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Hi Tom and all What is LTSP and how can I find out about it? I will try a google search but it does sound promising. Thanks. Rich On Mon, 2003-04-14 at 12:42, Brough, Tom wrote: > Hi Rich, fellow recycler :-) ! > > Apollogies to all for the long post (again).... > > > And so the journey continues and I am about to embark on a very long leg > If you look upwind on the horizon you can just see my storm battered yacht > :-) > > hope this helps ..... > > For low spec Slackware is nice, I have a Pentium 120 /w 64Mb Ram running > slackware 8.1, it works (sort of if you like watching X krank up in slow mo > (KDE3 that is) ). This is slowly grinding down the ferrite on my swap > partition ! There is always a service & functionality / hardware trade off > with older machines. You can use a contemporary distro for the age of the > machine, but you are liable to any unpatched vulnerabilities ( which is why > everybody tries to keep up to date). Nothing stays still in this game. > > I have a 486 50Mhz (24Mb) machine this runs Slackware 7.2 comfortably. But > then again this is run version 1.9? of KDE. > > You can improve things by using less mainstream / memory hungry X managers > like XFCE and blackbox (or fluxbox ?). > > bootable CD based distros like knoppix and freeduc might work. Never got > them working on my P 120 though > > Ram upgrades of older machines can be very tricky. Some old motherboards > dont use all the bus lines that the new memory sticks use, so for example > you can put a 128Mb stick in and find it only uses 32Mb because the 2 > highest address lines arent supported. If the motherboard manual says you > can populate the mem slots with 4 x 32 Mb then dont expect 2 x 64Mb to work > (even if the chips are cheaper ) ! > > If you have old memory cards lying around then by all means try > experimenting, but I have always found researching the right chips for the > right board a time consuming business be it new chips for old boards or old > chips in the recycle bin, and its not always very rewarding. 30pin simms are > practically non existant, 72pin simms are expensive and also dying out, > dimms, sdram are current, ddr is the new boy on the block, which means dimms > will be expenisve soon, the whole process of memory upgrades (for old > machines) is messy. > > For my recycle project I have found that "if you havent already got it, dont > try to upgrade it unless you have a large wallet ;-)" of course most of my > machine are 486 / early Pentiums or around that era so the more modern the > machine you are recycling the better chance you have of finding the right > chips to upgrade and at a (more) reasonable price. > > There will come a point when adding more memory doesnt make any difference > (this is usually a factor of the amount of CPU cache and other hardware > attributes). But dont let me put you off experimenting :-) Rember recycle > law no 1. "you can never break something thats already broken". > > > <LTSPAdvocacy mode=on> > Alternatively if you want to use a "up to date" distro with old kit and you > have a high spec server free (ie 1 - 2 Gb Ram /w 1.5GHz++ processor) and a > good network, try LTSP. This IMO is a much better way of reusing old > resorces because there is less compromise. Your workstations are already out > of date, you cant upgrade (distro) without hitting a performace problem, > however a well speced LTSP server is more "future proof". Some people in the > LTSP community say that, as a work station a P 166 with 32Mb of memory is > adequate and that adding more memory gives little or no additional benifit, > I have never put this to the test. > > However I have run a 16Mb 486 workstation off my current LTSP server and it > is slow, but the software Im running (via) the Server is OpenOffice.org on > RH8.0. Now could you imagine trying to run OpenOffice.org and RH8.0 on an > old 486 with 16Mb of ram as a standalone, come to think of it could you > imagine trying to install RH 8.0 on 486 with 16Mb ram.? (please dont try > this at home!). > > My server cost under 500 to build from new parts, the workstations where > give away, with 4 workstations thats 500 / 4 = 125 per station. The server > hasnt reached capacity by a very long chalk so add another 8 stations ( give > away again) thats 500 / 12 = 41 per station, and I expect I can drive the > cost per workstation down further, just cant test that theory yet. Of course > there is a point where the server gets saturated, so you just build another > server for load sharing, and so on. > > Another thing to consider old boxes have old harddrives, eventually these > will give up, for LTSP this isnt an issue, it runs diskless ! > > If you havnt already guessed I am a big fan of LTSP. > </LTSPAdvocacy> > > Which ever course you sail have fun :-) > > Tom. > > Information in this message is confidential and may be legally privileged. > It is the intended solely for the person ( or persons) to whom it is > addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender, > and please delete the message from your system immediately. The views in > this message are personal, they are not necessarily those of Torbay Council > > > > -- > The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG > Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the > message body to unsubscribe. > -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe.