Oldfeller--FSO wrote on 10/22/18 at 10:02:33:


Maybe we should call it WaSn't  because I'll never install it.

https://chromeunboxed.com/googles-end-of-life-policy-for-chromebooks-gets-upd...



Google’s End Of Life Policy For Chromebooks Gets “Updated”

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en   this is the policy as it is right how   6.5 years of support from date of release for everybody.

Last year Google extended the End of Life for Chromebooks from 4 years to 5. In my original article I attested to why this policy was, for the most part, irrelevant due to a number of reasons. In hind sight, I failed to consider the fact that Chromebooks have and continue to dominate the educational market and continuing device updates are not only relevant but crucial to many.

GOOD NEWS
Recently we reported on what appears to be the end of automatic updates for Google’s original Chromebook, the CR-48. While researching I glanced back at the support page for the End of Life policy and stumbled upon some subtle, yet very important changes.

First, a name change. The End of Life policy, in recent months, has been renamed the Auto Update policy. This is, in my opinion, a much more fitting name for the policy. When a device ceases to receive updates that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road. Just recently I saw a user in the Chromebook Central forum who is still using her new 6 year old CR-48 on a daily basis. Which leads me to the next, and more important change to the policy.

The Chromebook Auto Update Expiration (AUE) has now been extended to six and a half (6.5) years from date of release. That’s a pretty big jump from five. Extending updates for an extra 18 months can afford administrators the needed time to budget for replacement devices.

The Google support page specifically addresses business and education devices and the original consumer support page now forward to the same page. That would lead me to believe the Auto Update policy will apply to consumer devices as well. Keep in mind the dates from the support page are not official unless otherwise notated. This means updates can extend past these dates but are guaranteed to continue to at least the date listed.

You can find the details for the Chromebook Auto Update policy as well as Android devices by following the link below.

*Update* The second bullet point after the first paragraph of the support page clearly states the AUE policy DOES apply to consumer devices.


Google has a problem.  Their throw away Chromebooks won't die and won't slow down and the old ones still function very very well because the Internet simply keeps getting better and better.    Google Tensor 3 data farms are so strong that update supporting a myrad educational and business chromebooks really isn't any form of issue to Google and gets to be a less important thing as Tensor gets stronger and better year on year on year.

6.5 years of flawless over the net support from date of release now goes across the board to everybody's Chromebook.

Having said this, let's talk about ARM Chromebook chipsets and the ARM AI blocks that now go into most all "built on ARM technology" SoCs now-a-days.   These AI blocks get used for lots of different things, as they are now "general use AI blocks" that respond to pre-programmed Tensor and other similar software calls.   These AI blocks specialize in implementing pre-learned pre-programmed AI calls, but they can be tasked (and are) to learn new things if they are tasked to go learn something.   This "requested learning activity" shows up in Android and in ChromeOS as programmed by Google.

There is lots of idle time available on a cell phone or a Chromebook to do this sort of background learning, and mostly they are tasked with learning the ins and outs of you the user.  Modern Android phones are able to predict your wants and pre-meet some of your needs.

Intel can't do any of this.

Now about this situation with the EU trying to slow Google down so EU companies can compete better, well, that particular action isn't going to fix anything because the EU companies are so far lost in the past that competition with Google simply isn't ever going to happen.  

The EU fines are protectionism, pure and simple.   And the purest simplest form of EU bureaucratic greed.  Trump will have to deal with that, eventually, as China and India are going to put America into the same boat as the EU is currently sitting, within 5-6 years time I would guesstimate.    And Trump will treat it like any other expired treaty, especially one sided ones like where the EU isn't keeping up their end of our trade agreements at all.

Quantum computing is coming along, not super soon but it is coming.   AI is here, but you got to be current with that AI world to take advantage of the power of AI.    America leads in AI, but China is moving right along, moving right along.

Change, she comes ......

 
https://www.zdnet.com/article/worst-windows-10-version-ever-microsofts-terrib...



Worst Windows 10 version ever?
Microsoft's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad October

The month began almost triumphantly for Microsoft, with the announcement on October 2 that its second Windows 10 release of the year, version 1809, was ready for delivery to the public, right on schedule. Then, just days later, the company took the unprecedented action of pulling the October 2018 Update from its servers while it investigated a serious, data-destroying bug.

