"Demystification" is just as important as "Abstraction" in "Computer Science" (Was: Know any Fortran

[Chuck Guzis]

On 10/31/2015 04:00 AM, Dave Wade wrote:

> SSE2 isn't exactly "leading edge" technology. It dates back to P4 in 2001 so
> is actually older than the XP.
> Also whilst XP would run on a small machine it was dire.
> I once was sent to look at a 256Mhz PII running XP to see if I could speed
> it up. Must have have been 2008 or 9 I think.
> Whilst fiddling I accidentally swapped the mouse and keyboard connections
> only to find it wouldn't boot set up like that.
> I left it that way and no one else figured out what was wrong so the user
> got their PC upgraded...

Well, XP runs just fine on my dual P3 (1GHz) server box.  I know that 
Whistler was being tested and had many beta releases before the P4.  The 
P3 certainly wasn't dead in 2001--the Tuallies were just being released 
then.

I started testing Whistler and developing for it using a P1, then a K6 
machine.  While not as snappy as 2K, it was and is certainly usable.

The be-all and end-all of any PC OS isn't necessarily running a bloated 
browser.

Let's also not forget that XPe was deployed on all sorts of non-SSE2 
hardware, from thin clients to POS system.

--Chuck