Klarinet Archive - Posting 000313.txt from 1999/03

From: charette@-----.org
Subj: Re: RE: [kl] Help!
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1999 09:46:40 -0500

Dear Klarinetters,
Downloading is directly dependent on the speed of the download connection.
Period. If you have a computer that can't handle 56Kb then it's pre
Intel 286 - I have a 286 sitting in my basement that until recently
was a mail hub for a friend. I "upgraded" it to a 486 - but it did
fine with a 56Kb connection. I wouldn't run Windows on either one,
though - _graphics_ and all those whizbang front ends take the power.
Most of you are paying for "pretty" stuff in the requirements imposed
upon you by the OS producers - CPU power and memory requirements are
driven by the window/graphics systems in most cases, not the base
applications.

Now, interesting enough, neither Sneezy II (Intel PII, Linux) nor my
home machine (P, Win 98) need constant rebooting, I have _very_ few
crashes - and I run a wide and varied mix of software. I bought
high quality, relatively expensive cards for both of those computers.
I didn't skimp on the peripherals. I'm careful when I delete programs
from the computers - that's where things get "strange". I read reviews
before buying the software so I can figure out what it may affect.

On the Mac, you have basically no choice but to buy expensive
peripherals (SCSI vs UIDE disk drive prices are wildly different).
Those peripherals have to be well made - they're using a relatively
sophisticated interface, and there are few low price makers. The
software for the Mac is somewhat simpler to write, also, since
the variety of hardware and the number of possible software driver
interactions is greatly reduced.

You _do_ get what you pay for in most cases. On a Wintel machine
you can make tradeoffs - on a Mac you have less choice.

I'm always amazed that Wintel machines work at all, given the variety
of possible hardware mixes - literally millions or possibly billions
of combinations. On mainframes, until very recently, if you didn't buy
_everything_ from the same manufacturer the warrantee would be
voided. Think about it - you buy a 19.95 card from some manufacturer
in Singapore, plug it in, and expect it to work perfectly. And it
probably does.

I've been working on computers for a very long time now, and have some
biases built up, but in general I don't like _any_ OS since they all
get in my way in one case or another. I don't treat OSs as a religion,
and hope we don't get into computer religion wars here.

Clarinet religion wars are OK, though!

Cheers,
Mark Charette@-----.org

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