I stumbled across a forum thread at geeks.pirillo.com where a user posed the title question: should programmers use older hardware? The rationale behind the question was that the developer would have a better feel for how the code runs on slower machines. If it runs well on slow machines, it should run even better on faster machines.

Some people argue that development isn’t a very resource-intense activity. Sure, your machine needs to be able to compile code, serve up HTTP requests, etc, but you don’t need a Corvette to do what a Neon can do. Other users rebutted, saying some applications, especially video, are resource intense and that there’s no way development can proceed without good hardware.

In my admittedly limited experiences as a web developer, I say that it generally doesn’t matter what hardware you write code on. The machine I’m using to serve up the page you’re looking at is a repurposed 6 year old Dell desktop. It’s by no means a high-end web server, but it doesn’t need to be. I can write code and test code on it just fine. I admit this viewpoint is somewhat biased due to the nature of my line of work.

In the end it’s not development, but it’s testing that dictates the amount of horsepower needed. Ideally, companies would have a dedicated test division that’s separate from the development division. The people who are responsible for testing the software would be doing so on lower-end hardware, not the developers themselves. Developers can’t do their jobs without the proper hardware and software. The testing department is responsible for giving feedback that guides performance.

Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment and let us know.