Re: An old box running Debian 8

From	Nicholas Geovanis <nickgeovanis@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	linux.debian.user
Subject	Re: An old box running Debian 8
Date	2020-11-13 16:20 +0100
Message-ID	<BaJ1M-6AC-29@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
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I guess Im not the only crank with antique hardware. One of my few unending
beefs with the linux kernel is swap behavior. Everyone knows what it's for
and how it "works". But even glancing thru the code doesn't explain its
real-time run-time behavior. In contrast, the last time I had swap issues
like that on a BSD-line unix OS was 35 years ago (on DEC hardware ;-) Same
thing with commercial Solaris, HP/UX, AIX. What is the linux kernel doing
wrong?

On Fri, Nov 13, 2020, 8:35 AM Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>
wrote:

> > When it happens, I'll probably play the same 'upgrade game' with the next
> > 'elderly' candidate (CPU Athlon XP 2500+ 1.84 GHz, 512 MB RAM). I
> purchased
> > it some ten years ago as then second-hand, for some 70 US$, incl. CRT
> > display, keyboard, mouse ... I have recently upgraded it from Deb 8 to 9,
>
> I also like to use my machines "as long as possible" and my game plan to
> maximize their life expectancy is to max-out their memory (since a slow
> CPU will just be slow, but a lack of memory will result in thrashing
> which renders the system much slower than just "slow").
>
> An Athlon XP 2500+ should still be quite usable nowadays, but 512MB is
> on the small side, tho it's probably still adequate for most non-GUI
> uses (my oldest machine is a Thinkpad X30, with a 1.2GHz Pentium III and
> its 1GB of RAM is the main limitation (along with a silly "fallback on
> 30MB/s in absence of 80wire cable" on the PATA port which makes it
> access its M.2 SSD at a rather pedestrian 30MB/s)).
>
> The price of RAM tends to go down over time but only for some years.
> After that, you'll find that the price starts rising again (because
> the kind of RAM you need has become old&rare).  So you want to keep an
> eye on the price of your memory and max it out before its price starts
> rising again.
>
>
>         Stefan
>
>

