Hans-Peter Fischer wrote:
> I'd consider it unreasonable *and irresponsible* to buy new hardware every
> one or two years, among other things because of the environmental impact
> that would have, from the exploitation of ressources caused by the
> production and transportation of this hardware to the heaps of electronic
> waste we would leave behind (and are already leaving behind).
Maybe from an environmental standpoint, yes. But from any viewpoint of
performance expectations, every two years is perfectly reasonable if it is
possible for the person. And currently there are several companies, one of whom
recently won a major contract from IBM, who are making great inroads towards
reclaiming materials from PC refuse.
> Besides, I have a Pentium 166 in my home PC running Linux and everything
> works fine, even complex applications like The Gimp and WordPerfect (or
> games like Rocks 'n Diamonds). This seems to indicate that I don't have a
> hardware problem.
No one said you had a PROBLEM. Your hardware functions as designed. Just not
very fast anymore. I'll pit my Athlon against your P166 doing anything in GIMP
any day of the week. You just can't deny that.
> What do I suggest, then, if Mozilla has a performance problem? - Get rid of
> all the "appearance" stuff such as themes etc. and concentrate on
> "substance", i. e. functionality and performance. If that had been done from
> the outset we (or you) would probably have a stable and well-performing
> finished product by now.
This is another think that irks me. The themes idea is an OUTGROWTH of the XP
effort. It's a BONUS, not a detractor. When going with an easy XP UI, it became
trivial to see how the UI could be changed by anyone via themes and skins.
> Performance has improved a lot recently, though, and I am quite confident
> that I will eventually be able to use Mozilla *without* having to buy new
> hardware. ;-)
True, and you can even now. But I personally would not waste my time coding for
a P166 in this day and age. No one writes Windows 3.1 apps anymore, or BBS
software, or writes web pages to look best in Netscape 2. Time change, and
technology ages and passes away.
--
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