Re: gtk+ and gtk-engines slow

[Michiel Toneman <toneman slimbit demon nl>]

On Mon, 25 Jan 1999, Johan Groth wrote:

> > 
> > No, I think the point was that one should be able to install GNOME onto
> > just about any kind of decent machine and expect it to run.
> 
> Which leaves us the following question: What is a decent machine; a 33
> MHz 386 with 16 MB or a 66MHz 486 DX2 32 MB or a 100MHz 486 DX4 with 32
> MB or does it have to be a 90 MHz P5 with 64 MB?
> 
> ///Johan

I think we should make this a poll of sorts. Personally I think we 
should strive to have gnome running comfortably on a 486dxX (X)XX with
24Mb. 

The reasoning is as follows:

- These machines are very, very common and cheap. Therefore of 
  interest for educational purposes.

- A very common configuration around this time was:  
  486DX something-or-other
  340-500Mb HD
  8Mb RAM (perfect for Win3.11)

- The problem is therefore of insufficient RAM. Unfortunately,
  this was the transitional period between 30-pin and 72-pin 
  SIMMs, existing in parity/non-parity varieties, with motherboards
  sometimes accepting EDO, sometimes not :( Also not all RAM 
  configs were allowed.

- The easiest way to upgrade these machines is by using one 16Mb 
  SIMM to create a workable Linux box. Any more means having to 
  free up slots by chucking out already installed memory, or 
  running into trouble because the motherboard doesn't like 
  32Mb SIMMS (many didn't). There is one exception, when there
  are 8 30-pin slots all filled with 1Mb SIMMs, in which case 
  you are screwed, because you will have to ditch 4 1Mb SIMMs.
  (Although then you can make 20Mb or 32Mb fairly easily)
  
- A 386 usually needs too many upgrades to become useable. I.e.
  usually 80Mb disk, 2/4Mb ram, lousy videocard. You can get a
  fast 486 with the above configuration for the upgrade cost.
  With a 486, processor speed should be secondary to memory, and
  anything DX should do.

- I'd say $200 for such a configuration should be reasonable.
  Now there's a cheap workstation ;-)

Greetings,

Michiel Toneman