An embarrassing drip-drip-drip of additional high-profile bug reports has continued all month long. Built-in support for Zip files is not working properly. A keyboard driver caused some HP devices to crash with a Blue Screen of Death. Some system fonts are broken. Intel pushed the wrong audio driver through Windows Update, rendering some systems suddenly silent. Your laptop's display brightness might be arbitrarily reset.

And with November fast approaching, the feature update still hasn't been re-released.

What went wrong? My ZDNet colleague Mary Jo Foley suggests Microsoft is so focused on new features that it's losing track of reliability and fundamentals. At Ars Technica, Peter Bright argues that the Windows development process is fundamentally flawed.

Or maybe there's an even simpler explanation.

I suspect a large part of the blame comes down to Microsoft's overreliance on one of the greatest management principles of the last half-century or so: "What gets measured gets done." That's certainly a good guiding principle for any organization, but it also leads to a trap for any manager who doesn't also consider what's not being measured.

For Windows 10, a tremendous number of performance and reliability events are measured constantly on every Windows 10 PC. Those streams of diagnostic data come from the Connected User Experience and Telemetry component, aka the Universal Telemetry Client. And there's no doubt that Microsoft is using that telemetry data to improve the fundamentals of Windows 10.

In that September 2017 blog post, for example, Microsoft brags that it improved battery life by 17 percent in Microsoft Edge, made boot times 13 percent faster, and saw an 18 percent reduction in users hitting "certain system stability issues." All that data translated into greater reliability, as measured by a dramatically reduced volume of calls to Microsoft's support lines:

Our internal customer support teams are reporting significant reductions in call and online support request volumes since the Anniversary Update. During this time, we've seen a healthy decline in monthly support volumes, most notably with installation and troubleshooting update inquiries taking the biggest dip.

Microsoft has been focusing intently on stuff it can see in its telemetry dashboard, monitoring metrics like installation success rates, boot times, and number of crashes. On those measures of reliability and performance, Windows 10 is unquestionably better than any of its predecessors.

Unfortunately, that focus has been so intense that the company missed what I call "soft errors," where everything looks perfectly fine on the telemetry dashboard and every action returns a success event even when the result is anything but successful.

Telemetry is most effective at gathering data to diagnose crashes and hangs. It provides great feedback for developers looking to fine-tune performance of Windows apps and features. It can do a superb job of pinpointing third-party drivers that aren't behaving properly.

But telemetry fails miserably at detecting anything that isn't a crash or an unambiguous failure. In theory, those low-volume, high-impact issues should be flagged by members of the Windows Insider Program in the Feedback Hub.

And indeed, there were multiple bug reports from members of the Windows Insider Program, over a period of several months, flagging the issue that caused data to be lost during some upgrades. There were also multiple reports that should have caught the Zip file issue before it was released.

So why were those reports missed? If you've spent any time in the Feedback Hub, you know that the quality of reporting varies wildly.   Hysterical fanboys are not noted for their technical depth or their calm, detail fact driven bug reporting.    

In one particular case six different fanboy ways of reporting the same exact bug caused the automated report system not to note it as a single major bug at all ......

Ultimately, if Microsoft is going to require most of its non-Enterprise customers to install feature updates twice a year the responsibility to test changes in those features starts in Redmond.   The two most serious bugs in this cycle, both of which wound up in a released product, were caused because of a change in the fundamental working of a feature.

An experienced software tester could have and should have caught those issues. A good tester knows that testing edge cases matters. A developer rushing to check in code to meet a semi-annual ship deadline is almost certainly not going to test every one of those cases and might not even consider the possibility that customers will use that feature in an unintended way.

So, Microsoft has "downsized" all their software Quality Assurance Testers and their entire QA organization.   Miracle Max the wise old wizard from the Princess Bride understood the need for Software QA Testers, and he has some choice wise words for those people who pay out good money for software that is built by a company like this .......




          ....  and for this you are paying like $140 for this level of "non-service"?     Smuck, yes, a smuck -- YOU are a smuck .......    smuck smuck idiotic stupid smuck 



===================================================



At the very tag end of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad October for Microsoft Microsoft finds that IBM and Red Hat are combining together to clearly take the #1 spot in the Enterprise Linux market.   This upsets Microsoft's smoothly progressing plan to quietly ooze in from the side and claim be able to claim dominance in the Linux marketplace.

Microsoft now has a MUCH larger competitor to face in that Linux Enterprise marketplace, one that has the chops to make businesses have to make real choices as to which pathway they will follow.

