win95 computers and the same computers running as Linux thin clients without hard drives will agree.
That said, Linux thin clients (LTSP) can easily boot from a floppy or a PXE network card, without needing expensive, specialized flash drives.
Nice, but it's definitely the same engineer. Sasha is a common Russian short form of Alexander. Their experiences are remarkably similar, too :)
Yeah, one hour of "24" is 45 minutes in Norway :) It's more fun to watch David Letterman as well: "We'll be right back" ... logos and jingles ... fades to black, and back again!
On my desktop computer, the hard drive is definitely a bottleneck. Even though it's an aging 450 MHz system, the only time it feels *really* slow is when the hard drive is grinding. Some of it is swapping, and some of it is just reading lots and lots of data. For example, OpenOffice.org takes ages to start, even though the CPU monitor doesn't show much activity. (I think it's loading fonts or something, and it has been getting better with recent OOo versions.)
Would raid-0 make a difference? Oh, yes! Will it be less reliable? Certainly, but I've got backups and put all my important work in CVS.
What about the subtle science of proper link naming? (With links like those in the article, the box of "related links" isn't really helpful...)
After having owned a Psion 5mx for many years, I'm still not impressed by the Zaurus clamshell models. Now, if Sharp could only come up with a decent keyboard. It's not like it's impossible, given that Psion had it already in 1997.
Hm, the author/publisher review options are still there on amazon.co.uk.
I've posted a few (reader) reviews myself, and on one occasion I actually got a polite email from the author herself, thanking for a nice review.
Well, as others have said, Apache is plenty fast enough for most hobbyists, even on old hardware.
;-)
Setting up, running and experimenting with Apache gives you "real-life" experience that could turn out to be valuable. When was the last time you applied for a job that required thttpd experience?
The Green Party is really small and insignificant, but it's one of the few which states they support Linux.
I use Sid (unstable) on my laptop, but on my new desktop PC I haven't bothered to upgrade from Woody, other than KDE 3.1, OpenOffice.org, Privoxy, and a few home-compiled apps. Actually, I find it refreshing to have a rock-solid and stable system. On my Sid laptop, I get all kinds of weird problems. Not often, but occasionally... Like when the printer stops working, or the USB mouse doesn't work anymore, or when X is no longer 3D accelerated. These are the kinds of issues you have to deal with once in a while when running Debian unstable. Not a big deal, but if I could choose again, I would have chosen Woody (with a few selected upgrades) on the laptop as well.
Ah, Cascade, which caused the letters on the DOS text screen to tumble down to the bottom. Not the first virus, and not the most damaging virus, but certainly one of the more amusing ones ;-)
Fair enough, but many won't even do the math. I'm quite astonished to see how many companies totally refuse to consider the alternatives. It's really just another way of buying software: Instead of buying licenses, you "buy" the services needed to switch. I find myself wanting to speak up in the manager's face: "Hey, you're running a business! At least do the math!"
But shouting isn't my thing, really. I just lean back wearily, being happy that somebody is leading the way. The rest will follow, if there's any business sense left in them...
After all, since this is open source, the tweaking possibilities are literally endless!
Umm, the IBM/Hitachi Microdrive is a hard drive, not a flash drive. It just happens to be the same size (about one inch) and have the same interface as a Compact Flash type 2 card.
Being a mechanical device, the Microdrive draws more power and is more fragile than a flash card. Its main attraction used to be high capacity, but Compact Flash is rapidly catching up.
There's a 4 GB version of the Microdrive coming this fall, says Steve's Digicams
Evil is really hackable. I've not done much C programming, and not much X programming either. I still managed to hack evil into using the Windows key instead of Ctrl + Alt and some other minor adjustments. Just code and recompile, it's really simple ;-)
I'm not the author, but I've been using evilwm full-time for more than a month. For me, the main attraction was the complete keyboard control. Another nice thing is that the lack of title bars gives me more room on the screen. My folder list in KMail is so long that some folder would "disappear" if I had to use a titlebar. With evilwm, there's just enough room ;-)
;-)
I hacked evilwm to use the Windows key for most of its operations, instead of Ctrl + Alt. I think it's quite natural to use the Windows key for the window manager. Besides, I use Ctrl + Alt combinations in another application. The evilwm code is small and easy to understand. Even though I'm not very much into C/X programming, I've managed to tweak evilwm to my liking.
At 450 MHz, my computer is very well capable of running KDE or any other heavy desktop environment. But evilwm is just more fun.
Besides, I don't have to lock the screen anymore when leaving the workplace. I just switch to an empty virtual desktop, and nobody will ever figure out how to get back
Ah, yes, it's "Robbie". The album I bought was from Bertine Zetlitz. Fell free to fill her guestbook with angry comments ;-)