New to the list

[Roy J. Tellason]

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