On 05/10/2015 08:34 PM, Bob Proulx wrote:
Jan-Rens Reitsma wrote:4 GB DDR3(L) modules are not very expensive.If my laptop had a slot to insert another dimm that would be great. I would happily stuff several more gigs into it. But I can't. My ThinkPad T60p is already max'd out at 4G. I could buy many more 4G dimms but I can't get them into the machine. Most laptops from generations before can't install 4G of memory.
The T60p was released more than 8 years ago. Moore's law predicts the performance of hardware doubles every two years. So on average the performance of laptops will increase 8-fold every eight years.
I think a modern "budget laptop" with a N2940 quadcore Celeron CPU and 4 to 8 GB RAM is fast enough to run (for example) Gnome 3 with Rhythmbox, Iceweasel, Icedove and Eclipse or Anjuta.The problem with this is that it basically invalidates any system after a couple of years. Sure we could all buy brand new computers every year or so. That isn't very green friendly to the planet. Think of all of the e-waste it creates.
I think you're remark is true if you substitute 'nearly a decade' for 'a couple of years'. I think you're right when you state that most people have to buy a brand new computer every two or four years. Don't forget that only a minority of users wants to stay at the cutting edge of development for more than a decade.
It also isn't very user friendly either. One of the advantages of Debian is that it makes an effective operating system available to a wide range of people including people on limited budgets and resources. Forcing Debian only onto big systems purchased in the last couple of years would greatly reduce the possible users of it.
I asume Debian GNU/Linux is at least twice as fast and powerful as Windows Vista or Windows 8.1. Installation of Debian on a three year old, second hand laptop, may mark the beginning of a machine's very productive second life! :-)
Also ARM systems are very efficient on power and resources. They are becoming quite popular. My favorite right now is the Banana Pi. I am thinking that perhaps ten years from now the defacto standard system will be an ARM core system. Time will tell. But most ARM systems today have a gig or less of memory. And it will take 64-bit ARM before we can get more than 4G into them.
What do you think of the development of odroid pc's with exynos CPU's? (see hardkernel.com)
Bob
Kind regards, Jan-Rens.