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Worst Developers Machines

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  • A Offline
    A Offline
    Albert Bezzina
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    Hi all, Just out of curiosity which is your worst developer machine? In our room, 3 developers, 10 machines [2 Core2Duo, 2 Pentium D & 6 Pentium 4], the best developers machine is Core2Duo E7300 4Gb ram and the worse machine is: Intel Pentium 4 3.40GHz, 2GB, Time taken to boot a windows server 2008 is 4 minutes. NOTE that in our organization there is an impression that we have the best machines :doh:

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    • A Albert Bezzina

      Hi all, Just out of curiosity which is your worst developer machine? In our room, 3 developers, 10 machines [2 Core2Duo, 2 Pentium D & 6 Pentium 4], the best developers machine is Core2Duo E7300 4Gb ram and the worse machine is: Intel Pentium 4 3.40GHz, 2GB, Time taken to boot a windows server 2008 is 4 minutes. NOTE that in our organization there is an impression that we have the best machines :doh:

      J Offline
      J Offline
      Jorgen Andersson
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      If developers have bad machines they have a better incentive to make efficient code.

      List of common misconceptions

      OriginalGriffO P F J 4 Replies Last reply
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      • J Jorgen Andersson

        If developers have bad machines they have a better incentive to make efficient code.

        List of common misconceptions

        OriginalGriffO Offline
        OriginalGriffO Offline
        OriginalGriff
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        No, we just blame the slowness on the lack of ability to test it on "real-world" machines. Carefully specifying top-of-the-range as "Real World".

        Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together. Digital man: "You are, in short, an idiot with the IQ of an ant and the intellectual capacity of a hose pipe."

        "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
        "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

        1 Reply Last reply
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        • A Albert Bezzina

          Hi all, Just out of curiosity which is your worst developer machine? In our room, 3 developers, 10 machines [2 Core2Duo, 2 Pentium D & 6 Pentium 4], the best developers machine is Core2Duo E7300 4Gb ram and the worse machine is: Intel Pentium 4 3.40GHz, 2GB, Time taken to boot a windows server 2008 is 4 minutes. NOTE that in our organization there is an impression that we have the best machines :doh:

          D Offline
          D Offline
          Dalek Dave
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          I know a company that still has a 286 machine it uses for printing labels! It must be 15 years old and still works.

          ------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC League Table Link CCC Link[^]

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          • A Albert Bezzina

            Hi all, Just out of curiosity which is your worst developer machine? In our room, 3 developers, 10 machines [2 Core2Duo, 2 Pentium D & 6 Pentium 4], the best developers machine is Core2Duo E7300 4Gb ram and the worse machine is: Intel Pentium 4 3.40GHz, 2GB, Time taken to boot a windows server 2008 is 4 minutes. NOTE that in our organization there is an impression that we have the best machines :doh:

            D Offline
            D Offline
            Dave Parker
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            Guy next to me is on half a gig. Processor is a core 2 duo I think. Amazed Visual Studio 2010 even runs on it, things like the form designer really grind it to a halt though.

            T W 2 Replies Last reply
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            • A Albert Bezzina

              Hi all, Just out of curiosity which is your worst developer machine? In our room, 3 developers, 10 machines [2 Core2Duo, 2 Pentium D & 6 Pentium 4], the best developers machine is Core2Duo E7300 4Gb ram and the worse machine is: Intel Pentium 4 3.40GHz, 2GB, Time taken to boot a windows server 2008 is 4 minutes. NOTE that in our organization there is an impression that we have the best machines :doh:

              M Offline
              M Offline
              Mark_Wallace
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              I think that developers should be issued nothing better than a Pentium 2. That way, when their product goes to market, instead of customers not being able to run it, because it requires the biggest, fastest computers, if it's to to crawl out of its box, it'll go like sh1t off a shovel. Result: Happier customers, and better-paid devs. Suck it in and use the worst one.

              I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

              D S P Q D 6 Replies Last reply
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              • D Dalek Dave

                I know a company that still has a 286 machine it uses for printing labels! It must be 15 years old and still works.

