Results tagged “RAM” from CLICK

While my OpenBSD laptop slowly compiles Java (or not ...), I had to pull out the Ubuntu 8.04 laptop (both have identical hardware, Toshiba Satellite 1100-S101) and quickly slam out a couple hours' work late last night (yes, on the night shift, which I finished at home ... at 1 a.m. through the magic of Wi-Fi and caffeine).

On the way home I forgot that the Ubuntu laptop, which had a fairly up-to-date 8.04 install, only had 256 MB of RAM installed. The last time I tried to use Ubuntu Linux with it, I was more than frustrated with the extreme amount of swapping and general waiting around for things to happen. You know, like switching desktops and starting stuff.

Luckily I remembered that I had a compatible 256 MB memory module I pulled awhile ago from another laptop.

I flipped the Toshiba over, unscrewed the memory door, popped in the SODIMM, closed it back up and had 512 MB of RAM.

It makes all the difference.

I've always said, doubling RAM provides MANY dividends, which the less RAM you start with, the more dramatic they are.

That means going from 64 MB to 128 MB is huge, as is going from 128 to 256 and 256 to 512.

For me, going from 512 to 1 GB doesn't do all that much since 512 MB seems to work so well for desktop use in Linux and OpenBSD (and probably the other BSDs, too).

My OpenBSD laptop has 768 MB of RAM, and it's never swapped during my use of it over the past few months.

And I can say after a few hours of pounding away on Ubuntu 8.04 that the Hardy edition of the GNU/Linux distribution does quite well in 512 MB of RAM.

In other Ubuntu 8.04 news and observations, I had to install Java (again ...). And true to form, it was a mild pain in the ass.

Nowhere in the Firefox browser does it tell you what you need to do to make Java work.

I finally Googled my way out of it.

Just typing Java in the Synaptic Package Manager won't get you there. My first Googling reminded me that you need to search for java6 in Synaptic, not the simple java) .

Even adding sun-java6-bin and all that comes with it won't get you there.

No, you have to choose this package: sun-java6-plugin. Then quit Firefox and restart it.

You should have working Java at that point. (If not, in Firefox, click Edit - Preferences - Content, then click the "Enable Java" box.)

I understand that Java is not as free as the Linux kernel and that Sun requires users to check off an "I accept your obscure license" box and all that. What I don't understand is why Ubuntu doesn't use one of the freer implementations of the Java runtime by default. (OK, I really don't know enough about all the options for Java users to be spouting off right here, but at least a little help for the newbie would be appreciated.) At the very least, Ubuntu should look at this situation and figure out a way to make this easier for people who aren't accustomed to searching in Synaptic after a vigorous Googling. ("Vigorous Googling" ... I'll have to look into trademarking that one.)

I did get Java going. It wasn't as hard by a long, long, longshot as it is in OpenBSD. But in the latter OS, one expects a little hardship, a little geekery and getting ones hands dirty.

In Ubuntu, not so much.

Luckily for those purchasing pre-installed Ubuntu from Dell at least, all multimedia is enabled and I imagine that Java is, too, making out-of-the-box use that much easier for those who don't yet live and breathe Ubuntu GNU/Linux.

All of that said, I do have a working, updated Ubuntu 8.04 laptop with Java, Flash and the Opera browser, and it's running very well. Sure GNOME isn't as snappy as Fvwm in OpenBSD, but if ever there was a apple-and-oranges comparison between window managers, this is it. (And I could and probably should install Fvwm or Fluxbox just to prove my feeble point.)

Complaining aside, all of this means I'm pretty set in terms of having a working backup to the OpenBSD laptop.