Just downloaded it and built it. I just came off of a 2.4.5 kernel... was used to an instant free memory drain -- 512Mb used to go to about 40Mb free in no time with X up. WOOHOO... now showing 328Mb free with full KDE 2.1, xawtv, mozilla, and a few other thingies running - 60 processes in all. I think I'm gonna like this!!
I get asked this question a lot: "If my boss doesn't believe that (s)he should pony up the bucks to educate me, why should I?"
The answer is that "it's your career, not your bosses'".
I don't have a formal degree from any institution of higher education, but I've been fortunate enough over the past 23 years to learn and advance according to the amount of time and energy I've put into staying current.
When I first entered this industry in '78, there were no peecees, Unix was just beginning to emerge, and there was barely an ARPANET at that time. I cut my teeth on mainframes, and I really had to push to demonstrate that there is never anything like a "one size fits all" solution to the range of business and systems problems that I've been asked to solve over the last couple of decades.
In the time since, very few of my employers have been willing to send me to school (formal or otherwise) -- it would have taken me off of coding or other tasks, and the one constant in the IT business is that you're always behind schedule. That 'real-world' aspect never changes.
I have always found a way -- most of the time on my own time -- to investigate, experiment, and learn about new and emerging technologies. Sometimes I've been able to suggest and even apply this "new stuff" in production projects, and -- of course -- I usually come out looking like a genius, when all I really did was borrow from the experiences of others.
Yeah, staying current takes a lot of my personal time and effort; but it's worth it over the long haul. I consider it a personal investment to my own career (which hasn't worked out all that badly!). Had I waited for one of my employers to send me to school, I'd probably still be coding "file-in, file-out" programs in COBOL. (Ugh.)
As far as being individually motivated, that's the best advice I can give people. When it comes down to "hey boss, I need 8 more coders just like me to get this done", it's a little bit harder to find those people. Sometimes the answer is for Mr. Bossman to cough up those bucks, and sometimes it's in hanging around the water cooler long enough to find those people like yourself -- internally motivated.
Gotta hand it to em over at Anandtech... they are doing the right thing. Either that, or the performance of the dual Athlons so overpowers whatever Intel can deliver -- or both:=)
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Heh heh. Doubt it. :=)
Just downloaded it and built it. I just came off of a 2.4.5 kernel ... was used to an instant free memory drain -- 512Mb used to go to about 40Mb free in no time with X up. WOOHOO ... now showing 328Mb free with full KDE 2.1, xawtv, mozilla, and a few other thingies running - 60 processes in all. I think I'm gonna like this!!
The answer is that "it's your career, not your bosses'".
I don't have a formal degree from any institution of higher education, but I've been fortunate enough over the past 23 years to learn and advance according to the amount of time and energy I've put into staying current.
When I first entered this industry in '78, there were no peecees, Unix was just beginning to emerge, and there was barely an ARPANET at that time. I cut my teeth on mainframes, and I really had to push to demonstrate that there is never anything like a "one size fits all" solution to the range of business and systems problems that I've been asked to solve over the last couple of decades.
In the time since, very few of my employers have been willing to send me to school (formal or otherwise) -- it would have taken me off of coding or other tasks, and the one constant in the IT business is that you're always behind schedule. That 'real-world' aspect never changes.
I have always found a way -- most of the time on my own time -- to investigate, experiment, and learn about new and emerging technologies. Sometimes I've been able to suggest and even apply this "new stuff" in production projects, and -- of course -- I usually come out looking like a genius, when all I really did was borrow from the experiences of others.
Yeah, staying current takes a lot of my personal time and effort; but it's worth it over the long haul. I consider it a personal investment to my own career (which hasn't worked out all that badly!). Had I waited for one of my employers to send me to school, I'd probably still be coding "file-in, file-out" programs in COBOL. (Ugh.)
As far as being individually motivated, that's the best advice I can give people. When it comes down to "hey boss, I need 8 more coders just like me to get this done", it's a little bit harder to find those people. Sometimes the answer is for Mr. Bossman to cough up those bucks, and sometimes it's in hanging around the water cooler long enough to find those people like yourself -- internally motivated.
It's tough ... hang in there!
Gotta hand it to em over at Anandtech ... they are doing the right thing. Either that, or the performance of the dual Athlons so overpowers whatever Intel can deliver -- or both :=)