Well something similar to that.  Got an ancient desktop running a ubuntu-based distro and an equally ancient macbook.  Would like to connect and utilize both their computing capability for day-to-day tasks, you know like browsing, gaming, coding, movies, etc.  Have heard of cluster computers, which look good but most of them suggest a similar hardware. And also read that they can actually get counter-useful because of the way the master node would task the sub-nodes, so lot of wasteful energy consumption of the sub-nodes if the master dont delegate. But I only have a vague idea.  Question is, a desktop and a laptop, with different hardware, can it be made to work in tandem, elegantly and for normal tasks? And how?  Desktop specs (Elementary OS, 32-bit) 1. Intel Pentium Dual Core  CPU  E2180  @ 2.00GHz 2. 1GB RAM SDRAM (yeah, its that old!) 3. 160GB SATA Disk 4. Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ Integrated Graphics Controller  Laptop specs (Snow Leopard, 32-bit?) 1. Intel Core 2 Duo  CPU  @ 2.16GHz 2. 2GB 667MHz DDR2 RAM 3. 250GB SSD 4. Intel GMA 950 64MB  PS - Of course, will put in Ubuntu-based distro in both. PPS - There should be a solution, right? PPPS - A step-by-step would be cool.  EDIT -  Have read many threads, and they all state the accessing the RAM of a different machine is too costly. So there can be a scenario where the RAM is shared as one and only the CPU is "clustered" as such. OR maybe putting a big RAM in one of the machine, whichever is easier.
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Here are a few questions, I wish you could enlighten me.   Is it possible to combine processing power of 2 computers? How do I do it?
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I actually have a Macbook Pro with Snow Leopard (I plan on upgrading to Lion).  I may have to buy an Mac mini in order to have a full dual screen (external identical screens) layout (see my ).  So I will work on a Mac Mini and a Macbook Pro, most of the time on the same LAN.  How to get everything completely synchronised, as fast as possible? (I don't know if iCloud can)  I am talking about every file/data on my computer:   applications application preferences mails calendar iPhoto/aperture libraries lots of small files (web development...) files out of my account (apache server files, php/libraries) ...   I don't want to manage 2 computers and do everything twice (installing something, configuring the system, etc...).
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I have been living under a rock for the past 5 - 8 years, and am just now getting up to speed with virtualization, virtual machines and platforms like VMware or VirtualBox.  I think I am starting to get them, but there are two concepts about VMs that I'm just choking on for some reason; one has to do with their intrinsic benefit to the enterprise, and the other has to do with their practicality when being used.  So I understand that you can have multiple VMs running on the same physical machine, all doing their own "thing" as if they were separate machines. So let's say I want to make a nice little virtual network of servers in my home office so I can have a big sandbox to play inside of for all my projects. I set up 2 physical machines as servers, and on each of them I have, say, 4 virtual machines running (1 might be an app server, another might be a RDBMS, another might be a message broker, etc.).   Besides saving me money (as I only have to provide 2 physical machines instead of buying 8 servers), what instrinsic benefit/purpose do these VMs serve here? I don't care how clever virtual machines are, if my computer only has 8GB of RAM, and I have 4 VMs running on it, those VMs only get 8GB of RAM to share between them. Putting 4 VMs on my server doesn't endow it with 4 times that amount of RAM! So, as far as I see it, VMs save you money on hardware, but just end up bogging down that hardware as you have multiple machines competing over the same pool of resources. What am I missing here? Can VMs communicate with each other over your network using high-level protocols like TCP/IP, HTTP, FTP, etc.? Otherwise, it just doesn't make sense to implement all these VMs if you have to feed them separate and independent chunks of data/requests to process.
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As there's no definitive answer to this, and I would prefer not to be too specific about particular models, what are the things that determine whether this is possible or not?   What expansion slots would the laptop require to do this? How can you find out if a motherboard/chipset supports upgrades?  Is heat an issue? Could it void the warranty? How is battery life affected?
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I've never supported Apple in any way, but I like their hardware. As I've just purchased and got working a nice Apple wireless keyboard (bought second-hand!), I'm curious about the possibility of buying a second-hand MacBook and installing Ubuntu on it.   What, of what's important, isn't working? Notably, I do Flash Player development from time to time, so I do at the very least need to get a 32-bit debug player installed. (I usually run 64-bit, so I'm familiar with having to tweak things to get it all working properly) I'd also need to be able to play DVDs with CSS, run Google Chrome, etc. Is it fairly similar in capabilities as a non-Apple computer as far as what I can use? It seems that there's a different architecture used, namely PowerPC, and I don't know what this means to me as an end-user.   Can anyone recommend me for or against installing Ubuntu on MacBookPro?
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describes the RAM specifications for many of the MacBook laptops. In the section for my laptop (13" Pro Late 2011), it says:     Additional Notes: For best performance, fill both memory slots, installing an equal memory module in each slot.   This isn't the first time I've heard of this phenomenon, and it's definitely not specific to Apple.   Why is this the case? Other than the obvious decrease in available memory, why would it be worse to run with 6GB (1x4GB + 1x2GB) than with 8GB (2x4GB)?
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I was told that computers with more than 2 gig's memory need a 64 bit operating system to utilize all RAM.  Is the 64bit Ubuntu download really JUST for AMD processors? I am asking because the disk image I downloaded says AMD64.  So will my new Intel 2.3Ghz Core i3 Dual Core processor work with 64 bit Ubuntu?  It runs the 64bit version of Windows without any qualm.