Thread

An old box running Debian 8 Miroslav Skoric <skoric@uns.ac.rs> - 2020-11-11 18:50 +0100
  Re: An old box running Debian 8 Linux-Fan <Ma_Sys.ma@web.de> - 2020-11-11 19:10 +0100
    Re: An old box running Debian 8 Miroslav Skoric <skoric@uns.ac.rs> - 2020-11-12 23:50 +0100
      Re: An old box running Debian 8 Linux-Fan <Ma_Sys.ma@web.de> - 2020-11-13 00:20 +0100
        Re: An old box running Debian 8 Miroslav Skoric <skoric@uns.ac.rs> - 2020-11-13 15:20 +0100
          Re: An old box running Debian 8 Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2020-11-13 16:00 +0100
            Re: An old box running Debian 8 David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2020-11-13 21:30 +0100
              Re: An old box running Debian 8 Miroslav Skoric <skoric@uns.ac.rs> - 2020-11-14 17:50 +0100
                Re: An old box running Debian 8 Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2020-11-15 09:50 +0100
                Re: An old box running Debian 8 David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2020-11-17 16:30 +0100
                Re: An old box running Debian 8 Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2020-11-17 16:50 +0100
                Re: An old box running Debian 8 David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2020-11-18 16:50 +0100
                Re: An old box running Debian 8 Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2020-11-18 17:00 +0100
                Re: An old box running Debian 8 Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2020-11-18 18:20 +0100
                Re: An old box running Debian 8 Michael Stone <mstone@debian.org> - 2020-11-18 19:10 +0100
                Re: An old box running Debian 8 David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2020-11-18 21:40 +0100
            Re: An old box running Debian 8 Miroslav Skoric <skoric@uns.ac.rs> - 2020-11-14 17:50 +0100
  Re: An old box running Debian 8 Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2020-11-11 19:10 +0100
    Re: An old box running Debian 8 Miroslav Skoric <skoric@uns.ac.rs> - 2020-11-12 23:50 +0100
  Re: An old box running Debian 8 Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2020-11-11 19:50 +0100
    Re: An old box running Debian 8 Miroslav Skoric <skoric@uns.ac.rs> - 2020-11-12 23:50 +0100
      Re: An old box running Debian 8 Doug McGarrett <dmcgarrett@optonline.net> - 2020-11-13 02:40 +0100
        Re: An old box running Debian 8 Miroslav Skoric <skoric@uns.ac.rs> - 2020-11-13 15:20 +0100
          Re: An old box running Debian 8 Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2020-11-13 15:40 +0100
            Re: An old box running Debian 8 Nicholas Geovanis <nickgeovanis@gmail.com> - 2020-11-13 16:20 +0100
              Re: An old box running Debian 8 Dan Ritter <Dan@randomstring.org> - 2020-11-13 16:30 +0100
                Re: An old box running Debian 8 Nicholas Geovanis <nickgeovanis@gmail.com> - 2020-11-13 17:30 +0100
                Re: An old box running Debian 8 Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2020-11-14 00:20 +0100
                Re: An old box running Debian 8 Nicholas Geovanis <nickgeovanis@gmail.com> - 2020-11-13 17:50 +0100
                Re: An old box running Debian 8 Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2020-11-13 18:10 +0100
  Re: An old box running Debian 8 Long Wind <longwind2@yahoo.com> - 2020-11-11 21:50 +0100
    Re: Celeron vis a vis Pentium (was: An old box running Debian 8) Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2020-11-11 22:30 +0100
      Re: Celeron vis a vis Pentium (was: An old box running Debian 8) Long Wind <longwind2@yahoo.com> - 2020-11-12 04:50 +0100
      Re: Celeron vis a vis Pentium Miroslav Skoric <skoric@uns.ac.rs> - 2020-11-13 15:20 +0100
  Re: An old box running Debian 8 Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> - 2020-11-11 22:10 +0100
    Re: An old box running Debian 8 Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2020-11-11 22:30 +0100
      Re: An old box running Debian 8 riveravaldez <riveravaldezmail@gmail.com> - 2020-11-12 03:40 +0100
        Re: An old box running Debian 8 Michael Lange <klappnase@freenet.de> - 2020-11-12 10:00 +0100
          Re: An old box running Debian 8 Miroslav Skoric <skoric@uns.ac.rs> - 2020-11-14 17:50 +0100
            Re: An old box running Debian 8 Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2020-11-14 18:50 +0100
              Re: An old box running Debian 8 Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> - 2020-11-14 20:30 +0100
                Re: An old box running Debian 8 John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2020-11-14 21:50 +0100
                Re: An old box running Debian 8 Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> - 2020-11-14 22:40 +0100
                Re: An old box running Debian 8 John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2020-11-14 23:20 +0100
            Re: An old box running Debian 8 Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2020-11-14 20:40 +0100
    Re: An old box running Debian 8 Miroslav Skoric <skoric@uns.ac.rs> - 2020-11-12 23:50 +0100
      Re: An old box running Debian 8 Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2020-11-13 00:00 +0100
        Re: An old box running Debian 8 Linux-Fan <Ma_Sys.ma@web.de> - 2020-11-13 00:40 +0100
      Re: An old box running Debian 8 Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> - 2020-11-13 01:00 +0100
      Re: An old box running Debian 8 Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2020-11-13 13:10 +0100
      Re: An old box running Debian 8 Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2020-11-13 13:40 +0100
  Re: An old box running Debian 8 Patrick Bartek <nemommxiv@gmail.com> - 2020-11-13 00:10 +0100
    Re: An old box running Debian 8 Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2020-11-13 13:10 +0100

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