A few episodes ago, the LUGRadio guys were talking about the new Cell processor (which will be in the PS3 IIRC), and bemoaning the cycle within hardware manufacturers of alternately integrating peripherals, and then deciding it’s better to modularise them, and so take them out again. I’ve come to a similar place with my home computing situation. Let me explain:
Currently my main machine at home is my Debian desktop box – an Athlon 1900XP with 1GB RAM and 100GB of storage. It also houses my shiny nVidia 5700FX and the TV card, and a few other niceties. Softwarewise, it runs a shedload of stuff – I use bittorrent to serve up Lugradio episodes to the masses, I run an Apache webserver and a MySQL database for home projects and testing. I run an IMAP server for my email, and I SSH in every day to check my mail and use IRC from home. On the more desktopy side, I run a web browser, TV software, plus some games (Enemy Territory! And, of course, Doom3, RtCW, ColdWar (demo), etc).
When it comes down to it, there are 3 seperate functions for my machine:
- Server-type stuff that runs in the background – Apache, CourierIMAP, Bittorrent, MySQL, etc
- Desktop-type stuff that runs graphically – Firefox, Evolution, games, etc
- Console-based stuff that I use when I log in remotely – irssi, mutt, etc
For a while I have been thinking about the possibility of ‘modularising’ all of this across 2 boxes. Now that Heather has her laptop, she’s not interested in the nice Ubuntu box I set up for her, so I have an available PIII 800. The idea was to move all the server-type stuff, and the stuff I log into from work onto this machine, running Debian Unstable as I am now, and then convert my desktop into a nice Ubuntu box that I will boot when needed.
The big advantage to this method is that I can be a little bit more adventurous with my desktop box without endangering my data too much, and I get to play with Ubuntu more frequently 
Plus the power consumption from the older box will be a lot less, which doesn’t hurt.
The big disadvantage is that if I want to use a graphical box, or watch TV, or play games, I will need to wait for the desktop to boot, rather than just switching on the monitor 
In theory I could install X on the older machine so that I could run a web browser, but I’m not sure that’s the best use of resources on the older box.
Anybody got any viewpoints or preferences in this kind of situation? Equally, does anyone have any experience of hibernating a desktop box, as that would be another way of beating the disadvantage of the split – Breezy happily hibernates my laptop now, but I’m not sure APM on desktops is as well supported.
mrBen
APM/ACPI on the desktop box.
-Dx
What he said.
I turn my monitor off if I’m going to be away from the desktop for any amount of time (i.e. longer than going downstairs to make a brew), and for any significant amount of time I put the desktop into standby (not played with hibernation under Linux). Generally though I leave my computer doing something (downloading etc.) when I’m not there so it stays turned on. Actually being out of the house for more than a day or so may see some even (gasp) turned off!
I know it’s very eco-unfriendly of me but I use my computers all day every day, so there’s always at least 2-3 turned on (plus additionals like the wireless kit) so leaving my desktop fully on is just something I do.