Trixter @oldskool.org · Jun 2 Setting up a Sun Ultra 27 system for the 2026 VCF Midwest auction. This local repo has been building for **HOURS** because it's installing to spinning rust. Sun was my career for decades, but for the life of me I can't remember how we tolerated spinning rust I/O seek times. It's almost unbearable.
7 likes 6 replies
Replies
We tolerated it because literally everything else was either way slower or 10x the cost per MB. :P
... this was KDE 3 mind you- a desktop environment and maybe a dozen and a half or two dozen apps. Kids these days don't know how good they have it with their NVRAM disks,
In the early naughts my primary workstation was a Sparc station of some description (Ultra 10?). I had KDE rebuilds running literally every night. Started them when I left at night, they were done or not quite when I came back in in the morning.
They'll get more for it you DON'T try to fix it. The "I must save it" instinct usually means a bidding war. ;)
disk io you say ? I cut my teeth on this bad boy... we are just spoiled with fast SSD these days ;-)
we drank coffee and didn't run git! (i run git on spinning rust and jesus christ)