6 ms·

Meanwhile, I'm using a 13 year old desktop running Debian Unstable and it feels even faster than when it was new. It's subjectively faster than an M1 Mac Mini,

by mrob 4y ago

Meanwhile, I'm using a 13 year old desktop running Debian Unstable and it feels even faster than when it was new. It's subjectively faster than an M1 Mac Mini, despite the Mac beating it in benchmarks. I attribute this to two main causes: ruthlessly deleting/disabling everything I consider bloat (e.g. animations, text anti-aliasing, gradient fills, rounded corners, transparency, compositing, Javascript, anything wireless etc.), and using a low-latency gaming keyboard/mouse/monitor. Performance is available if you want it. But I think most people prefer aesthetics.

jolux 4y ago
I find text a lot harder to read without anti-aliasing.
- mrob 4y ago
  To be honest, I doubt disabling anti-aliasing makes any perceptible performance difference itself (although it gives me sharp text without needing 4K, which probably does). But your comment shows the important of customization. I disabled things I personally considered bloat. Other people will consider different things to be bloat. Software should give you that freedom (and Free Software gives you the ultimate freedom to customize).
  - password4321 4y ago
    "Ain't nobody got time for that!" Actually, I would be interested to learn how much time you've invested in customization, especially if there were points when the system became temporarily unusable.
    - mrob 4y ago
      Almost certainly more time than the customizations have saved me. I still consider it worth doing, because I enjoy doing it, and it makes the computer more pleasant to use. I have made the computer temporarily unusable several times, but I have an old netbook too, so I'm never stuck without a usable computer while I fix it.
capableweb 4y ago
I think the biggest factor is animations. Switching from an old Android phone (with animations turned off) to a brand new iOS (at least at the time) felt like a downgrade at first, because every interaction with the UI was so much slower than I was used to. Clicking a button didn't actually make the thing I wanted to appear immediately, but instead it faded in over 200ms or something, making the phone that had 10x better specs feel much slower.

by mrob 4y ago

jolux 4y ago

I find text a lot harder to read without anti-aliasing.

mrob 4y ago
To be honest, I doubt disabling anti-aliasing makes any perceptible performance difference itself (although it gives me sharp text without needing 4K, which probably does). But your comment shows the important of customization. I disabled things I personally considered bloat. Other people will consider different things to be bloat. Software should give you that freedom (and Free Software gives you the ultimate freedom to customize).
- password4321 4y ago
  "Ain't nobody got time for that!" Actually, I would be interested to learn how much time you've invested in customization, especially if there were points when the system became temporarily unusable.
  - mrob 4y ago
    Almost certainly more time than the customizations have saved me. I still consider it worth doing, because I enjoy doing it, and it makes the computer more pleasant to use. I have made the computer temporarily unusable several times, but I have an old netbook too, so I'm never stuck without a usable computer while I fix it.

capableweb 4y ago

I think the biggest factor is animations. Switching from an old Android phone (with animations turned off) to a brand new iOS (at least at the time) felt like a downgrade at first, because every interaction with the UI was so much slower than I was used to. Clicking a button didn't actually make the thing I wanted to appear immediately, but instead it faded in over 200ms or something, making the phone that had 10x better specs feel much slower.