When is 450Mhz faster than 2.2Ghz?

When the Pentium 4 is bogged down with crudware, that’s when.

I know I’m harping on the subject, but I dragged the ugly little laptop back to work today, because I wanted a machine that wasn’t the victim of a half-dozen proprietary photo loader programs. That’s when I realized that crappy 450Mhz K6-2 starts faster, loads programs faster and runs faster than the Pentium 4 in the other room.

If it wasn’t for the fact that the machine needs a secure wireless key to connect to the office network, I’d be running SliTaz on it. And then it would really fly. (The key code is apparently Top Secret. Sorry, but I’m not going to hack my office wireless key. I like my job, thank you.)

But as it is, bogged down with Windows XP, the Sotec still performs better than the 2.2Ghz desktop machine. That’s sad.

As a side note, I mentioned in an oblique way that the office machines were not exactly humming along any more. The reply was, “It must be a virus.” Hmm. Yeah.

Anyway, my Ubuntu test machine is still in use, still cranking away at the day-to-day work I would otherwise relegate to the workhorses in the other room. I decided it’s just as well to let the screwed-up computer sit silent. If a “virus” is to blame, I don’t want to be somehow accused of being part of the disease vector. 😐