Re: Packaging WM themes - question
On Sun, 27 May 2001, Viktor Rosenfeld wrote:
<...>
> It might not be fast, but this is a 386 we're talking about. It simply
> isn't fast by todays standards [1]. But for some purposes it's good
> enough.
"today's" could be, your's, the people you know, the region you live
in, the economy you are part of... "today's" standard really only
applies to the possible-world you live in. It's a modal logic thing.
> Now, how is that lessened by the fact, that Debian takes ages to install
> on such a machine? Not at all. It's obviously a load-intensive job, so
> you get a bigger machine.
A bigger machine is not always an option, sometimes even for those
living next door to a computer store.
And making that process less dependent on CPU
> power is not an option when this means that core functionality of apt is
> sacrificed (ie the ability to figure out dependencies). Simply because
I don't think that is true, or at least not something that is
unsolvable with some new software.
> the vast majority of Debian users has no problem using it (at least
> speed-wise). No one forces you to use apt. If it's to slow for you,
> than don't use it, there are alternatives (eg Slackware, installing from
> sratch).
Sure. The thing that gets me is that it is possible for software to
accommodate anything (after all, it is software), yet there is steady
pressure to drop support for older machines because it is bloat, etc.
-- even though the systems it is bloat for would probably not even
notice the extra resource usage, and compile time options could be
used to tailor the build.
<...>
> [1] IIRC, the 386 I installed recently had roughly more than 1 BogoMIPS.
> The 486 I tried a few days later had 7.88 BogoMIPS. This was the stock
A 1Mhz 386 and an 8MHz 486?
> potato kernel 2.2.17pre-something I believe. The machine I'm sitting in
> front of right now, is a Celeron 333 -- not exactly the fastest machine
> in the world, but the fastest I have in my home. It has 680 BogoMIPS.
> I know that BogoMIPS are ... well, bogus, but I think it proves my
> point. What do you expect from that kind of performance?
How often do you hear people with old&slow machines gripping because a
menu takes 0.5s to come up... the issue is not speed, it is one of not
shutting people out just because they don't live up to "today's
standards" in some possible world.
- Bruce
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