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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

#631

Post by pier25 »

culopatin wrote: post #625
pier25 wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you could connect an external display, keyboard, and mouse? Of course, you need an OS that supports that and provides a proper desktop-like experience.

Motorola Atrix comes to mind, or one of those. This was a thing back in 2011 or whenever that phone came out. You could dock your phone and use it as a laptop.

Samsung has Dex too: https://www.samsung.com/us/explore/dex/

I'm not surprised Apple doesn't have something like this as it would probably cannibalize their Macbook sales.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#632

Post by ecpottinger »

lukehutch wrote: post #4
ecpottinger wrote: post #2

I notice the lack of user input/output options. USB requires you to jump thru hoops to use it and does not give the constance bandwidth I got with older ports that the CPU could bit-bang. Today I have multi-GigaHertz machines that I can't build the simple projects that I could use with my Amigas because I have no way to interface directly to the buss. The latency of what present computer supplies is horrible.

These days the standard way to do this is to use a USB UART adapter, or a USB-connected Arduino, an Ethernet-connected Raspberry Pi, etc. -- they have GPIO ports, both analog and digital, as well as I2C, SPI, etc etc. There are enormous numbers of options for motor controllers and sensors available off the shelf. You can bit bang all you want from your desktop computer, via this interface!

The problem is the bandwidth you get from such solutions. I could push 3.5 megabytes per second thru my Amiga interface, the USB->RS232 limits me to about 32 kilobytes per second.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#633

Post by onli »

philliphaydon wrote: post #623
onli wrote: post #616

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do not need a case for that! The NVMe heats up on its own. There are a bunch of reviews going into that topic, because it just matters for high end NVMe drives. See for example https://www.computerbase.de/2020-09/samsung-980-pro-ssd-test... - though the 980 Evo did well without an additional cooler, and here it's indeed depending on the airflow. You seem to assume it's the case that heats up to 80C or more, that'…

I said if your nvme is reaching 80+ degrees then you should fix the airflow in the case. I did not say the case is 80 degrees. Any semi decent airflow is 100% capable of running an nvme without causing any performance issues.

As you saw in the article I linked that's just not true. Those temps are with airflow, and SSDs go over their temp limit.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#634

Post by Silhouette »

reader_mode wrote: post #545
kzrdude wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- When you're out of steam you can sit on the sofa and write emails.

15 inch MBP is too bulky and too hot for this - this is why I'd like to get a smaller ARM based device and go client/server. Ideally Apple would push out a 2in1 with touch but they are set on pushing iOS for touch - which is just too limited for all intents and purposes. I would gladly buy a premium Lenovo 2in1 or some Ryzen 5xxx series ultra portable windows laptop (they are much better on thermals from what I've se…

I'd like to get a smaller ARM based device and go client/server

I'd like to be more client-server these days too, using whatever device is convenient at the time but storing my data centrally so all my devices can access it, it's all systematically secured and backed up, I can also access it remotely via VPN, etc.

The key thing, though, is that I want it to be my server, not someone else's that I don't control and have to keep paying for.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#635

Post by hackmiester »

raxxorrax wrote: post #490
hackmiester wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was hard to read past the attitude that Secure Boot is the enemy. That’s just not the case, and if the author believes it is, it kind of undermines their expertise/the rest of the writing.

I don't think it is hard to read past it and I don't think there are only positive sides. If it stays an optional component it might be true, but it would be naive to just let this be the only perspective in hindsight of development of closed systems like smartphones.

But the author states that they still use computers from before 2012 because they are avoiding EFI. Why?

From 2012 until present, computers have been produced that run any EFI binary you want. Why not buy one of those? It's no different than sticking with pre-2012 machines, except you aren't attached to cruft from the 1980s anymore.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#637

Post by arbol »

Polylactic_acid wrote: post #118
arbol wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

And they turn it on after updates or ignore the setting or nag you every day to turn it back on. Every time I boot back in to windows I get a full screen message about tying my account to an online one.

Weird. I don't get that. I used https://www.w10privacy.de/english-home/

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#638

Post by blandflakes »

zaptheimpaler wrote: post #438
bartread wrote: post #117

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…

I had a very similar experience - dual-boot is nice but not ideal because restarting takes time and you lose all your context. Now im running a (headless) ubuntu server on the host with a windows VM with GPU passthrough on top. With a modern 6-8 core CPU + extra RAM (+ a cheap 2nd GPU for linux if you want a desktop environment on both linux and windows active at the same time) you can have both windows & linux runni…

I've considered this route myself - are you using KVM in Ubuntu to get passthrough or is there some other hypervisor in play?

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#639

Post by RonanTheGrey »

jart wrote: post #189
nvarsj wrote: post #169

Earlier 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/

Don't go giving them any ideas.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#640

Post by kedean »

rsynnott wrote: post #226
nemoniac wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 12. My desktop doesn't have a microphone or camera, so they cannot be surreptitiously turned on remotely. Your points are all good but this one gave me pause for thought. We're all working from home and using our microphones and cameras more than ever. I'm using my regular laptop with plug-in microphone and webcam. Are laptop makers thinking in terms of upping the specs on the microphone and webcams in their upcomi…

Apple have made major improvements to their laptop microphones in the last few years. On cameras, while they’re usually very bad right now, laptop cameras will never be great; there’s just no room for the optics in the lid. No laptop has had a lid as thick as a phone in decades.

> No laptop has had a lid as thick as a phone in decades

Maybe I'm nitpicking, but I feel like this is a bit much of an exaggeration. I just measured my Pixel 3 (at its thickest point, the camera lens) and a 2011 Macbook Pro (including the rubber bumper, admittedly, but those were super slim at the time), and the MBP is only ~2mm thinner than the Pixel. The race for ultra-thin laptops seems like a relatively recent thing to me.

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