Re: [LUG] X-windows problems (rant)

["paul" <psutton@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Instead of using Notepad could you download something open source for
windows, that can display scripts in different colours.  I think there are
some tex compatahle it would probably make spoting errors easier also.

I think emacs is available for Windows + you get the added advantage of a
built in tetris game and sokoban game among others.

Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Hewson" <P.J.Hewson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "list" <list@xxxxxxxxxxxx>; "Simon Waters" <Simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2002 1:53 PM
Subject: RE: [LUG] X-windows problems (rant)


> Hi,
>
> I think basing assessments of X resource requirements on KDE performance
is a
> bit misleading, even on my relatively modern machine KDE drains
performance
> like nobodies business yet X can run acceptably on quite old junk.
>
> I tend to disagree with making very general statements about recycling old
> machines.   It all depends entirely what you want to do with them (Alice
in
> Wonderland said that BTW).   Although it's partly a testimony to the
wonders
> of local government IT, I can do more on a 486 than a modern(ish) NT4
machine
> (the 486 in question gives me Perl, R and LaTeX).   Certainly, I would
give
> anything (other than my own money) to have that lot running under Gnome
along
> with some species of emacs but blasting away at the command line and
handing
> over pdfs lets me conduct analyses that are way beyond the capabilities of
> ***** council's IT system.   (I will admit currently that the tex files
are
> prepared in notepad on M$ windows, that the pdf viewer is obviously only
> available in M$ Windoze and also that any analysis on a particularly large
> data set gets prototyped at work and run at home).
>
> I accept that no-one in their right minds would put this old box forward
as
> the ideal SOHO machine but horses for courses and all that.   I can think
of
> plenty more examples where a bit of old tack would be useful, for example
I
> know of someone planning to provide all sorts of Unix software available
from
> a subscription server so anything that ran an X-client (along with ssh)
would
> be useful, and I would certainly rather have an old pc with emacs for
emails
> at home than that Amstrad telephone thingy.
>
> Regards
>
> Paul
>
>
> > ===== Original Message From Simon Waters <Simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
=====
> > Kai Hendry wrote:
> > > On ti, touko 28, 2002 at 09:56:17 +0100, jody salt wrote:
> > > > I just got second hand pc (a p200 with 320 (I think)
> > > > of ram) which I want to run X-windows on, I have
> > >
> > > 320 RAM? A P200 is quite slow for running X. I hate seeing novices
> > > recycling machines with linux and putting X on it. New machines are
> > > really quite cheap. IMO it puts Linux in a bad light when people see
> > > something like X+KDE for the first time on a struggling pentium.
> >
> > I too think that the recycling old machine stuff is a bad move.
> > Those who said you could recycle old machines originally meant
> > as mail servers, DNS servers, file servers, that sort of thing.
> >
> > > Win95 is honestly better. :/
> >
> > No it isn't. I have P200 equivalent machine (128MB of memory),
> > and it runs KDE 1 fine, I wouldn't want KDE 2 on it I suspect,
> > but other lighterweight Window managers should be fine.
> >
> > A case of circa 95/98 OSes on circa 95/98 machines. This machine
> > is actually the minimum spec to run Microsoft Windows 2000
> > Advanced Server, but I decided Linux was more advanced, and less
> > resource hungry, and less buggy after I tried Advanced Server.
> > Mind W2K was a lot better than Win95/98/NT4.
> >
> > > Old machines are great for testing out the dark(console) side of linux.
> > > mutt, irssi, vim and various services. :)
> >
> > You can invert the console screen colours if it is too dark ;)
> > No need to stick with green on black either these days, but it
> > is traditional.
> >
> > --
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>
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> Paul Hewson, Postgraduate Statistics Student (part-time)
> School of Mathematical Sciences, Laver Building,
> University of Exeter, North Park Road, EXETER  EX4 4QE, U.K.
>
> tel:   +44 1392 382773 fax: +44 1392 382135
> email: P.J.Hewson@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> personal home page http://www.maths.ex.ac.uk/~paulh/
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>
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