Re: Kill the Bloatware {:-) Re: [chat] Re: [SLUG] Benefits of source distro (Gentoo) somewhat elusive :-)

[Ken Foskey <foskey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 2003-08-10 at 10:41, Terry Collins wrote:
> Ken Foskey wrote:
> 
> 
> ...snip......
> > 
> > I am doubly interested when he discusses the use of these techniques to
> > eek more performance out of very old computers for computer bank.
> 
> Is there a distro for 486, etc?
> 
> Isn't it easier to just use "basic" software and dump bloatware like
> Gnome, KDE, etc, rather than try and twigg any of this stuff (best
> return on effort) 

Even given that there is a need to enhance the performance of these
tools as much as possible.  Sometimes it simply does not fit the bill
for example they cannot afford a computer but they want to write a
novel.

At the same time I think that programmers (myself included) are getting
progressively lazier as "hardware is cheap".

> Text based stuff like latex for word processing, pine for email, etc

Most people learn a word processor at school / tech and do not
understand markup.

Most people now associate with a GUI so text mode is not necessarily the
correct approach.  I probably should not dismiss it however.

> Some of the earlier X stuff were quiet sufficient.

Agreed and we must catalogue this stuff. There is a project that I
cannot remember the name of this that focuses on this stuff.

> Naturally, some stuff would not be feasible, like Gimp(?), gnumeric
> (?)
> 
> 
> P.S. It seems that all organisations providing recycled computers have
> the same problem; client wants a more powerful computer that org is
> being given.

Solution throw out better computers :-)

The reality is that the really old computers at work get cycled to low
end support roles.  I have overnight support and they give on PII's to
the support people simply to dial in.  Next cycle of upgrades the PII's
will (sometimes) come back and be given away.  Business reality they are
making them work long and hard as well.

-- 
Thanks
KenF
OpenOffice.org developer