Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 15:22:06 -0700 From: Kent Stewart <kstewart@3-cities.com> To: Lowell Gilbert <lowell@world.std.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: How much machine do i need? Message-ID: <394AA88E.A2370BCB@3-cities.com> References: <413062A3EA92D3118535009027D619980A5B7D@postsprung.dos.state.fl.us> <394A878A.E6E63040@3-cities.com> <44r99xwc2m.fsf@lowellg.ne.mediaone.net>
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Lowell Gilbert wrote: > > Kent Stewart <kstewart@3-cities.com> writes: > > > A P90 running > > x-windows with 16MB of memory will be a long ways down on the > > performance chart. X needs around 48MB and I wouldn't try it on a > > system with less than 64MB. > > My, how our standards have changed. I ran FreeBSD and X on a 486 with > 16MB of RAM back in 1984, and when Windows 95 came out, I noticed that > the FreeBSD/X environment was noticeably faster than Windows on the > same hardware. Current versions of FreeBSD and X are slightly larger, > but run roughly as quickly, as they *ever* did on that hardware. And > that system was fairly speedy when I got it in 1993. > > So I would say that the ability of an early Pentium to run FreeBSD as > a workstation is not that bad -- it's really just a question of your > standards. That is very true. When I started out with FreeBSD in early 1999, my standard machine at work was a P-II 300 and the P133 was very slow at that point. I had been content up until then and my standards quickly changed :). It all depends on how much memory you have and how much swapping you are doing. We tried doing a build using Lehey Fortran one time on NT 3.51. The person trying this quit with the make half done after 7 hours. He had the PC people order Microsoft Power Fortran, which later became Compaq's DEC Fortran, and when it came in I did the install. I added all of his Fortran modules to the build setup and told it to do a build. The text flashed down the screen and 2 minutes later it was through. A bad choice can make a big difference. The only reason it took that long was because of the error messages it was generating. When you swap, your memory speed drops from 8ns (PC-100 memory) to 8ms (avg access on modern disk) and that makes a noticeable difference. It all depends on what you are trying to do. If you try to do builds from x, your performance can be terrible. You can't expect KDE and kdevelop to be fast on a p90 with 16MB of memory. If you do your builds from the command line using make, it may not be so bad. The thing you don't let people think is that they can sit and watch a build world on a P90. Kent > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message -- Kent Stewart Richland, WA mailto:kstewart@3-cities.com http://www.3-cities.com/~kstewart/index.html FreeBSD News http://daily.daemonnews.org/ SETI(Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) @ HOME http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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