3 Aug
2006
3 Aug
'06
9:11 a.m.
On Thursday 03 August 2006 10:54 am, Chuck Guzis wrote:
<...>
No, it's just the level of complexity that
software's evolved. Display
cards have come a long way from simple bit-mapped graphics and the level of
driver support needed for relatively simple devices is more than you'd
think. In particular, a "legacy" floppy driver under XP must deal with
things such as ACPI and power management that were never an issue for
earlier OS software.
A floppy driver? Why? This isn't making sense to me at the moment (gotta go
get that second cup of coffee I guess...)
Most software, Linux included, has been getting more
bloated.
Not linux, or at least not to any great extent. Stuff that runs under linux,
KDE and Gnome in particular, yeah.
Not only does the complexity make for less
reliability, but it makes
ever-greater demands on system resources.
I can still (and have) install linux on any old 386 box to do some particular
function. I was using such a box as a firewall/router here until some
hardware failures had me upgrading to a 486dx2/66 a while back.
I'm sometimes puzzled about this when I consider
that most PC owners simply
want to interact with a web browser and send email--and perhaps do the
occasional word processing document and spreadsheet. With the current crop
of operating systems, a staggering amount of hardware is being thrown at
relatively few applications for the most part.
Yeah, it's crazy. There's really no need for a lot of that stuff. Which is
why I don't just toss a lot of the older (pc) hardware here. I'll find
something useful to do with it...
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin