Re: Performance of Debian
ALLAN W. BART wrote:
> One of my friends is an old unix pro and he cannot believe that an intel
> system can run x windows with any degree fo performance. I would like to
> hear about experiences with x on let's say 486100 DX?
Unix fans who haven't seen unix on a x86 are under the mistaken impression that
the hardware cannot handle it. I was under this impression before trying out
Linux/XFree86. It's the pseudo-OS's that run on most x86 machines that are
sucking the performance out of them.
I use a 486DX2-66 with 16 MB RAM as my primary machine. It has a ATI Mach32 VLB
card with 2 MB of DRAM. I am very impressed with the performance of the system.
I don't think that paying for more graphics hardware or commercial Xservers is
required. Perhaps if you are using your machine for serious CAD or image
manipulation, then these upgrades would be desirable.
I also have a shitty-old 386SX-16 connected to my primary that I use as an X
terminal. It only has 4 MB RAM and a 1 MB ISA SVGA adapter. I don't run
anything but X and network drivers on it, so it doesn't swap much. What can I
say .... it works!
You might say I'm on the low end of X users, but I'm quite satisfied with my
configuration (gifts of memory and other hardware graciously accepted, of
course). To get a broad range of X performance data, consult:
http://www.goof.com/xbench
Print some of it out and show it to that "old unix pro"!
--
Jeff Ebert
jebert@earthlink.net
ho-hum
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