Bloat, bottlenecks and free tools (was Re: Ridin' Through Gateway Country, Roundin' up details.... (fwd))

[damaged justice <frogfarm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Quoting Robert G. Brown (bob@acm.org):
> 
> >>With the volume of data a lot of people are handling today....
> >Volume of data?
> Yeah, volume of data. Animated graphics, Web Surfing (complete with client-
> side Java nad the JVM to run it), ISDN and cable modems (300K/sec downloads 
> for $50 per month), Encarta and other multimedia apps. Internet phone and 
> video. Games. Even a package like TurboTax is bloated from the 2 diskettes it 
> took in 1991 to a full CDROM today, complete with video clips of tax experts 
> telling you how to save money on your taxes.

As long as the installation leaves it up to the user as to whether to copy
the video clips to the hard drive... Bill Gates claimed years ago that
someday, computers would be so fast that programmers could get away with
writing inefficient software. The skyrocketing performance jumps we keep
seeing are great, but too many idiots use it as an excuse to write bloated,
inefficient code. The open source community, among other things, is showing
how much faster hardware can be when its software is written right.

> A lot of the bandwidth I'm talking about is embedded, not only coming down
> your phone line but also across the bus and out to the speakers and display
> screen.  Think about the data movement, and tell me that people aren't moving
> A LOT MORE DATA than they did in 1990.  Go Ahead, I dare ya! :)

Heh. As long as you have enough bandwidth (and lack of latency), you can
still get away with using less computing power than the industry would have
you believe. I'd be perfectly happy with even a 386-based Linux system as
long as it had A) as much RAM as possible, C) access to mass storage over a
LAN (why bother installing a local hard drive, most of the time?), and C) a
nice, big, fat pipe connecting it to the Internet. Heck, my single-mom
friend upgraded from a 1200 baud modem to a used 14.4, and that was enough
for her -- it allowed her to get more use out of her XT until she could
upgrade to a used 486.

The most important thing to know about any system is where the worst
"bottleneck" is -- what part of it slows everything else down the most?
At least, that's been my experience. It allows you to upgrade as cost-
effectively as possible.

"I got it one piece at a time,
 And it didn't cost me a dime..."
  - Johnny Cash

[snip]
> >But for home PC's I have a hard time imagining that Word Processing or your
> >personal budget would require more than a 486.
> As a user of WP 5.1 and quicken on an AT, I certainly agree.  Try buying that
> software today (NOT at one of those geeky computer sales or swap meets, I'm
> talking mass-market, for JQ Public), sorry, you're almost a decade late.

But even without "official support", hardware and software like this still
finds widespread use, partly due to informal user groups. People are still
doing useful things with Apple II's, C-64's, etc. All you have to do is let
people know those "geeky" marketplaces exist, and they'll jump at the
chance to check them out.

Just because something is old (or new) doesn't make it better (or worse). 
All the average buyer needs is better access to objective information.

> >But then I haven't really ran M$ since the Wfwg days.  I know that I
> >had three X-terminals hooked to my 486DX33 w/ 16Mb RAM and three users could
> >use Word Perfect 7.0, MPSQL, Z-Mail, and WingZ spreadsheets at the same time
> >without a problem (I'm serious!).  But then Linux is WAY more efficient than
> >Winbloze.
> Oh, I believe you; the fact is that you really can't set up that kind of 
> system on anything M$ based, at least without buying some (obscure) 3rd party
> software. The WinTel cartel wants you to buy more {Intel Inside [tm]} work-
> stations to do a LAN. Performance doesn't even enter into it.

I found TCP/IP for WfW for free downloading on Microsoft's FTP site. I've
gotten a lot of little gems from there that make their stuff more pleasant
to use. Other than the lack of a decent telnet daemon, I was able to get
WfW to do everything I needed it to do -- although if I had required true
multiuser capability, I wouldn't have hesitated to switch to Linux.

One of my favorite examples of free tools for Windows is the Cygnus port of
the GNU development kit. With it, both professionals and end users can
compile Unix-ish utilities as Win32 console (text-mode) applications. I'm
currently using Win32 ports of TinyFugue and wget -- what I'd really like
to see is all my favorite "major" apps that I use on a daily basis, like
mutt, tin, etc. If someone doesn't release them soon, I might be motivated
enough to try to do it myself. I thank the Unix world for getting me
started on this road over ten years ago when I had to compile my own copy
of tin on a Sun -- all they had was rn (blech!).

--
"There's no way the federal government could oppress the citizens, because
the populace is armed to the teeth, and the officials would just get their
heads blown off."
 - James Madison argues the pro-government position, Federalist Papers #46