Post Ai1bOiD4vYnlSuUDZ2 by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
 (DIR) More posts by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
 (DIR) Post #Ai1bOiD4vYnlSuUDZ2 by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
       2024-04-01T05:37:14Z
       
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       My wife @eugenialoli has been working on installing Linux on various old computers for which a lot of other options are now unsupported.She's been finding that machines with 2GB or RAM or 16GB of storage tend to struggle, whether while installing the OS, booting, installing common apps or running those apps.2GB of RAM is an incredibly large amount. As is 16GB of storage.WTF are we software people doing as an industry that makes us consume so many resources?
       
 (DIR) Post #Ai1bOjknBhMcFlGeki by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
       2024-04-01T05:39:22Z
       
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       For reference, Windows XP's official requirements were 64MB of RAM and 1.5GB of storage. Even giving ourselves a 4x margin at 256MB/6GB, that's a very far cry from 2GB/16GB.Windows XP was honestly a vastly usable OS, with vastly usable applications running on top.What are we doing that now requires so much more?!?
       
 (DIR) Post #Ai1bOlSQqvrjXOh1Pc by jrunyon@mastodon.jfr.im
       2024-04-01T06:38:41.430288Z
       
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       @jbqueru @eugenialoli Windows XP usually had more like 512MB and 10s of GBs. I think the lowest end I had in the XP days was probably 256MB - 128MB was barely enough to comfortably run Windows 2000.As far as modern Linux there's a lot of bloat included out of the box in pretty much every distro, but if you do some work trimming things down you can still run a server on half a gig. Adding a modern GUI will easily take another gig though, and there ya go, 2GB even minimized...
       
 (DIR) Post #Ai1bOoEiWNg49jIbx2 by jrunyon@mastodon.jfr.im
       2024-04-01T06:40:47.842044Z
       
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       @jbqueru @eugenialoli Oh, also: web browsers are incredibly complex and half the apps you use are probably a web browser in disguise, only it's not an actual web browser so it can't share any pages with the web browser you already have running.
       
 (DIR) Post #Ai1bOoEiWNg49jIbx3 by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
       2024-04-01T06:40:17Z
       
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       Let's talk orders of magnitude.My workstation has 128GB of main RAM. Enough for some very heavy applications.Shrink by 1000x, 128MB would run Windows XP or MacOS X of the same era, or early iOS or Android. Rich graphical environment, one application + accessories.1000x further, 128kB is the top end of many 8-bit machines. Text mode single-tasking, simple documents.Still 1000x, 128B is the Atari 2600 (+4kB or ROM for the code). Working set for simple games.