Wants “open laptops” but won’t pay for them, dismissing efforts by Purism as “overpriced.” I can’t take this seriously.
I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
251–260 of 693 posts
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#252I 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…
XX. Cannot sit with my desktop in bed :)
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#253It's frustrating to me (as a UEFI engineer) to see and read the fear-mongering on blogs like these. Much of what I do is focused on open-sourcing and making the industry as a whole better.
I tend to side with others in the thread that the "end of general purpose computing" isn't a result of manufacturers pushing in a direction but rather following consumers. The percentage of computer scientists, programmers, and enthusiasts that consider the openness of their hardware a deal breaker grow smaller each year. For the rest of the population, they can find something that's general enough for their use cases.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for opening hardware up and making it transparent. But until we as general consumers (not just the fine folks of Hacker News) care enough to let that sway our buying decisions, this trend is going to continue.
There will always be general hardware. It's just going to get more expensive.
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#254From 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…
You can totally write code on an iPad. There are plenty of JavaScript environments, not to mention Pythonista.
Swift playgrounds will actually run quite large codebases with a little fiddling around.
You can trivially get a robust Linux command line with Blink and a free tier Google compute instance.
I agree there is no XCode.
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
But how do you store it as an iso without making the iso in the first place?
1. the high seas 2. Failing that, just archive your existing discs and ditch the drive for good. It's the year 2020, and most (all?) software are distributed digitally, so you shouldn't need to get out your drive in the future.
I just built a new Windows gaming machine. Windows came on a DVD. I had to make a quick trip to Walmart to get a USB DVD drive. :-)
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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, w…
I see a lot of long form medium articles these days. It’s not that they don’t exist. They are just very bad.
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
>11. I want an all-metal case because a machine caught fire once. I would love elaboration on what happened.
The graphics card caught fire. Fortunately, I was at my desk at the time and couldn't help but notice the heavy smoke boiling out of the machine. I pulled the plug pronto which halted the fire, and put the machine out on the concrete patio till it stopped smoking. Curious, I plugged it in again and the fire started again. REmoving the cover showed the graphics card and a section of the mobo was burned to a crisp. I h…
"Curious, I plugged it in again and the fire started again"
This reminds me of an old joke: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/46sere/a_p...
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
The power goes out for a day, sometimes days, every year in my neighborhood when the wind blows. Finally fed up, I recently had a generator installed that attaches to the natural gas line. I know that purchase was effective, because a week after it was installed there was a big storm and power went out everywhere except my neighborhood. Just having a generator successfully wards off power failure, you never have to a…
You understand Murphy's law, and other laws of the universe well!
Not only do I control the weather, but the stock market, too. If I buy a stock, it goes down. If I sell it, it goes up.
Every time.
Fortunately, after about 6 weeks or so, the market forgets I did a transaction, and things start moving my way. I'm forced to be a long term investor.
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
It makes sure that someone didn’t boot into another OS on my laptop and try to decrypt BitLocker, since BitLocker will hard lock if the secure boot keystore is fiddled with or if a USB drive is booted from.
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#260I 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…
Just a point about the loud graphics cards: all of them now don't even spin their fans unless you are gaming. So it is kinda nice to spend a bit of money on one to get two machines in one (work and play).