We look to see Microsoft try to buy Ubuntu or some other major distro outright in an attempt to regain an edge in the Linux world domination / competition.



==================================================    October Update delay is turning into a full rewrite of 2 features



https://www.computerworld.com/article/3317560/microsoft-windows/as-windows-10...

"If Windows-as-a-Service is in fact a hosted service, if general availability is paused, is the support window of 18 or 30 months extended by the number of days for each pause?" asked Wes Miller, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, in an Oct. 11 tweet.

It was unclear if Microsoft will redress the support shortfall, and if so, how. In April, when Microsoft delayed the release of Windows 10 1803 to the month's final day it added time to support. Rather than an Oct. 8, 2019 end of support for Home and Pro - based on an expected April 10, 2018, debut - Microsoft set it to expire Nov. 12, 2019. (That gave Home and Pro customers 18 months and 15 days of support.)

Microsoft could extend support for 1809 in the same way. For example, if the firm re-starts distribution on Friday, Nov. 2, it could restate end-of-support for Home and Pro as May 12, 2020, giving users 18 months and 10 days of security patches and bug fixes.

When asked today whether Microsoft will add more time to 1809's support, a spokeswoman said the company declined to comment.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MY DATA ??!!    You promised us a data retrieval fix inside of two weeks
and now it is November, more than six weeks later !!!!

https://wccftech.com/snapdragon-8150-three-cpu-clusters-gold-plus-cores/

https://liliputing.com/2018/10/smartphones-with-folding-screens-are-almost-he...


                                                                                             Qualcomm 8150        Snapdragon 845        a penny

We have been promising two sets of more intense ARM 7nm processor moves on the tablet and laptop side of things for a while now, and the first has partially arrived RIGHT NOW as an early release of the Deimos 7nm generation of ARM processors with the next series, the 5nm Hercules SOC to follow on in 4th quarter 2019.  

Qualcomm is expected to make an announcement during the month of October, showing its latest and greatest Snapdragon 8150. The chipset will be made on TSMC’s 7nm FinFET architecture, resulting in greater performance and efficiency metrics for future smartphones. Qualcomm could also be implementing a new three CPU-core cluster, delivering when performance is needed while taking advantage of the efficient cores to conserve battery life and tackling the less taxing operations.

Qualcomm Could Be Using the Same ARM Deimos Implementation as Huawei Did With Its Kirin 980 SoC
Latest Qualcomm SoC Also Uses a Triple CPU Core Cluster and an stronger AI processor block

According to Roland Quandt, a long-time technology reporter at the publication WinFuture, he states that just like the Kirin 980, the Snapdragon 8150 will be using a three CPU core cluster design. He was one of the first to leak information that Qualcomm is not going to be using the ‘Snapdragon 855’ name to address its 7nm SoC for smartphones and tablets. Instead, the chipset manufacturer is opting for a new name in order to help avoid confusion between the silicon powering mobile phones and the one powering notebooks.

In case you didn’t know, Huawei’s Kirin 980 has adopted a triple CPU-core cluster, with the details given below:

Two x 2.60GHz Cortex-A76 cores
Two x 1.92GHz Cortex-A76 cores
Four x 1.8GHz Cortex-A55 cores

According to what the reporter shared, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8150 will reportedly feature two ‘Gold Plus’ or ‘Gold+’ cores. We believe that these cores are going to be running at a higher frequency. If the Snapdragon 845’s Gold cores are able to run at a 2.80GHz clock speed (2.96GHz on the ASUS ROG Phone), then we believe that Qualcomm should not run into complications touching the 3.00GHz mark.

Both Qualcomm and Huawei and Mediatek are shipping triple core set ARM processor products now and interestingly the screen folding phone/tablet has suddenly become real as well, it is also running on the more powerful Qualcomm 8150 ARM processor.



Samsung and LG have been working on smartphones with flexible displays for years now and rumor has it that they’re about to hit the streets. But it looks like they won’t be alone.

Evan Blass reports that LG will reveal its folding phone at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Ice Universe says there will be three foldable phones announced at CES and Mobile World Congress… and that doesn’t include Samsung, which is also expected to launch a folding phone sometime in 2019.

But a Chinese company called Rouyu Technology appears to have beat them all to market. It just unveiled the FlexiPai — a smartphone that turns into a tablet when you unfold the 7.8 inch flexible AMOLED display.

