You’ll be happy you did. People talk about how laptops are “fast enough” which they are, but when you’re using them all day, things happening a tiny bit faster makes for a much more pleasant experience.
I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
341–350 of 693 posts
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#342I really wish my employer would just give me a desktop; they keep insisting on giving me a laptop that I immediately close and plug into a dock. But, it's just not a fight worth having for me.
Well if they give you a laptop and as a result you're less productive, that's not really your problem.
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#343Earlier quoted context omitted.
The trend in laptops has been for longer battery life and less heat. Since there haven't been any major breakthroughs in battery technology or mobile processor power (at least from Intel), this means lower power for processors and generally lower performance in general. Almost all laptops are using ultra low voltage Intel chips. And even the ones that don't, except for high end gaming laptops, thermally throttle ALL…
Eventually laptops will be so optimized for battery life, and display ads will be so aggressive, that you'll have to run chromium in the cloud and your thin client will be shut down the moment anyone accuses you of being a fascist. https://blog.cloudflare.com/browser-beta/
This is hilarious!
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#344I 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…
> 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.
Agreed. I spent 18 years working primarily on a laptop, and was happy with it. But then I gradually switched to a desktop for the last 7 year with tons of screen space (46" 4K plus 2 24" "wing" monitors. But for the last 6 months I've been working at home, and having my primary machine be able to move to and from the office easily, sounds pretty good what with the pandemic situation.
My setup now is a laptop with the USB-C docking station. So I plug in one USB-C cable and get:
30" external display, ErgoDox Ez, USB mouse, bigger speakers, 120W power, Mic for zoom calls.
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#345It'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 ent…
How does one find a job like yours?
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#346Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've gotten used to the convenience of a laptop, but I'm never happy with them. Now that I'm working remotely, the lappy just doesn't cut it. But I want to veg on the couch with my laptop once and a while. My solution is to use my older laptop as a thin client for my desktop.
I tried that (using Windows Remote Desktop) but the latency was just high enough to be annoying. What do you use?
Well... tbh I'm still working on the build. But I don't do windows and I don't play FPS or anything where latency would be super important. I use VNC across town to my office and that's generally good enough... but we'll see. I had small hopes that "laptop as linux thin client" would have an easy PNP solution by now, but my research indicates that this still isn't the case. Definitely open to suggestions.
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#347Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I guess I'm confident that an open market will always provide for us. I don't know why you think it would not. Right now, today, it has never been easier to just go down to the local mall and buy a general purpose computer, and sure, there are lots of phones, tablets, and consoles on display as well, but there is no less computers as a result.
Good luck getting LSD or uranium-235 on the open market. You can still buy these, but only illegally. The market is slightly less open due to laws and regulations.
These regulations can easily outlaw general-purpose computing on the same grounds of being too dangerous for the society. I can remind you how encryption algorithms were considered "munitions" back in 1990s, less than 30 years ago. At that time one would possibly say that it will always be possible to bring a small bottle of water onboard of an airplane. Betting on things always being "naturally" available, without a conscious effort to sustain them, is a fraught enterprise.
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#348I 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…
I'm surprised we havent tried to sell desktop computers with battery packs yet
That did occur to me reading through this discussion.
I migrated entirely off desktops and went laptop / mobile.
Got happy as my current work benefits from me being highly mobile. Super glad I did it. Ended up surprised at just how much can do with a Note type phone and optional keyboard / track pad.
But, I never did replace fast and responsive. Just kind of coped and the other benefits made the whole thing worth it.
This pandemic has me rethinking some things and yeah, I want to build a nice machine. Want that workstation type feel and performance.
The closed computing argument holds more water every quarter too.
What we need is a reasonable battery pack, and software to throttle the machine down on an interruption. Make this package a couple hundred bucks, or something a person can just load their own cells into and it's bound to be a winner.
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#349Earlier 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.
That just sounds like a desktop with extra steps.
With a docking station it’s not problem at all.
Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers
#350Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is that actually true anymore? I mean, hardware wise they are not much faster, but cooling is a different story.
You answered your own question: CPUs are throttled down when there is too much heat. That happens all the time in a laptop. A desktop with enough air flow never has that problem (unless overclocked).
It depends on your definition of throttled. A CPU that was totally unthrottled would just sit at its boost clock under sustained load, but even desktop CPUs can't manage that, dropping to their base if too much heat is generated. Of course, there are laptops that can't even sustain the base clocks, but some have enough cooling to match that.