Guest post by “Each time a new version of Windows is released, many computer users find that their hardware is suddenly outdated. For cash-strapped schools, upgrading to the latest hardware with each major software release is simply impossible. A New York startup called NeverWare is offering a possible solution – a server that lets even decade-old PCs upgrade to the latest Windows 7 operating system.”
So someone came up with a server preconfigured for terminal services and PXE boot? Thin client setups have been around for ages…
Isn’t this just Microsoft’s Mutlipoint server pre-boxed up and ready to go?
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/multipoint/learn-more.aspx
Yea. But, he said “cloud”. So, it must be new and cool.
So they’ve re-invented remote desktop then..
Wouldn’t these schools get sued by Microsoft for not paying for the appropriate number of licenses? I thought they HAD a thinclient licensing program for business.
I have a 11-year old computer, and even when I reinstall the OS with the original CD-ROM, it’s slow, how can it be slower than when I purchased it, with the same hardware and software? (actually I changed the HDD to a very good one instead). Any explanation?
It probably just feels slower, because you are used to other computer(systems) which are faster.
No, the start menu takes 2 seconds to pop up. This didn’t act that way back then…
Have all the security updates released in the last 11 years also been re-installed? The added check-points and processing related to these could do that.
No, not yet, it hasn’t been connected to the Internet so far.
memory errors, harddisk errors.
Old hardware dies slowly as it attempts to compensate for all the errors that come up as the hardware becomes more broken.
As a user you don’t see any of this, but all the re-trying and error correction impacts performance.
I ran memtest a while ago, and the RAM memory didn’t report any error. The HDD should be OK too, it’s brand new, it’s a high-end Western Digital model.
Memtest might show that the ram is fine, but not other components. There could be many reasons why that machine is running slow. There could be a build of dust causing it to over heat. The capacitors on the motherboard may have become worn. Electromigration could be causing the CPU or Chip-set to not work as effectively.
Also the new HDD may not play well with the 11 year old computer.
Swapping components one by one (if you have spares) is really the only way to find out if you are sure it is not a software issue and not an obvious hardware fault.
Seconded, about the dust thing. I have to regularly clean the dust out of mine. It runs so much quieter and is a touch faster when I do. If I leave it too long, it sounds like a jet taking off when it’s idle.
I suspect your HD is not fully compatible with the old machine, in particular older IDE controllers (i assume being an older machine it has IDE) are unable to perform DMA for drives over a certain size, and thus the drive will be running in slow PIO mode.
I had a machine with a UDMA66 controller, a 60GB drive would perform well but anything bigger would be extremely slow.
Ofcourse, it could also be related to planned obsolescence, a lot of commercial software seems to get slower with age and speeds up again if you set the clock back and reinstall.
What you’re saying is scary!
Such errors would appear in the logs… And only higher end ECC memory even performs error correction, lower end memory will just introduce corruption if it’s failing.
Are you connected to internet? i hardly belive that is Microsoft itself that makes that the old version on windows behave slow (with silent “upgrades” that their only purpose is slowdown the system) on the same hardware to force people to upgrade to new sistems
Although it sounds very conspiration-theory-pushed-to-the-extreme, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were true.
No, this computer isn’t connected to the Internet. I don’t even use it for web browsing, it would be too slow rendering the pages. It has 256MB of RAM and a Pentium III 650Mhz processor.
Just install a linux distro using a LXDE or e17 desktop. It will be blazingly fast with those specs.
e17 will apparently run on machines as slow as a 100MHz Pentium.
Edited 2011-01-30 02:43 UTC
hi
I’ve got a dell optiplex gx110 with those specs: P3 667mHz, 256mb SDRAM, intel whitney i810E chipset and a dedicated PCI NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400 graphic card.
It actually runs windows xp sp3 and Molinux 2.0 (a spanish puppy linux clone) in a 10gb IDE quantum disk (5,5GB windows and 4GB Linux). I only use this computer to surf the web through TOR, and that is something that linux does faster than XP (the XP installation is 3 years old, but this OS only has a few apps installed).
This machine has nothing to do with my brand new (well, actually 14 months old) core i7 860, but I can use it for what I want it.
On the other hand, the planned obsolescence is something very real since the begining of the 20th century and the Phoebus cartel…nothing new
I wonder if there would be choice of what type of windows 7 you can run. I can imagine some the NGO’s and institutions that would be interested in Windows 7 would at least have a few third party software that would need the Windows’s XP vitualistation supported in Windows 7 ultimate.
Wow, marvel at the genius technology on display. Clearly such technology has not been readily available for the last 20 years….
Sorry Mr. Marketing Dude but one central server does not a cloud make.
I think the good professor should get out of his office more. That or stop selling his opinion to the highest bidder.
Well, the thing is…it is actually NOTHING like OLPC. OLPC is not a thin client, it does not rely on a central server, it does not run all applications on a server. Jesus, what low-rung technology rag is this? My mom, who knows very little about computer technology, could have written a better and more informed article.
If I was cynical I’d say this product sounds almost exactly like No Machine, Terminal Services, LTSP, Remote Desktop or hundred other already existing products. I wont though because obviously a technology start-up would never spread such bullshit marketing, right? Right?
Edited 2011-01-29 16:42 UTC
So this could give my 3 month old i7 with 8 gigs of ram some new life? ……
The Linux Terminal Server Project has offered this sort of technology for free for years.
LTSP allows you to use any old computer — back to a P-I — as a graphical front-end for software running on a central server.
This article tells exactly how LTSP works and includes exact numbers on dollar savings and system requirements — //www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/linux_terminal_server.
(Contrast this to the lack of any details whatsoever at the Neverware website.)