Bill’s Mind

November 22nd, 2007

YouTube - Xubuntu Compiz Fusion VERY OLD computer / Better than Vista

I don’t usually post Youtube links, but this one actually has adults commenting :P Damn kids. Anyway, the topic I want to touch on is old computers. Not old like Atari, old like a Pentium-III 800mhz, which was released in 1999, almost nine years ago.

Nine years is a very long time for computers. Most of them don’t survive that long, thanks to Chinese manufacturing. Cheapness aside, most people replace them a lot sooner than 9 years. I must have gone through six or seven new rigs in that time, but admittedly I’m a freak, and I actually use these things for more than just word processing and email, so I defintely get my money’s worth.

Now back to the Youtube clip: I think it’s awesome that Compiz Fusion runs so smoothly on an older machine, thanks to great programmers making it happen with skillful coding. The problem is, I don’t really care beyond that. It’s kind of like the demo scene, great achievements, nice eye candy, but ultimately it’s just a demonstration of talent. I wouldn’t expect someone still using a P3-800 to care much about wobbly windows and spinning desktop cubes, because they’re clearly utilitarian (or cheap) and don’t need to burden their old workhorse with useless decoration.

Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the spectrum, we have 3ghz dual-core (and quad-core) machines. My video card has more ram than that P3 guy’s whole computer did. If someone were so bored, they could probably write a PC emulator that runs on the graphics card, screw the CPU :) Why is it then, that people commit such great effort and resources into supporting these old cancerous computers ? They work fine with their old software, how about focusing new developments toward recent gear, thus stimulating even more innovation and progress. We’ve got these screaming fast machines, but no one seems to have a clue how to make use of their power. Look at large-scale projects like Folding@Home, their multi-threaded app is still in beta… we’ve had multi-processor machines for over a decade, and every new system sold today has at least 2 cores if not 4, so what’s the hold-up ? There’s a long list of things that would actually benefit the masses today, and Compiz for ten year old machines isn’t on that list.

Don’t give me that speech about the poor people who can’t afford upgrades; the hardware is the cheap thing. The expensive part in any computer is the software, training, tech support, occasional repairs and upgrades. It’s kind of like a car… buy a new car, you don’t have to spend too much on it in the first years. Buy a used car, and you’ll burn a few thousand per year to keep it running, yet you still have an old beat up car. It costs as much (or more) to fix up a 1982 Ford Tempo than it does to maintain my 2001 piece of shit Focus. A computer costs less than a car, but follows the same model: most components have a limited lifetime, like fans, power supplies, hard drives, and if a PC is older than 3-4 years you might spend more to fix it than the system is worth. I sure as hell wouldn’t spend $40 to replace a power supply in a P3-800, unless I happened to have an old spare lying around. I wouldn’t even drive 10 minutes to pick a free one up. I’d sell the remaining parts for a song and build a new rig, or buy a very cheap used one.

I’m not saying people should throw out their old machines, but for the love of Bill, please stop producing software for them!