5 ms·
Up until December 2009, my main computer was a desktop we'd bought in 2000. At some point, we had upgraded it from 128MB of RAM to 384MB. That last year or so,
by jackowayed 13y ago
Up until December 2009, my main computer was a desktop we'd bought in 2000. At some point, we had upgraded it from 128MB of RAM to 384MB.
That last year or so, things got rough. I was really pushing the limit of what it could run without feeling unreasonably sluggish (with pretty normal workloads of browsing, IM, and either word processing or Ruby coding). First, I switched from Firefox to Opera. Then, I switched from Gnome to Xfce to IceWM. This made a world of difference, and I really didn't miss Gnome. It got me another 6 months+ out of that computer without being terribly frustrated all the time.
In most cases, on a modern computer where you have multiple gigabytes of RAM, I agree with you. But it's still nice to have those tiny window managers around.
- vacri 13y agoDepending on how you value your time, a $300 computer will run circles around a 10-year-old computer, and will be far cheaper than the time spent trying to shoehorn modern applications onto old hardware.
- apapli 13y agoThere's something quite satisfying about breathing new life into an old piece of hardware, or extending its life further as in this case. So although I agree with your point it's nice to not have everything boil down to dollars and cents all the time :)
- vacri 13y agoThis is why I prefaced with 'how you value your time'. I completely agree with you. If you're just after something that works, then just buy a new computer. If you like the project of injecting longevity, then the tradeoff is that you're getting entertainment out of your hours. I'm very much a 'not dollars and cents' guy, but I see a lot of people struggle to maintain old computers when they're not really into enjoying that maintenance activity; those for whom an hour of troubleshooting -foo- is pure frustration with no fun mixed in.