Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

misc-stuff.terraaeon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 693 posts

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#71

Post by 91edec »

japhyr wrote: post #45

Does anyone have any recommendations if I want to keep using macOS, but I'm not tied to a MacBook? I realized I hadn't taken my main MacBook off the dock in 9 months. When I go out, I have an older one that I'm happy to use away from my desk. Since it's acting like a desktop now, I though maybe I'd replace it with a higher-spec mac desktop. But a high end mac mini isn't much different than a high-end MacBook. It seem…

Just get an i7 Mac mini? Or since you already have a mac as a backup you could build and configure a hackintosh.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#72

Post by atq2119 »

avalys wrote: post #21

I have been reading this same article for the past thirty years. Yet, I can still install and run whatever operating system and software I want on my laptop _and_ desktop, and I don't see any sign that that freedom will go away anytime soon. It is true that the billion-dollar media companies have decided a subscription model is more lucrative than a one-time-purchase model for the mass-market content they produce (mo…

I can still install and run whatever operating system and software I want on my laptop _and_ desktop, and I don't see any sign that that freedom will go away anytime soon.

The question is how much of that is thanks to this kind of article appearing for the past thirty years.

It's kind of like saying Y2K wasn't a problem: it would have been a problem if we hadn't prepared for it.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#73

Post by pessimizer »

I never properly moved to laptops, I just put my desktops on a shelf and wired them to a network, and use a laptop, an obsolete N900, and an Intel NUC attached to my flatscreen (controlled with a bt mini keyboard) with no important local data on any of them - to interface with the desktops. All the drives on the desktops are encrypted, all long jobs and services are run on/from the desktops, the desktops are on Debian stable and the laptop and tv are on testing.

If the day comes that I can't get a laptop that I can unfuck, I guess I'll just have to work in a remote desktop on a VM in one of the servers. I can always keep the laptop and devices from chattering through the routers. I do have a real fear that it might become hard to find routers that I can install OpenWrt on, or that OpenWrt might go the way of Firefox.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#75

Post by arbol »

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…

You can easily disable W10 telemetry and all the other nonsense they put in it.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#76

Post by mycall »

WalterBright wrote: post #63
dmortin wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. I like big, big monitors. 2. I prefer a full size keyboard. 3. I prefer a separate mouse. You can have these with a laptop too. At home I use my laptop with an external screen, keyboard, mouse (the latter two are wireless), because it's much more comfortable.

It's hard to find a full size bluetooth keyboard. I think I went through every keyboard on Amazon and found only one. If you use a USB wireless keyboard, well, there goes one of the two USB slots on the laptop. It's not just the monitor being big, I want lots and lots of pixels. I'm currently running 3840*2160, and have a second monitor attached set up in portrait mode (so I can display a manual page while I work on…

> there goes one of the two USB slots on the laptop.

With Thunderbolt/USB-C hubs, this is easily fixed.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#77

Post by marmaduke »

aksss wrote: post #32
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…

You can of course leave secure boot disabled in UEFI, but you can’t run secure boot with BIO, to my knowledge. That’s why the association - if you want SB, use UEFI.

> if you want SB, use UEFI

Not sure I've ever seen anyone wanting secure boot. what is it actually good for aside from generating searches for Google when you have to figure out how to circumvent it?

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#78

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

coddle-hark wrote: post #57
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…

> everybody that has a Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube / TikTok account is a content creator.

All the fora you mention are characterized by lack of longform text. What people are creating today tends to be image-heavy and eschew any long argumentation or prose storytelling.

Having just a smartphone obviously represents a limitation. For example, I am a member of some niche travel communities. A decade ago, when it was common for people to lug a laptop, there was a healthier community of people writing detailed blog posts on certain destinations, editing Wikivoyage or Hitchwiki, etc. Now that those same travelers are leaving the laptop at home and traveling only with a phone where it is inconvenient to enter much text, the ecosystem of travel resources is actually poorer than it was in the past.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#79

Post by WalterBright »

dudus wrote: post #37
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…

There's no shortage of reasons that make desktops better. But the few advantages of more mobile devices outweigh the benefits of desktops for most users.

I understand. I also have a laptop for traveling, and carry a separate keyboard and mouse with it in my luggage. But every time I use it, I long for my desktop.

I also bought a chromebook just for fun for $150 from the pawn shop. I have a "build farm" of various computers with different operating systems in the basement for use when there's a problem with one of the D targets, but using putty to remotely access them.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#80

Post by sz4kerto »

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 have a >3 year old GPU that's still faster than any mobile GPU. I have been having 64 GB RAM in my desktop for ... 5 years now. Even in the summer my PC is completely quiet, even under heavy load. (Both the GPU and the CPU are water cooled with stock all-in-one coolers.)

Desktops are great.

Post reply on HN