I'm compiling a new kernel. And I'm finding out how slow a 233MHz processor really is under "normal" use:

[root@register tmp]# cat /proc/loadavg
2.67 1.56 0.75 1/57 6101

That's with some RPM use, some compiling, some tar'ing things over NFS, some downloading new packages, etc. The cash register is really bogging down pretty badly. Everything is plenty usable, though, and I'm surprised at its responsiveness. I kinda want to start a news reader or a gopher client just for old time's sake. :-)

But I bet I'm doing more at once than I could if I had been running Windows. In fact, I don't even think the newest version of Windows will run on a Pentium 233 with 48MB of RAM, much less allow me to be doing five I/O and CPU-intensive tasks at once while running a web server that's streaming MP3s.

I guess some people just need to pay for more hardware than they need...