With the information i have received from the list I would now say that 8 GB of RAM is more than enough. Since Linux caches files in memory, the value of an SSD is debatable. I'll probably get a 1 TB hard drive. The performance with my present hard drive is fast enough, and 1 TB drives are cheap. I'll stick with a desktop tower and have bluetooth, an ethernet gigabit port, USB 2.9 and 3.0 ports, etc. How would I set up Debian so that it boots in command-line mode but I can start a desktop when I want it? Which desktop is most like Windows? Right now I have a new VGA monitor for work with sighted colleagues. Would this be enough? Thanks, John On Sun, Jul 17, 2016 at 12:16:35PM -0500, John G. Heim wrote: > I was going to say the same thinga bout getting 32 Gb of ram. The main > reason most people get as much as 32Gb for their personal workstations is > for on-line gaming. Or if you are into creating virtual machines you might > be able to use 32Gb of ram. But here at the Math Department at the UW, the > only machines we have with 32Gb of ram are used for research like modelling > cloud formations. None of our web server, mail server, database server, or > file server have 32 GB of ram. I think you could combine all 4 of those > functions onto one server and still get by with less than 32Gb of ram. If it > was me, I'd spend my money on an SSD drive. > > As for the cpu, at the Math department, we have bought nothing but Intel I5 > machines for the past several years. It used to be that Intel and AMD would > leapfrog each other with each new cpu release. But that hasn't happened > lately. I think the money Intel has been abel to spend on research has put > them ahead for good. I have a brand new PC on my desk at work but I turned > it off for the weekend. I can't see the cpu model right now but I know it is > some type of Intel I5. But the last 2 groups of machines we bought had Intel > I5-4570 and I5-4590 cpus. If you are doing something that actually will use > 32Gb of ram, you might get an Intel I7 processor to go with that. But again, > I'd spend my money on an SSD drive. > > > > > On 07/16/2016 05:36 PM, Joel Roth wrote: > >Hi John, > > > >If you are working in the console, you won't generally need high > >performance hardware. If you compile a lot of software, or > >do disk intensive work, a solid-state disk is nice. I notice > >powerful processors make a difference in compressing video > >and any scientific computing. > > > >A big issue in new hardware is uefi vs BIOS booting. > >And in that motherboards shipped with the microsoft > >signed boot loading restrictions. > > > >http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/secureboot.html > > > >BIOS has been around a long time, and easy to deal with > >in a linux environment. > > > >Have fun, > > > >Joel > >John J. Boyer wrote: > >>Thanks for the information. I had forgotten some of the Linux terms, > >>such as swap file or partition. How do I go about setting up a tmpfs? > >> > >>The installation will be command-line only Braille only Debian. I might > >>add a desktop later, but I don't want it to be automatically loaded at > >>boot time. > >> > >>What CPU would be appropriae. I would guess something recent, but not > >>the latest. > >> > >>Thanks, > >>John > >> > >>On Sat, Jul 16, 2016 at 02:06:45PM -0400, Sam Hartman wrote: > >>>>>>>>"John" == John J Boyer <john.boyer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > >>> John> I've more or less decided to replacer my ten-year-old Linux > >>> John> machine. It is giving error messages intermittently. Most of > >>> John> them are about sector errors, but others seem to have nothing > >>> John> to do with the hard drive. It may be more and more > >>> John> troublesome, even if the hard drive is replaced. Besides, it > >>> John> would be nice to get more up-to-date hardware. > >>> > >>> John> I'm thinking of getting 32 GB of ram. 8 GB will be for normal > >>> John> use. The other 24 GB will be in a ramdisk. > >>> > >>>I think you must have a DOS background here. > >>>An explicit RAM disk is rarely if ever useful on Linux. I'm tryinfg to > >>>remember if I even know how to create a block device backed by RAM... O, > >>>yeah, I can think of a way, but you probably don't want to do that. > >>> > >>>Instead, you probably do want to create something called a tmpfs. > >>>That's a filesystem backed by RAM. When your computer reboots all its > >>>contents go away. > >>> > >>>There are important differences between a tmpfs and a RAM disk. > >>>The biggest is that Linux will only use as much RAM as is needed by the > >>>tmpfs to store what currently lives in it. > >>>(You can set a maximum size, but with 32g I wouldn't bother) > >>> > >>>So, you can get the best of both worlds, storing your temporary files in > >>>RAM, but using RAM for RAM if you don't have 24G of temporary files at > >>>the moment. > >>> > >>> > >>> John> Do I need a paging > >>> John> file? 8 GB of available ram should be more than enough. The > >>> John> paging file on my present machine always shows 0 usage, even > >>> John> with only 4 GB of ram. > >>> > >>> > >>>Having a paging file has a couple of affects even if it is not used, but > >>>no, you probably don't want a swap partition or file (linux names for > >>>paging) > >>> > >>> John> How do I avoid setting up a paging file > >>> John> during installation? I'm using Debian Jessie. > >>> > >>>In expert mode, avoid creating a swap partition and if asked don't > >>>create a swap file. > >>>If you don't want to use expert mode, don't worry about it; having a > >>>swap partition won't be a problem. > >>> > >>> John> How do i set up the ramdisk? I want to assign the temp > >>> John> directory to it. > >>> > >>>I think the installer will do that by default. > >>>But in /etc/fstab you want a line like > >>> > >>>none /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0 > >>> > >>> John> It might be nice if the > >>> John> bin, sbin and usr > >>> John> directories were loaded onto it at boot-up. > >>> > >>>No need for that. > >>>Linux is also smart enough to cache files as they are used, storing > >>>copies in memory, so no value in moving them to the tmpfs. > >>> > >>>The file will be loaded the first time it is used. > >>>You could do that at boot for /bin, /sbin and /usr, but you probably > >>>don't want to. The reason is that the system is fairly busy at boot, > >>>and it would probably slow down things like bringing up your desktop and > >>>starting system services. The only advantage of pre-caching files on > >>>boot would be faster performance the first time you accessed a program > >>>after pre-caching is done. However you get slower boot times and slower > >>>performance during the pre-caching. > >>-- > >>John J. Boyer; President, > >>AbilitiesSoft, Inc. > >>Email: john.boyer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > >>Website: http://www.abilitiessoft.org > >>Status: 501(C)(3) Nonprofit > >>Location: Madison, Wisconsin USA > >>Mission: To develop softwares and provide STEM services for people with > >> disabilities which are available at no cost. > >> > >>_______________________________________________ > >>Blinux-list mailing list > >>Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > >>https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > _______________________________________________ > Blinux-list mailing list > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list -- John J. Boyer; President, AbilitiesSoft, Inc. Email: john.boyer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Website: http://www.abilitiessoft.org Status: 501(C)(3) Nonprofit Location: Madison, Wisconsin USA Mission: To develop softwares and provide STEM services for people with disabilities which are available at no cost. _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list