Zeitgeist developer in need of new hardware (appeal for donation)
After my laptop (Dell XPS 1330) broke at GCDS. I came back to Germany and bought me a little nettop (I got 100 Euro discount on it) since it was the only thing i was able to afford. I used it with my 22 inch screen and even took both of them with me to the OpenSuSE Conf. Right before the Zeitgeist hackfest I added a little extra and switched my nettop with a notebook. So all the Zeitgeist development on my side since after GCDS was done on a Atom 1.66 GHz processor, and let me tell you its a PITA. I don’t want to sound whiny but it is slow. GNOME Shell takes forever to compile. To open the applications menu for the first time in Shell takes 10 seconds here and 17 for the Recent Documents. Other things took me around 30 – 90 minutes compile such as evolution and nautilus. It is becoming a bottleneck for development. I really would like to look into more Zeitgeist deployment as well as hacking on some bigger integrations:
- Zeitgeist integration with Evolution: Show me what files i used during a meeting. Which contacts I interacted with most.
- Zeitgeist integration with Unity: I already have a python implementation of the UI using Zeitgeist and intend to support the DX team with the Vala implementation.
- Zeitgeist integration with Nautilus: Add the Recently Accessed as well as Commonly Accessed in the sidebar.
- Zeitgeist integration with Shell: Basically finish the implementation of http://blogs.gnome.org/mccann/tag/gnome-shell/
- More stuff…
The notebook in mind is the Lenovo x201 and costs 999 € at a local notebook shop. This beast will allow me to undertake at least twice as much hacking. One of the reasons I usually hack in python is my fear of compiling taking forever. This won’t be the case with a proper notebook. It will motivate me to hack in C and Vala. However being a student and unemployed makes it hard for me to afford it. So if you could find it in your heart to donate something I would be very appreciative. I will put up a little Paypal dontation box on the sidebar of this blog as well as on the bottom of this post…
Update: Thanks for donating guys… Right now I collected 527 out of 999 
Update #2: Wow you guys rock… 607€ out of 999€
Update #3: 832€ out of 999€ Thanks alot guys… BTW can anyone recommend a charity or a school I can donate my netbook too…
Update #4: 1005 out of 999€ THANK YOU ALL FOR DONATING I took out the donation box out of the post… I will buying the new Notebook and blogging about unboxing it as well as giving credit to the donators starting Wednesday. I have to move out so I am a bit in a jam the next few days.. Thank you all again… I will keep the donation box on the blog (not the post) for those who like my work
I paid for myself during college. So can you.
Having ‘slow’ hardware is actually a good thing. If it’s so slow to even open the menu, that speaks for the quality and optimization of the software. Instead of getting faster hardware optimize the code…
I would love to donate if you can dedicate your hacker time to work on optimizing gnome shell and the rest of gnome3 stack.
I’d like to donate a small amount (10€ – sorry, also a student
), but when I click the button, it just lets me log in normally without a donation page for you.
Did you set that up correctly?
Guys, aren’t you a little hard to this guy?
I can fully understand your pain hacking on a slow computer, and if my laptop would just break I would be in big trouble as well.
Sadly I can’t even afford a more recent model for myself, let alone pay for someone elses.
I hope Canonical or someone ships you a new unit.
I would if I could but I can’t. Sorry dude. =[
Well Atom 1.66 GHz is not that bad…
Until few months ago I my main computer was Centrino 1.5, I can tell you it’s slower than Atom 1.66… Now I have spend 170 euros to buy a second hand T60 (Core duo 1.83GHz) and yes things build really faster.
If software is that slow, it need to be fixed, many people will use it on similar hardware…
Richard, use the button on the right side. It worked for me.
@Peter I am one of the lead developers of Zeitgeist. I can only work on Zeitgeist deployment atm. I do intend to do the Shell integration…
@Richard fixed the issue. Sorry
I will donate if you move to GNOME infrastructure.
i dont have money, but good luck, you are a hero…
@pches: Can not do! It is a team decision not mine… Sorry
@Bob: Sure I also pay college and all the rest thus I can not afford luxury atm…
I diito John. More devs should work on slow hardware. They’ll realize the pain the rest of us feel.
Posted from my Atom netbook running Ubuntu 10.04.
I sent you a small amount. I appreciate the work of Zeitgeist in improving usability and productivity. I hope the small amount I sent you helps and goes to good use.
@Daeng Bo: Yeah but try compiling Evolution or Shell on a netbook! Takes alot. And is pretty frustrating when debugging.
@Daniel: Thanks alot i saw that… I send you an email.
