Worst Developers Machines
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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:
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.
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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:
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!
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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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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!
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
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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.
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...
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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!
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
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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...
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
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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"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 -
If developers have bad machines they have a better incentive to make efficient code.
(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.
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| FoldWithUs! | sighist | WhoIncludes - Analyzing C++ include file hierarchy -
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
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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"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, 1997No talking about your wife's pads, 'i' or otherwise.
FILETIME to time_t
| FoldWithUs! | sighist | WhoIncludes - Analyzing C++ include file hierarchy -
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.
Why not add more memory to it? It's almost free.
Wout
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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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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:
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.
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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
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!
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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.
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!
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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!
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.
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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!
Test machines: yes. Dev Machines: No. Devs time is to expensive.
FILETIME to time_t
| FoldWithUs! | sighist | WhoIncludes - Analyzing C++ include file hierarchy -
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:
My home PC is Intel i7, 1.5GB of video ram on a GeForce whatever, 8GB Ram, 1TB disk, Blu-Ray, 24" widescreen. Work PC is nowhere near that but works great with VS2010 - I use 2 widescreens on it although really only code on one, the other is for whatever needs parking.
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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!
Mark Wallace wrote:
I think that developers should be issued nothing better than a Pentium 2.
Haha, I know what you're saying actually. I have the best dev system here (Core2 Quad with 4GB RAM and 64-bit Windows 7) because I develop the most demanding apps (tons of DSP, and so far a lot of it done on the main CPU). The first couple of times we had major releases of the software we used my machine as the minimum spec (I had a 2.4GHz P4 back then), just to be safe. Of course the software is sold as part of systems that cost $100,000 or more, so specifying a fast PC isn't exactly breaking the budget.
He said, "Boy I'm just old and lonely, But thank you for your concern, Here's wishing you a Happy New Year." I wished him one back in return.
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Why not add more memory to it? It's almost free.
Wout
He keeps getting promised it but it never seems to happen. TBH it was taking me forever to get an upgrade from 1 GB to 2GB through - despite it being almost free it cost way more than just the price of the memory due to all the hours of meetings and performance logging and analysis etc to justify it. Then someone suggested an external RAM drive as an alternative which just delayed the whole thing even more :sigh: Eventually the computer I had went out of the "support" period so I got a brand new one anyway, which has 8 GB of RAM. Pretty sure the other guys has gone way past that point as well so dunno what's going on there.
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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!
How many programs actually need to run fast on the CPU though? In everything I've ever worked on the bottleneck has been the machine hosting the database and the network. Even for local standalone software I only ever seem to notice the disk being the bottleneck or sometimes the graphics card with games. We try to test our stuff for performance by having a test application server / database set up on a virtual machine hosted elsewhere on the network, so it's not all running on the same box. There aren't as many users hammering it as the live system but the presence of around 15 other virtual machines on the same box reduces the performance somewhat.