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A friend of mine asked a question that got me thinking. Is it possible (theoretically, I assume it hasn't been done) to run two operating systems simultaneously on the same computer? Not in the sense of multitasking in one window, but being able to quickly switch from one to the other without restarting. Could something low-level be created that would intercept system calls (or whatever needs to be done) to make each OS think it is running alone? Or hardware itself that would accomplish this?  I'm not talking about dual booting or using virtual machines, but actually running two OS's side-by-side.
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We are assembling some lightweight machines with the express purpose of displaying a single web page over a large screen. I need the machine to essentially boot up as lightweight and as quickly as possible and essentially have it run a browser (WebKit?) in full screen, loading one page which will be controlled dynamically by JavaScript. I'll be using an Intel D525 dual-core processor with integrated GPU, so I shouldn't need to set up any proprietary graphics drivers. Once I get one of these machines set up properly, I should just be able to dd the hard drive onto my computer and then dump it onto each new machine.  I have the following questions:   How can I create a "distribution" which includes only what I need? I suppose I'll need the kernel (;]), X, and a web browser of some sort, but not really too much else. Could I take something like Ubuntu Server and simply install X Server and find a way to have the machine automatically log in, start X, and start the web browser, no questions asked? Is there a book I can read or an article or something?  What can I use for a nice, stripped-down web browser that essentially runs a "chromeless Chromium?" These machines won't be accepting user input at all. If I need to manage them, I'll use SSH.
564
Why, for example, would a 2.66 GHz dual-core Core i5 be faster than a 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo, which is also dual-core?  Is this because of newer instructions that can process information in fewer clock cycles? What other architectural changes are involved?     This question comes up often and the answers are usually the same. This post is meant to provide a definitive, canonical answer for this question. Feel free to edit the answers to add additional details.
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Say I had a Core i7 Laptop with 16GB of RAM and a 750gb drive.  Is there a mechanism where I can partition the HD into a Linux, Windows, OS X, Shared Data, Hypervisor setup where I boot a small hypervisor. I can start/stop a linux, Windows and OS X virtual machine and interact with them all from the hypervisor?   Code, Test, etc?  is this a type 1 Hypervisor?  I suppose I could run a small linux install and VmWare but could VmWare read the virtual machines from a physical hard disk partition versus a file based setup (.vmdk files)?
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I am trying to put a server together to install Ubuntu. I bought an Intel S1200v3RPS motherboard and plugged an Intel Xeon E3 processor into it. I purchased a 1U chassis from Supermicro with a power supply.  The power supply does not have a 5-pin cable to the motherboard's Auxiliary Power Supply socket. A bit of research did not give any definite answer on the need for the 5-pin connection. The motherboard does not power on and the CPU fan is off. I tested the power supply on a desktop Intel motherboard and it works fine.   I would like to buy a new power supply but could not find one which expressly stated that it comes with the 5-pin aux power supply cable. Any recommendations on a power supply unit for this motherboard would be helpful. Any comments on the problem would be greatly appreciated.
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I am a bit financially strapped and received a Gateway GT5056 tower. The tower has an AMD dual core 64-bit processor in it. Will Ubuntu 12.04 run on this machine? I will not have any other application other than LibreOffice installed.
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I've an  Notebook with an  CPU. The Asus site says that the maximum RAM is 8&nbsp;GB, but Intel's says my CPU supports 16&nbsp;GB. What is the maximum RAM I can use on this system under Ubuntu?
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My colleague is using an application that consumes a lot of memory which makes the system too slow. Is it possible to share memory with other PCs over the Internet?   The system has 8 GB of RAM, and the application consumes more than 6 GB.
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One of the local college in my home town in India is planning to implement mass distribution and usage of Ubuntu Linux for the purpose of education. I have been asked by my CTO to look into the matter and bring out some valuable suggestions with which we can roll out multiple installations on more than 450 computers!  I have know a way in Windows that uses the Ghost technique to address this issue. Our purpose is similar in this case but don't know how to proceed further. I have been using Ubuntu for the past six months to get the feel and understanding of the OS and I have to admit it that from the very first day, I was almost into it learning, reading, learning and asking others to use it too. Just amazing!  Help in any form is appreciated.  Note: All the 450 computers are of different configurations/variety of different motherboards, hard drives, ram, etc. But they all meet the minimum criteria for Ubuntu installation's hardware requirement.
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My current employer has given me the opportunity to design my own GIS workstation. The problem is I have no idea what is important when it comes to hardware! I have been given a datasheet from Fujitsu which includes the latest CELSIUS M720 series workstations but the configuration includes about 30 different processors, graphics cards, and hard drives.  I will be working a lot with the ESRI desktop suite (spatial analyst and 3D analyst) and doing a fair amount of raster processing (DEMs, visibility analysis, etc.), but I also use the GDAL library, SAGA-GIS, Quantum GIS and others.  Does ArcGIS 10 actually use multiple cores?  I have the choice from 4 cores with 8 threads up to 8 cores with 8 threads - 16 threads?  Is SSD SATA III better than HDD SATA III?  The Celsius R920 supports up to 512 GB RAM. But what do I need?  It will probably be the last time I get a new workstation for the next 5 years, so I am curious what others have ordered or feel will be necessary for the coming years. Obviously the cloud isn't taking over as quick as they say!