A few days ago I ran Backtrack from CD and I was amazed how fast KDE3 was. Gnome is way slower and KDE4 is still very very very slow, especially on netbooks.
Maybe asking for a high-end notebook so that slow software will run fast is not the most wise way of going about asking for donations.
If you are in Germany you can get really fast old desktop computers on ebay for next to nothing.
10 Euro. Keep up the good work.
Another small amount of money (10€) and big thanks for the good work done already.
Perhaps you should have gotten a desktop with a fast processor which is cheaper and upgradable and a small netbook to travel instead of the nettop.
Having a slow laptop doesn’t mean that you focus more on speed (especially when it’s not your code that’s running slowly). Having a slow laptop means that it’s a pain to compile code so you compile less often and don’t bother with small speed optimizations that need compiling and testing.
Thanks for fixing the link Seif.
Suggestions that “I survived when I was in college” are rather irrelevant. Seif could opt not to raise a collection and instead let Zeigeist development necessarily suffer. This is more like an investment by those interested in Zeitgeist.
Suggestions that having a slower computer is better for a developer is also silly for the reasons people pointed out. Sure, maybe having a slower machine to test on would be fine, but retarding basic development and compilation doesn’t achieve that.
People are weird. Don’t let them get you down
[...] AWESOME! http://seilo.geekyogre.com/2010/05/zeitgeist-developer-in-need-of-new-hardware-appeal-for-donation/ [...]
Gave to you. I just hope if you get your new computer, you’ll give your netbook to charity. (Some schools are searching for hardware.)
Hi sorry man I’am student like you but maybe you can use Adsense of Google making surveys in many websites or creating websites or templates…
I donated without any condition.
Maybe we should learn to be humble when donating.
It is quit strange that to condition the donation. That is not donating, that is more bargaining or politics.
Enough is enough!
Seif Lofty i wish you all the best. I am sure you will have a notebook in a very short time.
Keep up the good work! And by the way…thank you very much for the development!! I am enjoying the open source world very much for more than 3 years.
Seif Lotfy thx for all the hard work i can’t program but i can donate some cash and help the good cause….
Seif, keep up the hard work, I was a programmer a long time ago and know all about the frustrations of using slow hardware, you have received my donation.
wow some if these guys are quite ungrateful.
donated to you, im very interested in zeitgeist and hope to see it on my computer soon
Thanks for what you doing!
hey that lenovo looks good and you’re not forced to pay for windows !
i do wish in the OS choice they had at least ubuntu, maybe you can send them a hint
Keep up the great work.
And to the people saying he should stay with his current hardware: have you guys actually tried to compile something on old hardware? That is a lot worse than to wait 2 seconds before a menu responds; tune up your system if that bothers you (reduce the graphic effects, reduce menu wait times (standard 250 or 500 ms!), or write some code yourself to fix the problem). It’s easy to say something’s broken, it’s totally different to find a good solution (if one exists).
Wel people give 1EUR as I did, I’m sure you will not fill that amount! and if there is 300 of us , he will get the PC , why not ?
832 out of 999 bucks now!
This is why i absolutely love the Linux community.
832 out of 999 bucks now!
This is why i absolutely love the Linux community.
@X 999 bucks is a bit less than 999 euros, mind you
Left you with EUR20, hope you make your goal.
H.
Maybe another GNOME hacker needs it?
Perhaps a gnome-shell hacker, so they can use it for a while as their main system and make gnome-shell not suck on it. My main computer is a similar netbook, and if gnome-shell won’t work on it, I’ll be very sad.
(Honestly, perhaps all GNOME hackers should be limited for a few months to a netbook; there’s no good reason a netbook should provide a limitation to the *desktop*; that’s indicative of failure IMHO).
Hope my Zeitgeist €10 helps you.
“This won’t be the case with a proper notebook. It will motivate me to hack in C and Vala.”
If I make a large enough donation, could you be motivated to just do more & faster hacking in Python instead?
(I’m partisan, I admit it.)
Either way, thanks for Zeitgeist – awesome stuff.
Hmm, hasn’t anyone donated since I did yesterday? I’ll try to throw this up on a couple of forums, and hopefully we can get you that last bit of cash. Or maybe someone can get you a discount on you laptop?
HORRAY!!!! cool!!!
Hope you`ll enjoy new device!!!! and we – your work!!!
Put up a flattr sign and i’ll give you some at once. Still havn’t spent my flattr-money this month. http://flattr.com/
I’ll try to throw this up on a couple of forums, and hopefully we can get you that last bit of cash. Or maybe someone can get you a discount on you laptop?
Wel people give 1EUR as I did, I’m sure you will not fill that amount! and if there is 300 of us , he will get the PC , why not ?
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