[Cialug] Buying a new PC

[Jeffrey C. Ollie]

On Sun, 2007-09-30 at 23:51 +0100, jason at benalto.com wrote:
> > On Sun, 2007-09-30 at 14:22 -0500, Jason Warden wrote:
> >> Hello Cialug!
> >> I have a question. I'm buying a PC for the first time in a few years
> >> after using primarily Macs. This PC will have to have Windows on it as
> >> well as Linux as my wife takes online classes at DMACC.
> >
> > Why does the course require Windows?  Is it a Microsoft/Windows class?
> > AFAIK the basic course interface doesn't require Windows.  (Disclaimer -
> > I work for DMACC, but not on the online course systems.)
> 
> The online course system does require Windows. She investigated this - she
> was going to do an online course this semester but they didn't support
> OSX.

Hmm... there's "support" and there's "support".  I think probably what
you're running into is that DMACC's Helpdesk won't (officially) support
you if you call in with a problem and you aren't running Windows and
Internet Explorer.  Most of the people staffing the help desk are pretty
decent (I work in the same room as they do so I ought to know) and I'd
think that they'd support you to the best of their ability if you're
using a non-Microsoft OS.  I checked the online browser check[1] and the
only thing it complained about was that I had pop-ups blocked.

Of course, individual instructors may be uploading content in Microsoft
proprietary formats or requiring homework submitted using Microsoft
proprietary software so that may make it difficult to use anything but
Windows.

If you don't already have copies of Windows and Office check with the
DMACC bookstore because students can get copies very cheaply, although I
don't think that they have everything in place yet for that.

> One thing I read is that 32 bit Windows doesn't recognize more
> than 4 gigs of RAM but 64 bit does. Also, you see those motherboards and
> they say 'up to 8 gigs of 64 bit memory/4 gigs of 32 bit" and I thought
> the RAM was bit-specific. But I was mistaken, as I often am.
> This sounds like it's a-okay to get the 64 bit processor. That's a huge
> relief, thanks!

"Regular" 32-bit OSs (like Windows XP and regular variants of Linux
kernels) can only access 4GB of RAM because they use 32-bit memory
addresses (2^32 = 4GB).  Any RAM above 4GB will be ignored by a 32-bit
OS.  64 bit OSs don't have that limitation.  However, you can run a PAE
(Physical Address Extension[2]) enabled kernel and access much more
memory (assuming the underlying hardware supports more than 4GB of
memory).  I have a 32 bit server (running a PAE-enabled Linux kernel) at
work and it has 12GB of RAM installed.  

Of course, even with bloatware like Vista and Office 2007 4GB of RAM is
plenty for now (for a few months or so maybe).

[1] https://webclass.dmacc.edu/webct/browserchecker.dowebct?checkType=manual
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

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