431–440 of 693 posts
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Now that you phrase it that way, I guess I prefer a desktop too, because I have most of those things, but split between my NAS in the closet and my laptop docked to my big monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
I keep thinking of banishing the desktop to the closet to keep the fan noise down.
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In my experience realistically even if you can unlock the bootloader, the hardware is still so proprietary that you have no hope of ever installing an alternative OS it because by the time you reverse engineer it all the phone is already 10 years old.
In my experience it usually goes just fine. I’m actually not totally sure what you’re talking about, what does the hardware have to do with it if you’ve got the bootloader unlocked? Assuming you’ve got something common like a Qualcomm SoC, it’s pretty straightforward to take codeaurora or whatever source and AOSP and 90% of the time have an almost fully functional custom image for your device. Now granted I’ve rooted…
I have a low powered laptop for 'on the go' but I only tend to use it to take notes in meetings, and rarely if never use it for work.
Gone are the days of buying a 2k-3k laptop every 18 months and being disappointed with the performance!
> 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. The…
That said, sure making your own desktop is also an option.
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Laptop cpus might be able to sustain top clocks with proper cooling, but we'll never know.
What? There’s a lot of laptops that hit their top clocks with no issues. The main problem is that doing so seriously reduces your battery duration and emits significant noise. Pick anything over the 800$ range that isn’t a macbook and you’re way more likely to hit clocks than not.
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Now that you phrase it that way, I guess I prefer a desktop too, because I have most of those things, but split between my NAS in the closet and my laptop docked to my big monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
I keep thinking of banishing the desktop to the closet to keep the fan noise down.
They have some really cool fanless builds, that if you were using a CPU like the AMD 4750g [1], you would have zero noise, and it'd make for a very decent workstation.
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I keep thinking of banishing the desktop to the closet to keep the fan noise down.
My workstation sits about 25ft away from me, in a completely separate room. A thick bundle of cables runs from the desk to the workstation.
I've been thinking along similar lines, especially now that - with WFH likely to be the norm for the foreseeable future - my need for a portable computer is much diminished. I could get a lot more bang for my buck and build a system that was specced exactly the way I want. The rub for me is that I really dislike Windows. I use it for work - I have to - but it's not an OS I'd choose for myself[0]. I like OSX but the p…
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Two words: Heat Sinks A well proven way to move heat out of a silicon package to prolong its ability to perform at its highest potential. And in a desktop, you've got room for 'em.
On an NVME? You don't need heatsinks of an NVME. You have much bigger issues in your case if you think heatsinks will help on an NVME.
I don't think the assumption that processing power is decreasing and all devices are becoming dumb terminals is true, either. Moore's law... Look at the new chips released by AMD and Intel. Look at CPU benchmarks: the more recent chips blow older generations out the water... and there's no conspiracy to keep these advancements out of consumer's hands. Anyone is free to buy a server rack and build a small super computer (should they have the cash.)
What this article raises that I agree with is the complaint that many chips contain proprietary blobs that can't be inspected or removed. Unfortunately, technology like this is how companies try protect trade secrets. It's definitely not ideal, and backdoors + security flaws have been found in these areas in the past. I think if you're concerned about such flaws you really have to ask yourself whether you need to protect government-secrets... or whether your laptop is just going to contain your shopping list and other mundane data. Once you decide what type of data you're going to be working with. You can decide on an appropriate security strategy.
I doubt it makes sense for most people to stick to decades old hardware to avoid the possibility of having someone exploit (and risk revealing what would probably be worth millions on the black market) something in their firmware or microcode.