[ale] Do people still roll their own Linux desktops?

[Pat Regan]

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On 03/18/2010 12:12 PM, Michael B. Trausch wrote:
> I try to reuse components when I can to cut the cost.  My desktop cost 
> me $350 or so when I rebuilt it with a new set of guts, and I am very 
> happy with it.

My problem has always been that I rarely get to reuse all that many
components when I upgrade.  All the major components tend to need
replacing at the same time.  The shiny new CPU almost always has a new
socket and the new motherboard with that socket rarely supports the old
memory...

The increases in core counts have helped a bit there, though.  Going
from single to dual or dual to quad breathes a lot more life into an
older machine than a 30% or so bump in clock speed.

I doubt I'll be buying any prebuilt desktops for myself, anyway.  If
someone is waffling on the choice I'd be likely to point them away from
doing it themselves, ten years ago I might not have.

> Of course, I do not factor in Windows licenses.  If I need to run 
> Windows (which I have actually come up with the need to do lately, 
> sadly) it needs to be in a VM.  Currently I have a single OEM Windows 7 
> license, but that's virtually useless to me because I cannot (lawfully) 
> run it in a VM and if I attempted to do so, it would de-activate itself. 
>   So I require retail licenses anyway.  In the short term, I 
> dual-boot---get things setup and ready to test, reboot, test, and GTFO 
> of there as soon as possible.

I'm so happy that I haven't had a need for Windows on my own desktop,
personal or business, for years.  I'm even happier that I don't see that
ever changing.  :)

> I obviously do not build by own laptops, but I hate the fact that they 
> are so costly to get replacement parts for.  It's not like one can take 
> a standard motherboard and put it in a laptop.  And thus, laptop 
> motherboards are mostly model-specific and expensive.  It sucks.  At 
> least they have adopted standards for hard disks and memory; remember 
> when even those were specific to a model of laptop, using different 
> hardware plugs and crap.  Ick.

It is improving all the time, too.  Laptops seem to be standardizing on
video cards as well, although an upgrade doesn't always physically fit
in the space.  Processors aren't soldered in anymore, either.  The form
factor used to be pretty limiting, but parts have been shrinking.

Pat
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