6 ms·

"Everything else my desktop of 15 years ago handled just fine, with 256MB of RAM." I hear this sort argument a lot. But I never hear of anyone doing it, that

"Everything else my desktop of 15 years ago handled just fine, with 256MB of RAM." I hear this sort argument a lot. But I never hear of anyone doing it, that is working on a 15 yr old computer for a while. I imagine with Linux it might not be too bad.

TeMPOraL 9y ago
It's because software accrues bloat on all layers of the stack, so that even as functionality stays the same, performance requirements increase pretty much in lockstep with hardware power. And since each piece of software tends to have its own format, and/or is tied to its own cloud, it's harder and harder to exchange data between old and new programs. So people keep upgrading. If you look at places where there isn't much pressure, you'll see plenty of old hardware and software doing just fine. For example, many shops I frequent are run on DOS-era programs, which are 100% totally fine for the job, and probably even better than modern replacements (less clicking, more typing = more efficient to use).
- groovy2shoes 9y ago
  Good ol' Wirth's Law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirth%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirth%27s_law
quuquuquu 9y ago
Lubuntu runs in 112MB of RAM for me and I can use Dillo to browse Wikipedia and other well-made sites just dandy ^.^
com2kid 9y ago
> I hear this sort argument a lot. But I never hear of anyone doing it, that is working on a 15 yr old computer for a while. I imagine with Linux it might not be too bad. The Internet has made this infeasible. Everything has moved online, and 90% of online resources have grown very bloated, though Wikipedia would probably still work well. Security is another problem. Windows XP would work fine if you can find 15yr old hardware that still functions (hardware rot is a real thing), but the number of 0 days out there is far too high. All that said, I wonder if any Shoutcast streams still exist. I'm using Youtube Live for the same thing now days (orders of magnitude more CPU being used!). Coding would work fine, except the old IDEs don't support newer C++ standards, and I'm accustom to my niceties in life, but if you can ignore that, life would be fine for writing code. Modern web platforms wouldn't work that well, writing code would work OK, but the resultant webapps wouldn't run that well.
- gh02t 9y ago
  > All that said, I wonder if any Shoutcast streams still exist. I'm using Youtube Live for the same thing now days (orders of magnitude more CPU being used!). Shoutcast is still around, at least as a protocol via Icecast. I dunno if it's still being used for widespread public streams, but I know people still use MPD + Icecast to stream their personal music collections.
  - jpindar 9y ago
    Shoutcast is the preferred method for both live performances and recorded music in Open Sim type virtual worlds, since it's supported in the viewers, although I often copy the stream url into Winamp.
  - yeahsure 9y ago
    Most of the FM stations in my city (in Argentina) have a shoutcast stream to listen online.
- njarboe 9y ago
  I was running a windows XP system from 2007 at home until a few months ago. The push to upgrade came finally cam from not having a reliable pdf reader for some pdfs and the fact the last browser still getting security upgrades for XP, firefox, was no longer going to be supported this September. A side benefit to upgrading is now I can buy a modern color laser printer and get out from under the expensive HP ink nightmare. The computer is now running Linux Mint just fine.
LukeShu 9y ago
Not quite 15 years, but I'm happily using an 11 yr old laptop. When I need something beefier, I turn to my 9 yr old desktop. And, you're correct, I am running GNU/Linux on both.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
c22 9y ago
I'm still using the rig I built in 2006, though I have maxed out the ram (32gb) and upgraded to SSDs since then. It works fine for what I use it for--writing code, listening to music, surfing the web, image editing in gimp, and drawing with qcad or inkscape. I often do these things simultaneously with up to 100 open browser tabs. I have no reason to believe I won't still be using it 5 years from now.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
reboog711 9y ago
I try to make my Desktops last for 10 years before replacement, but I've been known to replace components along the way. Probably wouldn't be good for a hard core gamer, but for Quickbooks, Email, and MS Word, I seem to be surviving.
thomastjeffery 9y ago
I bought a Thinkpad from 2011, because I can't see myself wanting more than that from a laptop. The only place it is lacking is the display: 1366x768 feels pretty low-res these days. Video playback has some minor screen-splitting, too. Still, for browsing the web, watching <=1080p video, and hacking on some software projects, this old thing is more than capable. > I imagine with Linux it might not be too bad. Of course, that's a requirement. ;) NixOS is near perfection.
thomastjeffery 9y ago
A quick look shows that in 2002, we were using Pentium 4's and Athlon XP's, single core, around 1500-2000mhz. Until I could afford to buy a PC, that's the class of hardware I used. Just pick your favorite Linux distro, and they will run like new. It's also worth noting that Arch Linux started in 2002. That's the distro I settled on back then (NixOS wasn't around yet ;).

