0271ace2   
   XPost: comp.os.linux.advocacy   
   From: kbjarnason@gmail.com   
      
   [snips]   
      
   On Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:43:52 -0800, Rex Ballard wrote:   
      
   > Turn off indexing of the whole drive, and index ONLY the documents that   
   > you really need to search - preferably a subdirectory of "My Documents".   
   >  One of the problems with Indexing the entire drive on Windows, is that   
   > EVERY document, including cached web pages, e-mails and other   
   > "transitional" documents - end up in the index.   
      
   So what?  I index everything from my home folder on down - which means   
   all my emails, all my documents, source code, game files, yadda yadda   
   yadda yadda.  If this slows down the system, there's a serious flaw in   
   the indexer; the correct solution is to fix the defective software.   
      
      
   > Another problem is the anti-malware packages.  A good package, such as   
   > Norton 360 gives you one pass to capture everything.  If you have   
   > separate antivirus, anti-spyware, and anti-malware detectors, they can   
   > often compete with each other, and can mess up each other's datings and   
   > timings.   
      
   A good reason not to run such tools, I'm sure.  Again, the correct   
   solution is to fix the defective software - in this case the OS - which   
   makes such things necessary in the first place.   
      
      
   > Linux users need to run antivirus on files they intend to SHARE with   
   > Windows users   
      
   No we don't.  If viruses bug you, complain to the company that makes them   
   possible thanks to its Swiss cheese OS.  Don't expect me to waste cycles   
   scanning the files I send you; do it yourself, or don't ask me for the   
   files, or tell MS to fix their damned OS.   
      
   > themselves.  The usual precautions apply.  If someone tells you to   
   > download their software and log in as root to install it - you'd better   
   > know the vendor and/or the content of the product.   
      
   It's a simple rule: if you expect me to do *anything* as root, it's up to   
   *you* to establish that I should trust you.  Failing that, kindly screw   
   the hell off.  Apparently, MS's approach to that is to pop up a dialog so   
   barking often that users become trained to simply click "accept".  Ah,   
   yes, security.  What a wonderful sound it makes as it goes flying right   
   out the window.   
      
      
   > Windows users also have trouble with third party software.   
      
   Indeed, but it seems to be more or less unique to Windows to have trouble   
   with third party software installed by others without the system owner's   
   knowledge or consent.   
      
   > The generic   
   > Microsoft library, which includes about 80% of the code for Microsoft   
   > Office - is bundled into a group of libraries which can gobble up 2   
   > gigabytes of RAM before you've even started a purchased application.   
      
   One can do the same with, say, OOo - preload key files to make it start   
   more quickly.  I suspect the major difference here is in "can do", versus   
   "has it done automagically".   
      
   > Adding third party products can quickly gobble up another 2 gig of RAM.   
   > If you only have 32 bit Windows or you only have 4 gig of RAM, your   
   > performance is likely to suffer because you will have to start swapping   
   > memory to the hard drive.   
      
   You've gotta be kidding, right?  This box has 4GB RAM in it.  Right now,   
   it is running, among other things:   
      
     Apache   
     Postgres   
     MySQL   
     Samba   
     Leafnode   
     Postfix   
     SpamAssassin   
      
   And, in desktop-land, it's running:   
      
     KDE 4.6   
     Kopete   
     Pan   
     Firefox   
     Konsole   
     Chrome   
     Epiphany   
     Kmail   
     Assorted this and that - plasmoids, systray applets, etc   
      
   So, let's check memory, shall we?   
      
   free -m   
                total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached   
   Mem:          3931       3583        348          0        107       1337   
   -/+ buffers/cache:       2138       1792   
   Swap:         1027        144        883   
      
      
   Hmm.  348MB free. And that 144MB swapped, well, let's just say it doesn't   
   impact performance much.  But wait... we forgot office!  Let me bring up   
   OOo writer...   
      
   Okay, that took a whole three seconds.  Let's check memory usage again:   
      
   free -m   
                total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached   
   Mem:          3931       3667        263          0        109       1390   
   -/+ buffers/cache:       2167       1764   
   Swap:         1027        144        883   
      
   Oh, yes, I see the crippling impact of running office apps.   
      
   So, Windows falls on its face under this sort of load, does it?  Linux   
   barely even works up a sweat.   
      
      
   >  Many companies looking at Windows 7 have   
   > discovered that they will need AT LEAST EIGHT GIGABYTES to be able to   
   > run the corporate applications that MUST be run - in addition to the   
   > standard Microsoft Applications like Office, Visio, and Project.  This   
   > is tending to cause corporations to delay Windows 7 implementation even   
   > further.   
      
   8GB RAM?  I'm sure it would come in handy, but it's far from necessary.   
   After all, it's not like I _have to_ run Postgres and Apache all the   
   time, they're really there for development and testing purposes.  Thing   
   is, they're not "in the way", so who cares if they're running or not?   
   Now maybe if I only had 2GB of RAM I might care, but with 4GB, well, not   
   an issue.   
      
   And Windows crapware sucks up 8GB just for the _required_ apps, eh?   
   Pretty sad.   
      
      
   > Office 2010 is also a memory pig.  Not sure why a simple word processor   
   > needs more memory than a feature length movie - but there might be some   
   > "easter eggs" I don't know about in there.   
      
   "Easter egg 1: an entire HD rendering of 'Big Buck Bunny'".   
      
      
   > Windows XP users using Office 2003 should also avoid installing the   
   > patch that is supposed to make it possible to view and edit Office 2007   
   > and Office 2010 documents.   
      
   Makes perfect sense: in order to support a newer file format, you must,   
   obviously, use a newer OS.  Wait, no, that's insane.   
      
   > These patches load a second set of libraries   
   > and all of this extra logic has to be mapped in an out of cache as well   
   > as to virtual memory if you don't have the physical memory.   
      
   Good God.   
      
   > A good thing to watch for is how much the disk light is on.  With   
   > Windows, you will notice that even when you are doing something as   
   > simple as editing a text file, your hard drive lite will be on   
   > frequently, possibly even all the time.   
      
   One thing I've noticed is, on this laptop - which is a dual-boot, Vista64/   
   Ubuntu64 setup - that when booting Vista, it will usually hammer the   
   drive so hard during startup that the machine is completely unusable for   
   a good five minutes from power on.  Ubuntu does a heavy load stage, too,   
   but nowhere near as long.   
      
   >> And how long will the reinstall fix things before the Windows Rot sets   
   >> in again? Six months, if you’re lucky. A more permanent solution would   
   >> be: get rid of Windwows.   
   >   
   > This is what's making the "Windows on Linux" alternative more attractive   
   > to corporations.  If users can just reload a glean image - from a USB   
   > drive, or from a server, the recovery time can drop radically.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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