The Rouyu FlexiPai is also one of the first devices powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8150 processor. It measures 7.6mm (0.3 inches) thick when unfolded, and has a 4.5 inch display (and a large side bezel) when the screen is folded in half.

The phone also has dual cameras, with a 16MP primary camera and a 20MP telephoto camera.

Prices are expected to range from about $1,290 for a 6GB/128GB model to $1,860 for an 8GB/512GB version when the phone goes up for pre-sale November 1st.


We in addition to the folding super phones, we expect the first prototype working models of Win 10 laptops using this Qualcomm 8150 SoC to show up at CES in January.


==================================================


We also expect Intel to finalize some of their lower end laptop chipsets to be production run at TSMC simply in order to keep their low end market share losses minimized.  This is a required move now since Intel cannot run all of their own crop of little bitty chipsets due to their large ongoing production crunch aggravated by Intel shutting some Intel production lines down temporarily for upgrade renovations.

The ever looming potential for Intel to completely lose the still sizable Apple business is also prompting Intel to move into TSMC production of a selected few of the smaller lower power Intel designs ASAP as Intel fears if they do not make a viable improved world class small laptop chipset available to Apple ASAP that Apple will put their own very nice A-12x SoC or their next year's A-13x SoC into their smaller lighter laptops starting in late 2019.
And this Apple laptop business ONCE GONE would never come back to Intel, ever.

Adding some hard reality to the above paragraph, please realize that Apple's current A-12x SoC is a very very capable processor, fully able to run a iPad Pro up at Intel Core i5 MacBook performance levels.  

Remember, next year's A-13x SoC will be much much stronger than this year's A-12x.

https://liliputing.com/2018/11/qualcomm-snapdragon-8150-apple-a12x-bionic-ben...

Here’s a run-down of some of the impressively higher scores for the A-12x vs the much lower benchmarks for the Qualcomm 8150 and the Huawei Kirin 980:

Geekbench multi-core
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 w/Apple A12X Bionic – 18,217
Apple iPhone XS w/Apple A12 Bionic – 11,472
Apple iPhone X w/Apple A11 Bionic – 10,215
Snapdragon 8150 – 10,084
Huawei Mate 20 Pro w/Kirin 980 – 9,712
Google Pixel 3 XL w/Snapdragon 845 – 8,088

Geekbench single-core
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 w/Apple A12X Bionic – 5,020
Apple iPhone XS w/Apple A12 Bionic – 4,823
Apple iPhone X w/Apple A11 Bionic – 4,256
Huawei Mate 20 Pro w/Kirin 980 – 3,291
Snapdragon 8150 – 3,181
Google Pixel 3 XL w/Snapdragon 845 – 2,363

....... and now here is something Intel makes sure you NEVER get to see --- the Geekbench scores of their Intel processors ........

http://browser.geekbench.com/processor-benchmarks      real eye opener, huh ???   The only defense Intel had was to add cores, add cores, and add still more cores.


===================================================


When this TSMC / Intel production runs move eventually happens, expect to see a whole lot of intentional confusion between what a TSMC run Intel designed chipset can do (at nice tight modern EUV direct burn lithography level) vs what Intel's own domestic production off of their old fuzzy multi-mask lithography can do, especially in extended run time and greater throughput due to better thermal efficiency and less throttling.

Intel's PR group won't be able to resist the opportunity to lie very creatively during this period of time, using process data from TSMC and benchmarks from various trial run TSMC chipsets, etc. etc.   ...... a lot of confusion and some very muddied water is Intel's best friend during the ARM market share takeover period ......

Lastly, you do realize this latest 9th generation of very modest improvement of Intel chipsets (only 12-15% in reality) comes mostly from better heat sink and fan systems and from adding more cores and from tweeking the processor overclocking and slowdown modes and playing games with the on-board thermal slow down speed sensors.  

These are some dirty tricks that Intel has copied from the overclocking boys and the oriental cell phone boys.  Intel has not made any real progress in Gen 9 processors by doing any real structural or lithographic changes in the Intel chip designs.   Plus, some considerable time was spent by Intel "optimizing" drivers to harm AMD and in doing some carefully programmed cheating while taking common benchmark tests.   ...... and hiring lying test houses to do the testing for them ......

Intel believes in the old saying "If you ain't cheating some, you really ain't even really trying."

OK, we are being asked by Savage.com list members how to to duplicate a cheap Linux box again.

First, don't buy a skinny little Dell box --- I went through two of them in less than 5 years time and the issues were as follows:

The power supply fan in the little thin half-height box is noisy as hell.

