[clue-tech] Interesting sidux/smxi news

[Collins Richey]

On Sun, Sep 21, 2008 at 11:51 AM, Nate Duehr <nate at natetech.com> wrote:
> David L. Anselmi wrote:
>
>>> and seeing how that group of people who LOVED Linux at RH 8/9 get
>>> utterly PISSED OFF at being forced into hardware upgrades, so they
>>> could keep getting reasonable security patches...
>>
>> You can't claim that Linux requires hardware upgrades as fast as Windows.
>>  Be serious.
>
> Agreed on the slowdown on the topic, no problem.  I can wait for Linux (as a
> whole) to have some brilliant ideas...

You dodged the question. A modern version of Linux (as opposed to the
Smithsonian relics like RH9 and earlier) has not added much in the way
of cpu/memory/disk requirements in the past 4-5 years. Yes, there has
been a lot of bloat in the area of packages (and duplicate
functionality). If you bought a new PC say 4-5 years ago, you don't
need to upgrade any hardware to run a recent Linux distro pretty well.
If you needed 512M-1G memory then, your system will run just fine with
those resources. Don't try that with Vista!

Much of the rest of your comments seem to be the Luddite approach to
computers - all you need is 64K. There are a few distros that will
still run on very old hardware, but not many are going to waste their
time coding security upgrades for very old stuff.

> Anyway... I digress.  Going back to this hardware thing...
>
> Just focusing on MAJOR Linux distros... the stuff we all hear and know
> about... YES, it does require hardware updates at the same RATE as the
> commercial stuff does... it just lagged behind for a while on where the
> cut-off started.

Not true. The cutoff has ended, and modern distros are not requiring
massive hardware upgrades with each new release. The hardware
manufacturers, of course, build for Vista, so you can't buy a new PC
at BestBuy that doesn't have 2-4 times the memory that is required to
run Linux or OSX or xxxzbsd very well.

>
> Fedora Core - Sound changed (critical for an audio/radio network) and
> screwed up a lot of people's systems.  Hardware requirements for video and
> RAM went up by a factor of 2X.

The Luddites would say, never change. Linux in the early days was
based on OSS sound support that was poorly designed and poorly
maintained. The transition to alsa was rough and left some sound cards
behind (including a couple that I have). Since no one has been able to
buy such cards for 10 years or more, it's not a great loss. Now that
alsa is somewhat stable, the bleeding edge releases are shifting to
yet-another-sound-system Pulse audio that will handle multiple sound
streams much better. Of course, there will be rough edges.

Requirements for video and ram were based on actually available
systems (not on 10-15 year old systems). I see nothing wrong with
expanding the capabilities of video to suit newer hardware instead of
spending time tinkering with stuff that will never be available again.

Even automobile manufacturers maintain parts for only 10 years. After
that, you're on your own for "security" updates.

> People who don't KNOW Linux, just really don't like this type of change.

Obviously, they just love this type of change on Windows!

 I
> used to argue for it, "Ah, but it's making things better for you" and then
> got realistic... no, it really wasn't.

I disagree. My Linux systems are a thousand percent better than they
were back in the glory days that you yearn for. I could care less that
my current Linux system wouldn't even boot on an ancient Pentium
system.

>
> Their Pentium-I sitting there doing a job day-in, and day-out just needed
> security patches, they didn't need an OS upgrade every 6 months.

My system doesn't need an upgrade every 6 months either. But then you
call it a "play" system that no one outside of Debian laboratories
should ever run <grin>.

OTOH, when one of my computers dies, I just replace it with current
technology and enjoy Linux support for the newer hardware. I don't
expect anyone to keep my Nash Rambler running (if I had one) just
because it was the best car ever. You are probably looking for service
for your 8-track tape, right?

>  REAL support for older stuff is long-dead, when it comes to
> security and other updates...

Yep, that's reality.

PC hardware has been (and will be) continuously changing, and I thank
$DEITY that Linux is keeping up with the changes.

-- 
Collins Richey
     If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries
     of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.