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On 15/08/13 15:34, Tony Sumner wrote: > On Aug 15, 2013, bad apple wrote: >> A: You have quite an old computer? 4:3 resolutions indicate you're using >> a CRT (nothing wrong with that) > It's a CRT, yes, which I realise uses a lot of current. I got it from a > guy who was about to throw it in a skip. > >> Dare I ask what CPU/RAM you have? > It's an Athlon 64 3000+. I built the PC a few years ago and used a graphics > card I happened to have around. > >> glxinfo | grep "direct rendering" > This yields "yes". Your remarks are very relevant though in the case of the > second PC, where the CPU is (try not to laugh): > > Genuine Intel(R) Celeron(TM) CPU 1100MHz > > Is it easy to replace a CPU? > The graphics card is the same and direct rendering is again "yes". > > With a bit of effort I got Gnome running quite well on the second PC but > I still had to do 'xrandr -s 1024x768' every time I logged in. Then I read > your suggestion about > >> http://wiki.mate-desktop.org/download > so I went to the wiki and installed mate-core and I agree this is a great > improvement and more what my wife is used to. I can adjust the resolution > and the background and the only drawback is that you have to click twice > on icons; as far as I can see the control center does not let you change it. > So I'll stick with mate. > >> You also mentioned "apt-downgrade": > I wasn't serious. > >> And don't worry about asking for answers: > You are most helpful. And having learned on the second PC I am confident > that when I have got my breath back I can replace the graphics card(s) and > move to Wheezy on the first PC. > Hmm, the biggest surprise for me is that contrary to my expectations, both of your gfx cards are in direct rendering mode so I guess that's 1:0 for the Nouveau drivers vs me. Good job Nouveau hackers! Glad that you seem to be making progress - getting older machines working just as you like with Linux can be a bit of a major undertaking, but very satisfying when you win the fight in the end. And at least with Linux, you stand a fighting chance in the first place - there tend to be a lot less options with Windows. I have no experience with this personally, but as you seem to like the old CDE/KDE style single click to activate (I bet you like focus follows mouse as well, right?) maybe this is useful: https://www.linuxforums.org/forum/desktop-x-windows/194361-how-get-launchers-mate-desktop-open-single-click.html As for your Celeron, well, to be fair it's not the strongest CPU out there (understatement of the year...) but I have my original Sun Ultra 1 still racked in the garage and humming along well into it's 18th year with a formidable 167MHz* CPU, and after destroying my Toshy laptop in a fit of rage recently, have been demoted to the last random laptop I could scrape out of my spares pile: an original Acer Aspire One. Whilst I love the tiny form factor and it's funky purple colour, it has 1Gb of sloooooow RAM and an Intel Atom @1.6GHz, which I pretty much guarantee is even slower than your Celeron. It's a great little machine though, and runs LDXE like a champ. To be honest, if I were you I wouldn't bother trying to upgrade your machines - they're of a vintage where trying to scare up compatible RAM, AGP gfx cards and the like from Ebay probably wouldn't be economically viable. I'd just keep using them until they literally give up the ghost or finally run into a situation where they are just not capable (it's lucky you're not running Gentoo and recompiling glibc daily) whilst saving your pennies up all the while. At some point, you'll have to plonk down £200-£300 for a new machine and the sensation of speed will keep you smiling for weeks. CRTs are great as well - I really miss my array of 3 Sun X7136A 21" monitors, sadly once again relegated to the garage due to lack of space. Two feet to my right is my office stack of random computers and sat right on top I still have a 17" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 740SB CRT, which gets almost daily use as I plug client machines into the KVM attached to it. Thanks to a weird bug in my i5's MSI mobo, the UEFI garbles output when connected to my regular 24" LCD panel, so I also have to temporarily use it every time I want to adjust UEFI settings or reflash. I'm not even that old, but I have a marked preference for the industrial strength computing gear of yesteryear over the cheap plastic crap masquerading as "high end" these days, which is probably why the garage is full of SGI, Sun and other old school UNIX gear instead of the missus' car. Anyway, wandering dangerously off-topic here - good work with the PCs, feel free to ask about anything else that comes up. Regards * Apologies if I accidentally spark a flood of "I've got a PDP in the shed" or "my Trash-80 only had a 1.77MHz z80 CPU and I liked it" posts... -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq