[conspire] (forw) Re: Need to Install Ubuntu Linux

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Ivan Sergio Borgonovo (mail at webthatworks.it):

> On 01/27/2017 09:48 AM, Rick Moen wrote:
> 
> >I am guessing that this was a new model around 2014.  Also, if you'll
> >pardon a correction, '800GB RAM' is not correct, and I'm guessing you
> >meant to say 8 GB.  That is a reasonable albeit not bountiful amount of
> >RAM for a current desktop computer, and will suffice.  Again, assuming
> 
> My desktop is currently using 1.2Gb.
> I'm running a BLOATED Java app, thunderbird, firefox, hexchat, a
> couple of terminals.
> When I parallel compile eg. Yocto, I'm mostly constrained by CPU (or
> probably I/O or a mix of everything, but RAM usage is still much
> below 8Gb).
> If I fire up virtualbox and run a couple of apps in XP RAM
> consumption goes up to 2.5Gb

Yeah, y'know, I did absolutely great with 2GB total physical RAM on my
work ThinkPad T42p around 2006-8, running native Debian w/Window Maker,
VMware Workstation 5.5, and guest-OS WinXP Pro.  Never felt cramped at
all.

I try to remember that a lot of classic desktop users, especially if
they're relying on the likes of Unity and other GNOME3-family things,
are going to be chewing up RAM like crazy.  Many of them also, I've
noticed, just launch things with wild abandon, never, ever look at a
process list, and expect to always have an arbitrarily large number of
Web browser tabs open -- and complain when things get slow, and have
absolutely no idea why.

Anyway, FWIW, about a minute after I wrote to Robert, I started writing
the follow-up that I also sent to this list, to help give perspective.

> I can think of few things that may require RAM if you're not a programmer:
> - gaming
> - photo/movie editing
> - you need a VM for Windows

To be sure.  But have you observed the habits of typical desktop users?
I mean, as to the things I talk about above.

Anyway, also FWIW, from what I've seen of Robert, he is probably
squarely a conventional home user, retired, I believe.

I don't want to post any unkind comments, but several of us at the CABAL
meeting found it pretty frustrating to talk him through some extremely
basic matters.  To give credit where due, Robert did afterwards do an
astonishingly good job in his shopping expedition.  After some of the
unpromising effort to help him during his visit, I nearly fell over from
astonishment at how well he selected his purchase.

> But I guess you've to have a pretty large extended family to be
> concerned about RAM... unless again you're offering public services
> eg. like a mailing list or a SMTP server.

I've found half a gig sufficient for many simultaneous public services
including SMTP and GNU Mailman for a couple of decades.  A gig and a
half is nice but unessential.

It's the desktop users with their bloatware DEs, lots of huge,
simultaneous apps, endless browser tabs, and unawareness of anything who
seem to need astonishing amounts of memory.

Anyway, I've always appreciated the way Linux can always put more RAM to
good use as disk cache, if nothing else.