                ------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC League Table Link CCC Link[^]

                D Offline
                D Offline
                Dan Mos
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                You got me. I know of a 386. But this are not developer machines. :)

                All the best, Dan

                K 1 Reply Last reply
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                • M Mark_Wallace

                  I think that developers should be issued nothing better than a Pentium 2. That way, when their product goes to market, instead of customers not being able to run it, because it requires the biggest, fastest computers, if it's to to crawl out of its box, it'll go like sh1t off a shovel. Result: Happier customers, and better-paid devs. Suck it in and use the worst one.

                  I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                  D Offline
                  D Offline
                  Dan Mos
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  I partially disagree. Why waste valuable time to wait for the slow CPU,RAM,HDD... to compile the solution/project? But yeah if it's a general purpose app(not web based one) then they should test it to work OK on slower machines. And P2 is a little extreme. Maybe a P4 at about 1.4 GHz with 512 or more RAM.

                  All the best, Dan

                  1 Reply Last reply
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                  • D Dave Parker

                    Guy next to me is on half a gig. Processor is a core 2 duo I think. Amazed Visual Studio 2010 even runs on it, things like the form designer really grind it to a halt though.

                    T Offline
                    T Offline
                    TorstenH
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    this offenses the rules of proper programmers husbandry! my desk neighbor had also such a machine, we protested and now he got a better machine. mine: Intel Core i5 750 2.8Ghz / 4GB RAM / 64-bit / 1GB Graphic ..the biggest machine I've had so far. Thanks defense industry!! regards Torsten

                    I never finish anyth...

                    R 1 Reply Last reply
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                    • M Mark_Wallace

                      I think that developers should be issued nothing better than a Pentium 2. That way, when their product goes to market, instead of customers not being able to run it, because it requires the biggest, fastest computers, if it's to to crawl out of its box, it'll go like sh1t off a shovel. Result: Happier customers, and better-paid devs. Suck it in and use the worst one.

                      I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                      S Offline
                      S Offline
                      Simon P Stevens
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      I'm not sure I agree. Giving developers slow machines does not make them write fast code. In my experience developers have a knack for optimising for their most immediate pain points. A developer with a slow machine will optimise to write code faster rather than write fast code. You'll end up with an unmaintainable mess because creating multiple classes/files/folders was too painful. If you want them to write fast code, measure exactly what it is you want them to improve and identify targets. Benchmark your code and set acceptable performance goals in advance.

                      Simon

                      M 1 Reply Last reply
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                      • T TorstenH

                        this offenses the rules of proper programmers husbandry! my desk neighbor had also such a machine, we protested and now he got a better machine. mine: Intel Core i5 750 2.8Ghz / 4GB RAM / 64-bit / 1GB Graphic ..the biggest machine I've had so far. Thanks defense industry!! regards Torsten

                        I never finish anyth...

                        R Offline
                        R Offline
                        realJSOP
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        TorstenH. wrote:

                        Thanks defense industry!!

                        Yep. Me too. My wife's iPad has more power than the desktop they gave me here.

                        ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
                        -----
                        You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                        -----
                        "Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997

                        P 1 Reply Last reply
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                        • J Jorgen Andersson

                          If developers have bad machines they have a better incentive to make efficient code.

                          List of common misconceptions

                          P Offline
                          P Offline
                          peterchen
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #12

                          (I hope you are missing the sarcasm icon) Creting efficient code means comparing different versions, run decent timing stats, more test cases, more tests to run etc. A slow machine is the best incentive to make your compiler shut up and let QA sort out the rest.

                          FILETIME to time_t
                          | FoldWithUs! | sighist | WhoIncludes - Analyzing C++ include file hierarchy

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                          • R realJSOP

                            TorstenH. wrote:

                            Thanks defense industry!!

                            Yep. Me too. My wife's iPad has more power than the desktop they gave me here.

                            ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
                            -----
                            You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                            -----
                            "Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997

                            P Offline
                            P Offline
                            peterchen
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #13

                            No talking about your wife's pads, 'i' or otherwise.

                            FILETIME to time_t
                            | FoldWithUs! | sighist | WhoIncludes - Analyzing C++ include file hierarchy

                            1 Reply Last reply
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                            • D Dave Parker

                              Guy next to me is on half a gig. Processor is a core 2 duo I think. Amazed Visual Studio 2010 even runs on it, things like the form designer really grind it to a halt though.

                              W Offline
                              W Offline
                              wout de zeeuw
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #14

                              Why not add more memory to it? It's almost free.

