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Title: Low-powered Computing [Thoughtstream]
Date: May 29, 2024
Written On: Kate in Debian VM (2009 MacBook Pro)

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  I'm writing this not long after my previous entry[0], mostly because the more
I sat here at my desk, the more my mind dwelled on it.

  The experience and disappointment with my Dell Latitude's GPU no longer being
supported actually made me start wanting to go back to the terminal apps I was
using on Linux, and do things with low-powered computers instead of the more
modern systems that most develop for these days[^0]. It's not like I /haven't/
gone that route before, using a low-memory window manager instead of a DE and
just living out of a terminal for damn near everything. It's just that I got
used to using a GUI again when I switched back to Mac OS X.

  And honestly, I wouldn't even need to live out of a terminal in this age. The
fact is that there are *plenty* of low-memory applications out there if you
actually take the time to look, especially to older applications. Trinity is a
great example of this, with most applications being from an era where memory
was limited to 4GB at the high end. It's part of why I've been using it so much
in my VM, since it doesn't *need* much to function.

  Granted, I'm also the kind to goes full-throttle into learning and
customizing their workspace and tools, so I'm kinda unique in that regard.
Still kinda want to grab the source for some of these apps and work on them. I
know practically nothing about actuall C++ development, but I'm willing to
learn. Especially if I can fix up KBookReader a bit...

  I dunno. It's just some thoughts I've had, and my mind is still wanting to do
a bit of cursing at how broken and unstable modern systems end up being for me.
It's beyond frustrating, especially when people claim that Linux from the 2000s
was worse, and I myself didn't have problems until devs started to "modernize"
everything.

  For now, time to do some benchmarking on that Dell laptop. See if I can't
figure out how to get what I want out of it.

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[0]: gopher://gopher.prismdragon.net/0/phlog/2024-05-28-linux2.txt

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[^0]: I say from my MacBook Pro, while watching a YouTube video as it plays in
      the background behind my translucent terminal window. It's only 360p, but
      still...