Live data from Hacker News

Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

lexaloffle.com

101–110 of 208 posts

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#101
post #37
post #25

When I use Raspberry Pi OS in a Raspberry Pi 4, 8GB of RAM - I feel I already have an excellent, refreshingly stable , late-90s-era experience. It scratches that strange nostalgia itch for that more innocent experience - of early-times WIMP computing. I can surf the web, edit LibreOffice files, record audio in Audacity on my nice Rode microphone, watch video files in VLC, remotely VNC in, transfer files in and out ov…

> 8GB of RAM [...] late-90s-era experience Not even close.

Moat of us had about 16 or 32mb at the time IIRC

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#102
post #99
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Firefox on an 8GB, early 2013 MBP, with hundreds of tabs and an extension, AutoTabDiscard that unloads/suspends them after a couple of hours. Works beautifully. I have to restart the computer about once a month because of Catalina bugs, but Firefox is super stable.

> I have to restart the computer about once a month because of Catalina bugs I shut down my laptop at the end of the day and turn it back on the day after, regardless of bugs. Why do you try to reboot it as little as possible?

I mean nominally that sounds like his preferred experience?

I'm similar, I prefer maintaining state with things until I'm done with them, which makes the current models so frustrating, for all Apple talked about skeuomorphism, for me it's always felt so fake, it's only ever skin deep, I open a webpage and until I'm done with it, it should stay that way.

I've navigated down a third of the page? I've partially filled in a form field? Keep it! There's probably a reason I put that there!

It's not like when I put a piece of paper down on my desk it resets to it's original appearance and orientation every morning. It retains the scribbles and notes! Maybe you like someone else tidying your desk every morning, but I hate it!

Real things exist, our memories exploit these properties so well and what do we get, software that's all about returning to some pristine state that makes it harder for me to recall and use.

I'm curious if they're going to do this same thing with their spatial os, or whether they'll work out that persisting things until people are done with them is a feature.

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#103
post #42

I had a good time with PICO-8 - and I think it retains its core appeal - but I've moved on to "genuine" retro hardware with the new crop of machines like CX16, Mega65, or my personal choice, Agon Light. The specification ends up being tighter when there's a board design, chips and I/O ports, and these new machines, like Picotron, are relatively uncompromised in what they can achieve within the I/O spec. You can emula…

Agon Light looks awesome! I like my ZxSpectrumNext a lot, so I appreciate these dedicated machines.

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#104
post #25

When I use Raspberry Pi OS in a Raspberry Pi 4, 8GB of RAM - I feel I already have an excellent, refreshingly stable , late-90s-era experience. It scratches that strange nostalgia itch for that more innocent experience - of early-times WIMP computing. I can surf the web, edit LibreOffice files, record audio in Audacity on my nice Rode microphone, watch video files in VLC, remotely VNC in, transfer files in and out ov…

I used 8GB RAM till recently and I've found it more and more untenable. The primary issue is the browser. Even now on 16GB I restart Firefox every couple of days. But other things also eat RAM like crazy Running Emacs/Cider I'd have to kill other apps and reboot my REPL a couple times a day. Emacs would also leak memory and need a restart every couple of days

NoScript and only turn on JS when required, and only for the site itself. Hugely reduces memory requirements

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#105
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you don't have to submit apps for them to be signed by you, but you do need to pay 99$/yr, tbh i think it's fair considering xcode is free

I’m too unfamiliar with Xcode to know much about it. Do you need it to release software for macs? I’m not sure how Apple gets away with forcing people to pay $99/yr to be able to let people install software without getting a warning. I guess it’s a minor issue. I have added a few installs to my “yes I really want to use this software” list on my m1 air, but I still think it’s a little bit silly. It’s obviously some s…

It's an effective "barrier to entry" to level up software quality, or rather, to keep poor publishing out.

Apple gets away with it because Mac users tend to be much higher software payers than those on other OS.

Not saying it isn't some sort of business extortion

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#106
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pay because it’s inexpensive and you are supporting the development of a platform that brings joy to a lot of people (including children). It’s hosted (splore for finding games), a community forum is maintained and is a wealth of knowledge. It’s a hub for learning. Paying for pico-8 is like donating to Wikipedia. Basically, you are putting a few dollars towards a “good thing”.

I don't buy that argument – why shouldn't I donate to TIC-80 instead, since it has the potential of reaching also children whose parents don't have $15 burning a hole in their pockets? I'm not trying to be contrary, I'm really just trying to find what the unique thing about PICO-8 is since nobody has been able to articulate it, yet many people appear to feel it.

Why not both? If you can afford it, of course.

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#107
post #15

It's a sign of the fact that personal computing has gone way, way off the rails that we make pretend computers to run on our real computers just to have fun ways to compute again. I really really appreciate work like this, but why aren't our actual operating systems "cozy" enough to support creative work anymore?

Limitations and difficulty are the foundations of creativity.

Our current devices are almost unlimited.

Post reply on HN