It is a pain in the ass to get a decent video card into them.   You have to get a half height video card and that costs a lot of extra money for the video card.

Next, the 45-50 watt power supply units in those skinny little Dell units are crap --- they power limit the box to the point it CAN'T ADEQUATELY POWER UP THE HALF HEIGHT VIDEO CARD YOU FINALLY FIND TO BUY.   This can cause early Video Card death in these units.     ...... thank God for extended warranties on video cards and that I actually bought one this time (2nd try) ......

Next, the overall service life of the video card stressed too durn small power supply Dell box sucks, I never got more than 2 years of solid, no trouble use out of either of them.   Part of this was running the power supply up at the raggedy edge of death, the rest was dust and cat fuzz getting into the power supply fan (the only cooling fan the little box has).  

The thin little half-height boxes are doomed to give you trouble early and then to die on you early, in other words.   And the replacement power supply costs as much as the entire refurb half height Dell unit did.

Note what I recommend in the picture of my big Linux box below.   It is an old full sized Engineering workstation with a FULL SIZED CASE AND POWER SUPPLY that can mount a full size video card (much much cheaper to buy on sale than a half height card with anywhere near modern specs).

Also note the fan in the full sized box is huge and totally quiet, and by putting the poly fabric air filter all around the front air vents I stopped the dust and cat fuzz from getting into the unit and screwing up the power supply and fan.

Lastly, you are paying way too much for the half height unit with the sorry power supply.   You are spending nearly twice as much as buying them from Ebay sources or best yet, directly from a large refurb house who is peddling off their odds and ends at Black Friday time really really cheap.

Specs on an Engineering Workstation even back them were pretty good, 8 gigs of memory, a decent sized hard drive, a good Intel Core 2 duo chipset and a 450 watt power supply.

I bought this unit on Black Friday sale for $79 with no OS supplied.   I used to take it apart to blow out the dust once a year, but since I put the air filter bra on it that isn't needed any longer.

Reminder, buying a decent modern video card is important ...... most of what we consider response speed is painting the web pages on your screen.   A modern video card has enough guts to do this VERY quickly and you will find that the computer CPU isn't as important as you thought it was.  

Next, only buy stuff that has Linux drivers for it GOOD PROVEN drivers that are included inside the Linux kernel itself.  This maximizes the speed of both the processing unit and the video system.   This step requires you to know and understand what is "Intel inside" and what video processor you are planning on using.  Hint, Nvidia tends to be supported much much later,  much much much much much later than AMD / Radeon graphics cards and the AMD / Radeon card is much cheaper to buy as well.


===================================================


This is intended as an example of the sorts of people you need to be dealing with.   They have better machines off in the corner that will get sold on Black Friday for really really cheap, just to clear them out.  Pick a 3 ghz Core 2 duo or better machine and TALK TO THE PEOPLE --- they can max out the systems memory for very very cheap as they pull the memory sticks from the dead machines they take in.

Buy a full sized Dell box  preferably an Engineering workstation model as they have the very best specs.

https://discountcomputerdepot.com/todays-top-deals-save-big/desktop-deals/fas...

THIS IS FOR EXAMPLE ONLY, it still costs too too much.   You are paying $45 for a Win 10 license you won't use and this particular offer isn't but for 4 gigs of systems memory and it isn't an Engineering workstation grade device at all.

Scrounge, look diligently at several new sources every day and around Black Friday your Linux box will come to you.

PREDICTION TIME:

Intel will begin to copy the best ARM based features of AMD processors and will contract with TSMC to run their own design of chiplets for them at 7nm and 5nm.  

Remember please that Intel is an ARM Technologies design level license holder and has been such for over 5 years now.   This was so they could know what ARM was doing and to legally copy certain selected ARM tricks, but now Intel will have to USE the whole DynamIQ technology because Intel is now so far behind the technology curve in so many aspects.

Intel will survive following this pathway, but they will see increasing levels of competition as they are out on the flat level playing field scrimmaging with all the Hockey Stick guys now.

So, why is DynamIQ tech becoming so desirable?

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13560/amd-unveils-chiplet-design-approach-7nm-...



AMD on Tuesday disclosed some additional details about its upcoming codenamed Rome processor based on its Zen 2 microarchitecture. As it turns out, the company will use a new design approach with its next-generation EPYC CPUs that will involve CPU ‘chiplets’ made using TSMC’s 7 nm manufacturing technology as well as an I/O die made using a 14 nm fabrication process.

