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I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

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Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#51

Post by gruez »

WalterBright wrote: post #16

I prefer a desktop because: 1. I like big, big monitors. 2. I prefer a full size keyboard. 3. I prefer a separate mouse. 4. I prefer big freaking disk drives installed. 5. I put the desktop under my desk, and with a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse, there is much less of a snarl on my desk. 6. The desktop has an optical drive I still use. 7. The desktop has lots of USB ports and they're all in use. 8. I can repla…

Agree on most of the points, but...

>6. The desktop has an optical drive I still use.

for what? You're probably better off (in terms of both convenience and IO performance) to store it on a hdd/ssd as an iso and mount it.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#52

Post by striking »

moonchild wrote: post #7

I don't understand the conflation of uefi with secure boot. Uefi can be independent of secure boot—I use uefi and have never enabled secure boot—the purpose of uefi was to consolidate definition and discovery of various bios-level APIs. Probing memory, setting video modes, and more; these things were poorly specified, and implementations frequently differed. Uefi is huge and overengineered, but it's still a definite…

I'm going to go a step further and say that I absolutely adore UEFI. Why should I have to install my own bootloader to multiboot? Why can't the motherboard do that for me?

With UEFI I can set up my own boot entries and boot directly into whichever Linux kernel I like with whatever arguments I like. I can write a script that easily boots me into another OS exactly once. And it's a delight to not have to think about traditional bootloaders anymore.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#53

Post by curiousllama »

> I know that new "open" laptops are still available, but most of them--the System76's, the Purisms, etc.--are overpriced in my opinion

This quote suggest to me the author is an integral part of the problem.

Companies are ALWAYS trying to increase their profitability. If they can lock down the computer, they can drop the price while _increasing_ CLTV.

That’s why System76 is more expensive. They’re NOT overpriced. They’re priced as “general purpose computers” must be to be competitive.

I agree with this author, but this suggests that the strength of his conviction is maybe $400.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#54

Post by rbecker »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #17
geocrasher wrote: post #5

From the article: "What worries me as much as the end of general-purpose computing for the masses is that so few seem to understand that it is ending." Correction: Has Ended. The vast majority of people using computers has shifted to phones and tablets. I have a friend who's a millenial who barely knows how to use his desktop PC (It's a Mac) but is fluent on his iPad/iPhone. Most people are not content creators, they…

I don't think "the masses" were ever interested in general-purpose computing. For them it never started. For people who actually care, I think the concerns are overblown and we'll always have access to a machine that can run open software. And yes sure, we might not be able to pay consumer prices for them, but they are not going anywhere. And sure, we might elect a fascist government which will simply ban the technol…

No self-respecting author would write "We'll always have access to typewriters without built-in censorship. Sure, we might not be able to pay consumer prices for them, but they are not going anywhere."

What makes you so sure the restrictions will stop somewhere you're comfortable with? What happens when unlocked machines are only available to "enterprise" (not unlike a certain Windows version), and you have to agree to audits when buying them? What chance do free operating systems stand, when 99% of users don't even have access to computers that could run them?

We need not worry as long as somewhere, in some dark basement, a sysadmin is able to assemble an unlocked personal computer from his company's old hardware?

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#55

Post by acdha »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #15

My main concern with desktops is that they’re much less power efficient than laptops, and therefore create a lot more heat in my office. Something like a Mac cheese grater is probably more power efficient than my custom built PC, but you lose a lot of the value going with a prebuilt system.

This is only slightly true: if you buy a well-designed system and don't disable power management, a desktop will use more power but not substantially so unless you're actually using that extra capacity. If you buy some massive gaming / ML rig, yes, that'll use a lot more but it's a lot closer if you buy a comparable capacity and quality system.

The best way to see this is to buy a watt-meter and test it while doing what you normally do. Also remember that two decades ago you'd probably have had the computer _with_ a CRT sucking several hundred watts constantly, probably with some nice incandescent / halogen bulbs to keep things extra toasty, and a decade ago if you weren't using a Mac you probably had most of the power savings features disabled for system stability and/or compatibility. By now even the faster components have great power management when they're not fully loaded.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#56

Post by marmaduke »

agloeregrets wrote: post #24
polskibus wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

12. High end desktop CPUs are noticeably faster than mobile counterparts (higher freq, more cache)

Is that actually true anymore? I mean, hardware wise they are not much faster, but cooling is a different story.

I didn't see any specific numbers in reply to your comment, so I just want to point out that base clock Ghz for Intel and AMD is much higher for desktop CPUs than laptops. For your average click-read cycle, this feels better.

At full load, it depends on the heat dissipation; Dell's Precision 7XX0 dissipates heat well enough to keep the CPUs from throttling, but the 5XX0 does not.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#57

Post by coddle-hark »

geocrasher wrote: post #5

From the article: "What worries me as much as the end of general-purpose computing for the masses is that so few seem to understand that it is ending." Correction: Has Ended. The vast majority of people using computers has shifted to phones and tablets. I have a friend who's a millenial who barely knows how to use his desktop PC (It's a Mac) but is fluent on his iPad/iPhone. Most people are not content creators, they…

> Most people are not content creators, they are consumers.

I don’t think this is true at all, everybody that has a Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube / TikTok account is a content creator. There’s a reason the term “browsing the web” has died out, it’s not about passive consumption anymore.

Writing code is just about the only thing you can’t do on an iPad. And while I think we can all agree on HN that having a gateway to programming is super important, you can’t expect most people to care.

Typed on my iPhone. In bed.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#58

Post by emmanueloga_ »

WalterBright wrote: post #16

I prefer a desktop because: 1. I like big, big monitors. 2. I prefer a full size keyboard. 3. I prefer a separate mouse. 4. I prefer big freaking disk drives installed. 5. I put the desktop under my desk, and with a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse, there is much less of a snarl on my desk. 6. The desktop has an optical drive I still use. 7. The desktop has lots of USB ports and they're all in use. 8. I can repla…

A little box like this could allow you to plug big big monitors to any laptop though [1] (been using it and works fine). I almost never open up the laptop and use it directly.

... You can put a big disk on a laptop, USB3 hub, etc etc

I think main thing missing for me is a beefy GPU and maybe a bit more RAM.

1: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0838WTFD1

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#59

Post by t-writescode »

gruez wrote: post #51
WalterBright wrote: post #16

I prefer a desktop because: 1. I like big, big monitors. 2. I prefer a full size keyboard. 3. I prefer a separate mouse. 4. I prefer big freaking disk drives installed. 5. I put the desktop under my desk, and with a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse, there is much less of a snarl on my desk. 6. The desktop has an optical drive I still use. 7. The desktop has lots of USB ports and they're all in use. 8. I can repla…

Agree on most of the points, but... >6. The desktop has an optical drive I still use. for what? You're probably better off (in terms of both convenience and IO performance) to store it on a hdd/ssd as an iso and mount it.

But how do you store it as an iso without making the iso in the first place?

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#60

Post by riquito »

agloeregrets wrote: post #24
polskibus wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

12. High end desktop CPUs are noticeably faster than mobile counterparts (higher freq, more cache)

Is that actually true anymore? I mean, hardware wise they are not much faster, but cooling is a different story.

20/30% more is much faster (just check desktop/notebook results at https://www.cpubenchmark.net/ to name one)
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