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Survey: Linux kernel qualitySurvey: Linux kernel qualityPosted Jul 10, 2006 15:42 UTC (Mon) by tjc (subscriber, #137)In reply to: Survey: Linux kernel quality by beejaybee Parent article: Survey: Linux kernel quality
5 year old hardware is more than powerful enough for anyone except hardcore gamers (who are going to be tied to windoze anyway) and, in my experience, new systems are much less reliable than they once were...As a fully recovered Quake II adict I can understand that people like their games, but I and several million other people could get along really well with a 2D graphics card and all the 3D stuff ripped out of the X server.
...increasing churn rate and price competition seem to be reducing new PC systems build quality, hence reliability, to the point where the retailers and consumers could easily be removed from the loop altogether - just ship direct to the landfill!Yes, it's bad. I gave up on consumer-level PCs some years ago and build from parts. It's the only way you can get a good power supply. However, as a very casual TV viewer (my "home theater" features a 19" tube) I have adopted the landfill approach to consumer electronics. When something breaks I go to Best Buy and buy the cheapest replacement I can find. When that breaks, I dumpster it and buy another. I can't imagine where they're going to find room to pile all this stuff 100 years from now.
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The instant fix is the enemy of the correct fix... Posted Jul 11, 2006 1:48 UTC (Tue) by xoddam (subscriber, #2322) [Link] > As a fully recovered Quake II adict I can understand that people like> their games, but I and several million other people could get along > really well with a 2D graphics card and all the 3D stuff ripped out of > the X server. Indeed. After installing a 'new' distro one of the first config changes I make is to change to vesafb, so I don't need to worry or care about 3D problems. My most recent one was that the (free) X.org ATI driver installed by the Ubuntu Breezy CD (just few weeks before the release of Dapper) crashed and burned because it tried to use instructions that weren't implemented on my CeleronM CPU. Instant fix: switch to vesa X server. I googled for other people with the same problem, found none, didn't bother reporting it because Badger obviously wasn't tested with this now-common combination of CPU and video chip and the release was effectively already obsolete. I presume Dapper fixed the problem (google still doesn't find any bug reports), but I haven't actually checked. (BTW I did look for a laptop with 'supported' Intel graphics hardware, but the price was right on this one and I liked the styling. What can I say?)
The instant fix is the enemy of the correct fix... Posted Jul 11, 2006 9:26 UTC (Tue) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link] I used to do that sort of thing too, bu the increased likelihood that desktops will *require* 3D on high-end video cards for efficient drawing has made me stop doing that. (OK, call it a certainty; when video cards drop 2D support, we'll *have* to use the 3D stuff for everything).
(The existence of the rather nice OpenGL Elite variant 'oolite' is entirely unconnected from my decision to get DRI working on my machines. Entirely.)
The instant fix is the enemy of the correct fix... Posted Jul 11, 2006 14:16 UTC (Tue) by tjc (subscriber, #137) [Link] Death, taxes, and 3D desktops. Somehow it just doesn't ring.
The instant fix is the enemy of the correct fix... Posted Jul 11, 2006 17:09 UTC (Tue) by unaiur (guest, #3563) [Link] vesafb has a terrible refresh rate on my mobo/monitor. I only get1024x768 at 60Hz, just an eye killer. The via drivers isn't a jewel, but I get 85Hz.
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