Re: buying a computer for Unix

Begin <fjlmak$2nm$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
On Tue, 11 Dec 2007 04:47:02 -0500, don <don@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I've never had anything else but Windows on my computer and now I want to
start using Unix. What would be the best computer to buy to start learning
Unix. My budget is around $1000.

There is no single ``best''. But I can scetch a picture.

You don't actually need all that much processing power to start to learn
the principles behind unix. A book will do. For the necessairy hands-on
practice a machine would be helpful. You'll also have to choose what
architecture and that has a relation to what unix you can run on it.

I'll assume a bog standard peecee, altough a second hand sun blade or
something like it may well be worth it too. Dedicated unix workstations
tend to have less hardware quirks or at least have the system they are
designed for know about them. For completeness I point out that you
can probably turn your existing windows peecee into a dual-boot setup;
reboot from one into the other, then back again. But a second machine
runs you much less risk of botching the one while trying to get the
other to work, and so is not a bad idea at all.

Things to look for include a reasonable CPU, and a bunch of ram. Box
shifters have a tendency to put in the latest cpus (with the biggest
margins) and then put in not quite enough ram. You can get by with a
somewhat slower, much cheaper cpu. I would look for larger cache over
sheer GHz, and of course stick in a bit of extra ram if you can.

Actually, anything made in the last five years, or say over 1GHz and
half a GB of ram will likely work well enough, exceptions excepted.
My current setup runs FreeBSD 6.2 on an AMD athlon 750MHz with three
quarters of a GB ram and a really old matrox g450 graphics adapter. For
large resource hogging applications (eg, firefox, gnome, that sort of
thing) it's a bit on the slow side, but for command line activity (which
is what you should be doing to learn unix) it is massive overkill. It
will happily supply with all the Xterms you need.

As to disk, on mine only 250MB or so is actually FreeBSD, another 400MB
is other programs, 2GB is reserved for swap because I don't want to run
out, not because I need it, 200MB used out of 1GB reserved for logfiles
and such, and the rest is source trees and all the other things I like
to keep on my computer. Meaning that it is probably quite hard to buy a
new disk nowadays that is too small. Add a dvd-burner for backups.

Unices can be run without any graphics at all, and servers are, but
for a workstation it is convenient to have X available, if only for
the xterms. You don't need fast graphics, but do look at the list of
compatible graphics adapters and get one of those, or get a cheap one
that will work with the basic (slow) generic driver now and plan to get
a better one once you have acquired the knowledge to choose well. Do
check the hardware notes of the unix flavour of your choice. 2d hardware
accelerated graphics works well enough with most peecee hardware, but 3d
acceleration is tricky to get to work right even with the right hardware.

Most important of all is probably the screen, as it will outlive your
computer by quite a few years. Choosing one is much more independent
of the unix flavour you're using, and is a long term investment, so
worth spending effort on. It isn't unlikely soak up half or more of your
stated budget. An option is to forego getting the largest, and get two
smaller ones instead. Size is not important for the task of learning,
and getting two is clearly overkill for that too, so you'll have to
consider what else you're planning to do with the screen. For those same
other reasons you could opt for the dual-head version of your chosen
graphics adapter if available.

Since you have two machines, you might want a network card too. If you
can, avoid realtek. Intel bought DEC's designs and their cards are quite
good, 3com is a good second in the 10/100Mbit ethernet market. Gigabit
ethernet looks different, but again realtek is the undisputed low end.

Anyway, hope that sheds some light, even if it doesn't point you to a
specific make and model.


--
j p d (at) d s b (dot) t u d e l f t (dot) n l .
This message was originally posted on Usenet in plain text.
Any other representation, additions, or changes do not have my
consent and may be a violation of international copyright law.
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