TeMPOraL 9y ago

It's because software accrues bloat on all layers of the stack, so that even as functionality stays the same, performance requirements increase pretty much in lockstep with hardware power. And since each piece of software tends to have its own format, and/or is tied to its own cloud, it's harder and harder to exchange data between old and new programs. So people keep upgrading. If you look at places where there isn't much pressure, you'll see plenty of old hardware and software doing just fine. For example, many shops I frequent are run on DOS-era programs, which are 100% totally fine for the job, and probably even better than modern replacements (less clicking, more typing = more efficient to use).

groovy2shoes 9y ago
Good ol' Wirth's Law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirth%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirth%27s_law

quuquuquu 9y ago

Lubuntu runs in 112MB of RAM for me and I can use Dillo to browse Wikipedia and other well-made sites just dandy ^.^

com2kid 9y ago

> I hear this sort argument a lot. But I never hear of anyone doing it, that is working on a 15 yr old computer for a while. I imagine with Linux it might not be too bad. The Internet has made this infeasible. Everything has moved online, and 90% of online resources have grown very bloated, though Wikipedia would probably still work well. Security is another problem. Windows XP would work fine if you can find 15yr old hardware that still functions (hardware rot is a real thing), but the number of 0 days out there is far too high. All that said, I wonder if any Shoutcast streams still exist. I'm using Youtube Live for the same thing now days (orders of magnitude more CPU being used!). Coding would work fine, except the old IDEs don't support newer C++ standards, and I'm accustom to my niceties in life, but if you can ignore that, life would be fine for writing code. Modern web platforms wouldn't work that well, writing code would work OK, but the resultant webapps wouldn't run that well.

gh02t 9y ago
> All that said, I wonder if any Shoutcast streams still exist. I'm using Youtube Live for the same thing now days (orders of magnitude more CPU being used!). Shoutcast is still around, at least as a protocol via Icecast. I dunno if it's still being used for widespread public streams, but I know people still use MPD + Icecast to stream their personal music collections.
- jpindar 9y ago
  Shoutcast is the preferred method for both live performances and recorded music in Open Sim type virtual worlds, since it's supported in the viewers, although I often copy the stream url into Winamp.
- yeahsure 9y ago
  Most of the FM stations in my city (in Argentina) have a shoutcast stream to listen online.
njarboe 9y ago
I was running a windows XP system from 2007 at home until a few months ago. The push to upgrade came finally cam from not having a reliable pdf reader for some pdfs and the fact the last browser still getting security upgrades for XP, firefox, was no longer going to be supported this September. A side benefit to upgrading is now I can buy a modern color laser printer and get out from under the expensive HP ink nightmare. The computer is now running Linux Mint just fine.

LukeShu 9y ago

Not quite 15 years, but I'm happily using an 11 yr old laptop. When I need something beefier, I turn to my 9 yr old desktop. And, you're correct, I am running GNU/Linux on both.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

c22 9y ago

I'm still using the rig I built in 2006, though I have maxed out the ram (32gb) and upgraded to SSDs since then. It works fine for what I use it for--writing code, listening to music, surfing the web, image editing in gimp, and drawing with qcad or inkscape. I often do these things simultaneously with up to 100 open browser tabs. I have no reason to believe I won't still be using it 5 years from now.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

reboog711 9y ago

I try to make my Desktops last for 10 years before replacement, but I've been known to replace components along the way. Probably wouldn't be good for a hard core gamer, but for Quickbooks, Email, and MS Word, I seem to be surviving.

thomastjeffery 9y ago

I bought a Thinkpad from 2011, because I can't see myself wanting more than that from a laptop. The only place it is lacking is the display: 1366x768 feels pretty low-res these days. Video playback has some minor screen-splitting, too. Still, for browsing the web, watching <=1080p video, and hacking on some software projects, this old thing is more than capable. > I imagine with Linux it might not be too bad. Of course, that's a requirement. ;) NixOS is near perfection.

thomastjeffery 9y ago

A quick look shows that in 2002, we were using Pentium 4's and Athlon XP's, single core, around 1500-2000mhz. Until I could afford to buy a PC, that's the class of hardware I used. Just pick your favorite Linux distro, and they will run like new. It's also worth noting that Arch Linux started in 2002. That's the distro I settled on back then (NixOS wasn't around yet ;).