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Re: What hardware are you using?
Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2020 5:18 pm
by crosscourt
Playing with older hardware isnt going as well as it use to these days. Debating on getting rid of some laptops, downsizing and going a bit newer.
Re: What hardware are you using?
Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2020 7:55 pm
by crosscourt
After making the comments above, my older laptops are doing much better with the recent kernel updates which honestly surprised me.
Re: What hardware are you using?
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 2:27 am
by tlmiller
I know with 5.6 (I think) they got rid of some untold millions of old lines, but I think it was mostly for old hardware (early IDE chipsets, early optical drives, etc), so that is somewhat surprising IMO.
Re: What hardware are you using?
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 4:30 pm
by crosscourt
The oldest hardware I have arfe the Dell E6400 laptops which are circa 2008-2009. A number of little issues are no longer an issue with the 5.4-5.6 kernels. Im assuming down the road it will go the other way and eventually the laptops wont like the newer kernels.
Re: What hardware are you using?
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 4:33 pm
by tlmiller
crosscourt wrote: ↑Mon Sep 21, 2020 4:30 pm
The oldest hardware I have arfe the Dell E6400 laptops which are circa 2008-2009. A number of little issues are no longer an issue with the 5.4-5.6 kernels. Im assuming down the road it will go the other way and eventually the laptops wont like the newer kernels.
No doubt. At this point much of the add-on hardware from the <586 era no longer has drivers in the kernel by default due to the pruning, and I'm sure it'll just continue, especially video card drivers that aren't maintained anymore.
Re: What hardware are you using?
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 4:36 pm
by crosscourt
Broadcom drivers I have to install myself on some distros. Graphics drivers so far have been fine.
Re: What hardware are you using?
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 4:38 pm
by tlmiller
Well, broadcom's not open source, that's the primary reason with them. But many of the older graphics drivers even though they're open source simply noone maintains them, so they've been wanting to get rid of them for a couple years now (SIS, Matrox, early Nvidia and ATI). I think they might have gotten rid of SOME, but not sure really, I haven't been paying a ton of attention.
Re: What hardware are you using?
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 4:40 pm
by crosscourt
Some distros pick up on the Broadcom drivers with me having to do nothing, its interesting.
Re: What hardware are you using?
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 4:41 pm
by tlmiller
Yeah, lots of distro's ignore the libre requirements that some distro's are very strict on. Just depends on who the developer is and what country they're in.
Re: What hardware are you using?
Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2020 4:26 pm
by wove
My wife picked up a couple DVDs at a yard sale and last night I powered up my PowerMac G5 to rip them with Handbrake to m4v. It gets fired up a couple times a month. Webkit and openGL are open source and people are still compiling them to work on PPC hardware even though Apple does not. So while there are no new features in this old Safari, it uses a new(ish) backend and still works fine. I have HomeBrew installed which exposes the BSD sub-system and allows one to install (compile) items from the FreeBSD ports.
The biggest reason I do not use it more is that it consumes 600+ watts in operation. I use it more in the winter where it has the side effect of keeping the room warm.
bill