[Gllug] Advocacy required.

[John Hearns]

"Darran D. Rimron-Molloy" wrote:> for fair comparison it might be worth lending
him a real computer. one

> > that would run XP or similar, so the two can be compared in the same
> > environment... 'cos XP wont run on a 486, i guarantee it ;)
>
> This is what I have told him.... if he wants something to perform a fair
> test on, then get a PC he would expect to run windows on.  His IT manager
> has told him, "if it will run on this, it will run on anything" but refuses
> to let them test on a "real" PC.
>
> He wants to get the "latest" software, over, and I quote, "some old modem
> they have given me" - this could be painful. All he has is a SUSE-Live-eval
> CD from the front of Linux Magazine.
>
>

Alarm bells are starting to ring here... and I'm sure other people have the
same thoughts.
You've done exactly the right thing - ie. tell them to compare apples with
apples.
Another thing - an old Pentium like that will probably have a graphics card
which will run at a max of (say) 800x600,  or maybe less,
so any application will look bad compared to an up-to-date PC
Also I agree that downloading packages like, say, Evolution over a phone line
is a non-starter.



Maybe its time we asked one of the big distributions to step in.
We have both SuSE and RedHat people on the list - would the editor accept a
demo machine from one of them?
Or maye we could ask someone like GND - or maybe Dell or IBM to loan
a typical demo machine.
Anyone have contacts there - I know there is time pressure.


Just remembered - we had the thread a month or so ago about
a 'Linux Roadshow'. Time to revive it!

Do we know what the time pressures are here?
I don't have a spare machine to volunteer - but as my part in the effort
will agree to drive one to this guy's house or office tomorrow.







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