Re: low cost workstation solution

[Jeff Licquia <jeff@luci.org>]

On Sat, Apr 22, 2000 at 07:06:55PM -0700, joe bonansinga wrote:

> I am looking for a low cost hardware for a linux workstation. I am a cold 
> fusion/SQL Developer developer using win98 @ work. With no surprise my 
> system routinely crashes and frustrates me. I am sick and tired of not being 
> able to get anything done with these tools. I spend so much time fixing and 
> reloading its a nightmare. I am looking to begin development with tools like 
> zope, PHP, PostgreSQL, Oracle 8i for Linux, Apache and even cold fusion 
> development on my own. The list can go on. I am extremely strapped for cash 
> at this time. My wife and just bought a house. So, at this time I cannot 
> justify spending lots of cash for a home workstation. I am looking for any 
> suggestions of where to find a low cost workstation, possibly used if in 
> good condition. But not so cheap I can't be efficient in my work. Any help 
> is greatly appreciated.

If you're planning to buy a system exclusively for Linux use, there
are a few good things to keep in mind:

 - Check those hardware compatibility lists.  Know what hardware the
system you're buying has, and make sure it all checks out, or that you 
can live without the hardware in question if it isn't listed.  There's 
a Hardware Compatibility HOWTO in the Linux Documentation Project
(www.luci.org/LDP for a local mirror), and most of the distros keep
their own lists as well.

 - If you care about having a modem, watch out for WinModems.  They
require a Windows driver to function (which obviously won't work under 
Linux).

 - If you must skimp, prefer memory over CPU.  As with most modern
OSes, Linux fares much better in the face of an underpowered CPU than
under low memory conditions.  You'll find that a 486 with 32MB RAM
performs much better than a Pentium with 16MB RAM, for example.

 - If you can, try to get 1 GB of storage for a workstation at least.
You can install Linux onto systems as small as 40 MB, and even run a
small single-purpose server from that, but you'll really be hurting
for spare space on a general development platform with less than 1 GB.
(Depending on what you're doing, even that might not be enough;
database work is famous for sucking disk space, for example.)

After that, go looking around and see what you can get.  Anything with 
a 386 or better will run Linux fine.  You'll need a minimum of 16MB
RAM and 500 MB disk as a general minimum configuration; if you want to 
run one of the popular desktops, you'll feel much better with 32MB RAM 
and 1G disk.

Looking at it from a money-saving perspective, the point of
diminishing returns (IMHO) is a decent high-end Pentium (166 or
higher, perhaps), 64MB RAM, and 2G disk.  This makes a really nice
basic workstation with most of the little annoyances taken care of.
Of course, you'll get better performance with better computers, but
this seemed to be a "sweet spot" for me.  Of course, YMMV.

If you buy new, any system on the market today will have plenty of
horsepower for Linux.  The big issue with new systems will be hardware 
compatibility, especially WinModems, weird video cards, and weird
sound cards.

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