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

The PC is not dead, we just don't need new ones

idiallo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 401 posts

Re: The PC is not dead, we just don't need new ones

#301

Post by tracker1 »

justincormack wrote: post #108
simonsarris wrote: post #96

I've felt this way since I built my last desktop in 2008. I was sort-of waiting for the "gee its time to upgrade" mark to roll around in 3 or 4 years, but it hasn't happened yet. Any games I want to play it still runs very well, and it still feels very fast to me even compared to modern off-the-shelf systems. When my friends ask for laptop-buying advice I tell them if they like the keyboard and screen, then its just…

I would pay for a silent PC. I paid a lot for a quiet Apple PowerPC Mac pro back in the day and built a quiet PC but they are not silent and I have moved to a quieter place and I can hear them (yes the Mac runs Fedora now). I have some silent ARM machines but they don't quite cut it yet though maybe the new quad core one will.

If an i3 is fast enough for you, and you don't need high end graphics, you might want to consider an Intel "Next unit of computing" system... You'll need to get laptop components for it though. I've considered it, but not that into quiet, and want a bit more power.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102...

Re: The PC is not dead, we just don't need new ones

#302

Post by FLUX-YOU »

johngalt wrote: post #273
GuiA wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a kid, my parents were really anti-videogames (except for a few educational ones), anti-TV (we had one, but it was in its own room and rarely used), and would only let me use the home computer for homework. As a result, I spent all of my childhood and teenage years reading (mostly fantasy and sci-fi; several books a week, at my peak) and programming. I taught myself programming in 7th grade because I really wanted…

Quite interesting thank you for sharing. The idea that constraints can guide creativity. It reminds me of pg's essay on distractions. I've got something of a different view. I was never limited TV or game consumption. My parents had the mindset of 'you'll have to learn to self moderation at some point, better to do it when the stakes are small'. They wanted me to learn to recognize when something I enjoyed was having…

Oh man, if there's one thing I could change in my childhood, it'd be trading half of my gaming time with programming time. I was unfortunately growing up in the golden age of web programming and games and 'chose' the latter. Unfortunately, you can't do much with just 20 years of gaming experience. My parents mostly let me do whatever because I already had a skill then (basic tech support) which we thought would guarantee a self-supporting job after college...

Nope.

It's becoming increasingly important to get college right the first time through if only because of insane, rising costs. If it were cheap, I could probably find a class on self-moderation.

On the bright side, I find most of today's games boring, so it's rather easy to get productive.

Re: The PC is not dead, we just don't need new ones

#303

Post by seanmcdirmid »

The PC is not dead; the market for selling new PCs is just stagnant. PostPC doesn't mean the PC is dead, but it lives on more like a zombie.

I'm hoping that a new generation of largish (24-27") 4K displays will lead to a rebirth in desktop PCs, if only because we depend on them so much for professional work where they've fallen behind in experience when compared to high-end laptops, which shouldn't be the case!

Re: The PC is not dead, we just don't need new ones

#304

Post by bitemix »

It seems like the only folks who consistently upgrade their computers every 1-2 years are gamers and people working with big media files. Some friends and I run a website dedicated to helping people build and upgrade their PCs. We see about 130k visitors per month. That's a pretty low number, but it still converts to a quarter of a million in sales every month.

Re: The PC is not dead, we just don't need new ones

#306

Post by spiffytech »

bradleyjg wrote: post #270
johngalt wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We would be better off steering into the skid. History has plenty of examples of people who've tried to hang onto the old ways 'because that's how I learned it'. The way forward isn't to try and keep cheap PCs viable for creativity's sake, but to ensure that creative desires are being met on the newer devices. Would I have learned memory management and dual booting if I'd had a tablet instead of a 386? Probably not.…

Long form writing seems close to impossible on a tablet. A long hacker news comment is possible, but once you are looking at even a modest book report, I can't see it. Maybe with some sort of accessory keyboard, but then you are looking at more of an ad hoc laptop than a pure tablet.

You'd expect long-form writing to be unthinkable on today's mobiles, but plenty of people wrote whole novels on Palm PDAs with only the on-screen keyboard/Graffiti. I also performed extensive text entry on Palm PDAs for my middle/high school notes and assignments, and didn't consider it a bad experience. And these examples, and the above commenter with his Sim City clone for the TI-82, demonstrate, when you make up your mind that you're going to do something on a limited device, it's often surprisingly possible.

Re: The PC is not dead, we just don't need new ones

#307

Post by protomyth »

krallja wrote: post #286
protomyth wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hobbists have a wider selection of computing tools than ever before I don't think that's quite true. We had Heath kits and a lot more variety of computers from the late 70's to the early 90's. There is no under $200 computer sold at major retailers like there was in the 80's.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%24200+1980+US+dollars+... There are LOTS of under-$570 computers sold at major retailers today.

I don't consider inflation a valid excuse when we continually hear computers get cheaper every year and the Mac mini is selling at the Apple II's old price point. The PC industry abandoned the sub $200 because of Windows licensing, Intel, and Apple taking the old Apple II price as a floor.

$570 is a lot father out of reach today for many than $200 in the 80's.

Re: The PC is not dead, we just don't need new ones

#308

Post by felixfurtak »

rythie wrote: post #209
taigeair wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but the video is so loud!

Yeah I know it's awful, if my Celeron 450Mhz could play DVDs at no effort, I don't know why this can't play videos on 5-10% CPU and not spin up the fan.

Most video encoding is mp4-type now (rather than the mp2-type used by dvds). Mp4 is typically a lot more processor intensive.

Re: The PC is not dead, we just don't need new ones

#310

Post by pattisapu »

UVB-76 wrote: post #46

People snack on smartphones, dine on tablets, and cook on PCs. A lot of people don't want to cook, so are happy with smartphones and tablets. Why buy a desktop or laptop when an iPad will do everything you need for a fraction of the price? That's what people mean when they sound the death knell for the PC.

Very well put!
Post reply on HN