[sclug] Cheap'n'nasty Tesco Linux machines

[Alex Butcher]

On Fri, 14 Mar 2008, Jason Rivers wrote:

> On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 9:28 AM, Phillip Chandler <
> phillip.chandler at ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
>> My understanding of Dual Core (pretty slim actually, but here goes) is
>> that both are only used for things like multitasking and gaming etc. So
>> theoretically if your a home user just wanting to do basic stuff like
>> check email, surf, write letter to auntie Mildred in Australia, then
>> dual core is a waste of money because to do the basics you would only be
>> using one core. Therefore the 2nd core is redundant, the first one has
>> to be running at 100% for other work to be transferred over to the send
>> core.

Incorrect, as Jason points out in his message. Any decent OS should attempt
to distribute processes roughly evenly between the available CPU cores.

> until games start using multiple threads - really there's no actual reason
> to have a multi core CPU - as an end user at least.

I disagree; having your GUI running on a seperate CPU core improves
responsiveness in the event an application starts hogging CPU. Given how
many processes are running in a modern OS, I think multiple cores are
probably more useful for most users (even non-technical users) than a single
very fast core.

> Jason.

Best Regards,
Alex.
-- 
Alex Butcher, Bristol UK.                           PGP/GnuPG ID:0x5010dbff

"[T]he whole point about the reason why I think it is important we go for
identity cards and an identity database today is that identity fraud and
abuse is a major, major problem. Now the civil liberties aspect of it, look
it is a view, I don't personally think it matters very much."
  - Tony Blair, 6 June 2006 <http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page9566.asp>