[mdlug] Completely replacing Windows 98se with Linux!

[Ingles, Raymond]

> From: Ingles, Raymond

> From a practical perspective, sure. But there are a few good points. They offer an interesting contrast for perspective on how far we've come...
> and where we're going. For example, there isn't any undocumented firmware between you and the hardware. You can access anything you like.

One other possibly interesting observation. Comparing the old computer to my current desktop, the modern machine has:

 1. 500 times the RAM
 2. 500 times the disk space
 3. 500 times the video memory

In terms of I/O:

 1. The Ethernet is 100 times faster (Gigabit vs 10mbit)
 2. The basic system bus is 100 times faster (PCI Express v3 vs ISA/VLB)
 3. Peripheral connections are about 30 times faster (USB 2.0 vs Parallel port, don't have any USB 3.0 devices)

But the CPU is only about 50 times as fast. (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/benchmark-marathon,590-5.html) Of course, it has four cores, so you could make a case for it being ~200 times as fast, but even today a lot of loads aren't parallelized well.

So over the past two decades, storage capacity has grown faster than I/O bandwidth, and both have grown faster than CPU power.

Interesting to think what it might mean if those trends continue for another couple decades.
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