AMD’s chiplet design approach is an evolution of the company’s modular design it introduced with the original EPYC processors featuring its Zen microarchitecture. While the currently available processors use up to four Zen CPU modules, the upcoming EPYC chips will include multiple Zen 2 CPU modules (which AMD now calls ‘chiplets’) as well as an I/O die made using a mature 14 nm process technology. The I/O die will feature Infinity Fabrics to connect chiplets as well as eight DDR DRAM interfaces. Since the memory controller will now be located inside the I/O die, all CPU chiplets will have a more equal memory access latency than today’s CPU modules. Meanwhile, AMD does not list PCIe inside the I/O die, so each CPU chiplet will have its own PCIe lanes.

Separating CPU chiplets from the I/O die has its advantages because it enables AMD to make the CPU chiplets smaller as physical interfaces (such as DRAM and Infinity Fabric) do not scale that well with shrinks of process technology. Therefore, instead of making CPU chiplets bigger and more expensive to manufacture, AMD decided to incorporate DRAM and some other I/O into a separate chip. Besides lower costs, the added benefit that AMD is going to enjoy with its 7 nm chiplets is ability to easier bin new chips for needed clocks and power, which is something that is hard to estimate in case of servers.





===================================================



https://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleather/2018/07/20/amds-zen-2-processors-t...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleather/2018/11/06/amds-7nm-zen-2-will-wor...

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/amd-zen-two-design-supports-sixteen-c...

Forbes and others are touting the core count and processor type presentation that given out yesterday by AMD.  Not only are the new AMD chiplets going to be more powerful and more efficient at 7nm, but there are going to be like 16 of those chiplets in a normal AMD consumer level processor next year.



The resulting die substrate physical size will be the same exact physical size as the current 12nm chipset substrate and will keep the same pin out pattern, but it will hold a lot more of the smaller, faster, more efficient 7mn chiplets on the die set.  

It will fit the same socket still (AMD is honoring its commitment to keep the AM4 socket through 2020) and that offers up some intriguing thoughts of more AMD motherboard changeless upgrades to existing older AMD machines.

Forbes asks the 10 cent question --- What does Intel have to offer against this AMD Ryzen 2000 innovation to be rolled out at CES in January?   Or to the Ryzen 3000 level the year after that?   Or the Ryzen 4000 in the year following that?  

Is Forbes calling for the Fat Lady to come out and sing for Intel ?????   Mebbe, but it sends a clear signal that if Intel has any sort of rabbit in their hat that it is about time to pull that little bunny up and use it .......

Eegore wrote on 11/07/18 at 09:52:36:


Let's see here, we have an offer in essence to replace/upgrade my machine if I ship you the old one (less hard drive and data).   I am interested, but my wife says no, that is now her machine and she likes it right where it is.  It doesn't break all the time and it isn't always updating itself when she goes to use it.

I have no attachment my old hardware, but I do like the wife a whole lot and have learned that keeping her happy makes for a better life for me and all the rest of the pets.

Now all the little fuzzy guys, they all say they like their big black belly warmer box and the weather is turning cold now and they take turns sleeping on top of the Big Black Box.

That white poly air filter bra around the front of the box is a needed, VERY NECESSARY thing in my house right now as the girls are all shedding into their winter coats ......

The video card is quite dated now ......   https://www.ebay.com/i/163345016546?chn=ps

The Dell box itself is quite dated too .......   https://www.cnet.com/products/dell-optiplex-760-core-2-duo-e8400-3-ghz-464509...

All the memory slots on the motherboard and on the video card are completely filled with memory.

Boot application boot speed from off to Mint desktop is 5 seconds (most of this is waiting for a pretty Samsung splash screen effect that is hiding a Samsung Bios cranking up in the monitor).

Mint Desktop to Cafe menu screen is 1 second (I get routed through the selected home page which is my wife's college email account screen, so most of this one second and the extra click wouldn't be here if it was just me using the machine).

Picking the thread you want and getting it going is 1 second

So, I guess my current "response speed" on the old hardware is on the order of 7 seconds from crank up to reading/typing in the thread.

The most strenuous part of "booting" according to the systems monitor was cranking up the screen saver app. to generate then save the systems report graphically.




Really, apart from that it is just a very old Engineering grade full sized Dell machine from 14-16 years ago.   Certainly nothing special in today's terms.