                              Wout

                              D 1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • A Albert Bezzina

                                Hi all, Just out of curiosity which is your worst developer machine? In our room, 3 developers, 10 machines [2 Core2Duo, 2 Pentium D & 6 Pentium 4], the best developers machine is Core2Duo E7300 4Gb ram and the worse machine is: Intel Pentium 4 3.40GHz, 2GB, Time taken to boot a windows server 2008 is 4 minutes. NOTE that in our organization there is an impression that we have the best machines :doh:

                                V Offline
                                V Offline
                                V 0
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #15

                                my laptop takes longer to boot, I did a race with my coffee machine (7 cups) and my laptop. The coffee machine won. it's an i5 with 3,4GB. (I didn't install it myself.)

                                V.

                                M 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • A Albert Bezzina

                                  Hi all, Just out of curiosity which is your worst developer machine? In our room, 3 developers, 10 machines [2 Core2Duo, 2 Pentium D & 6 Pentium 4], the best developers machine is Core2Duo E7300 4Gb ram and the worse machine is: Intel Pentium 4 3.40GHz, 2GB, Time taken to boot a windows server 2008 is 4 minutes. NOTE that in our organization there is an impression that we have the best machines :doh:

                                  A Offline
                                  A Offline
                                  Abu Mami
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #16

                                  Half word model of the 360 that we had at Penn State in the early 70s. Had to read in the Fortan II compiler followed with the program on the card reader. Very cryptic diagnostic messages. The machine was set up with a program to allow for utility use (copying or printing card decks). Guess the inconvenience was the price of trying to use a "for the public's use" machine as a personal development machine. It was fun though.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • S Simon P Stevens

                                    I'm not sure I agree. Giving developers slow machines does not make them write fast code. In my experience developers have a knack for optimising for their most immediate pain points. A developer with a slow machine will optimise to write code faster rather than write fast code. You'll end up with an unmaintainable mess because creating multiple classes/files/folders was too painful. If you want them to write fast code, measure exactly what it is you want them to improve and identify targets. Benchmark your code and set acceptable performance goals in advance.

                                    Simon

                                    M Offline
                                    M Offline
                                    Mark_Wallace
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #17

                                    Well, I was being just a little bit sarcastic. Mind you, it would probably be better for everyone if games developers had their ankles shackled, so to speak.

                                    I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                                    R S 2 Replies Last reply
                                    0
                                    • V V 0

                                      my laptop takes longer to boot, I did a race with my coffee machine (7 cups) and my laptop. The coffee machine won. it's an i5 with 3,4GB. (I didn't install it myself.)

                                      V.

                                      M Offline
                                      M Offline
                                      Mark_Wallace
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #18

                                      V. wrote:

                                      my laptop takes longer to boot, I did a race with my coffee machine (7 cups) and my laptop. The coffee machine won.

                                      I had the same problem with my latest; it was slower than my previous one, which had much lower specs. The trouble is that laptops in particular are loaded down with unwanted "security" and "monitoring" garbage programs from the hardware manufacturer. Try Soluto[^]. It's great at helping you choose which background cr@pware services you can do without. It managed to help me halve my boot-up time, and everything runs a lot smoother, now.

                                      I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • M Mark_Wallace

                                        Well, I was being just a little bit sarcastic. Mind you, it would probably be better for everyone if games developers had their ankles shackled, so to speak.

                                        I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                                        R Offline
                                        R Offline
                                        Rajesh R Subramanian
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #19

                                        Mark Wallace wrote:

                                        Well, I was being just a little bit sarcastic.

                                        Dontcha hate it when you have to explicitly state that. :)

                                        "Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.

                                        1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • M Mark_Wallace

                                          I think that developers should be issued nothing better than a Pentium 2. That way, when their product goes to market, instead of customers not being able to run it, because it requires the biggest, fastest computers, if it's to to crawl out of its box, it'll go like sh1t off a shovel. Result: Happier customers, and better-paid devs. Suck it in and use the worst one.

                                          I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                                          P Offline
                                          P Offline
                                          peterchen
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #20

                                          Test machines: yes. Dev Machines: No. Devs time is to expensive.

                                          FILETIME to time_t
                                          | FoldWithUs! | sighist | WhoIncludes - Analyzing C++ include file hierarchy

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