Please wait...
So if you have a full-size tower sitting on the floor, running a GUI and your favorite client-side applications, it's not a desktop?
ESR wrote an article a few months ago called "Contemplating the Cute Brick". He covers the evolution of client-side computing, pointing out that most of what we need can now be compacted into such a small space that it really only needs to be big enough for the ports. Even laptops are just a stop along the road to conventional desktops becoming obsolete -- or at least a niche market. Eventually our phones will become our personal computers, even when sitting at a desk; we'll simply plug them into full size screens and keyboards.
My NUC has gigabytes of memory, gigabytes of solid-state disk, a 24" monitor, a full-size keyboard, and runs Ubuntu with LXDE (because GNOME and KDE have become almost as ugly as Mac OS). How is that not a desktop?
Sounds like the kind of desktop I'd want, if the graphics card is solid.
My MacBook Pro at my last job kept doing unexpected crap that the most experienced Mac aficionados in the company couldn't solve, so that was a pretty big disincentive to learn the OS for me.
Sounds like the kind of desktop I'd want, if the graphics card is solid.
Intel integrated graphics. It's utter shit, actually. But my unit is several generations old, so it's probably improved since then. I don't do a lot of heavy computing tasks on it though. The most compute-intensive software I run is Audacity, which I use to edit music for a dance studio I work with. Everything else is web browsing, a bit of document editing here and there, typical "office" use. I do all of my software development through a remote server, so my computer only needs a terminal and a browser. No games on here either; we play Nintendo on the 111" screen in the home theater.
Go read the ESR article, though. I agree with most of it. Small bricks are where it's going, no doubt about it. Remember when laptops were so underpowered that you couldn't use one as your main computer? The same thing is happening here. We're probably just a couple of generations away from having a "gaming rig" class computer in a case the size of an Altoids box.
I'm about ready for a new ROG laptop. They're ginormous and the screens are brilliant. This one can't hold a charge even when it's plugged in sometimes. I want to learn Linux so I can get my IOT on, but I'm... undermotivated. Maybe a new computer will help, idk.
I just bought a CyberpowerPC desktop from Amazon. It was less expensive than if I tried to build it myself - and came with everything I was looking for.
Sat Jun 22 2019 15:30:56 MST from ParanoidDelusionsI just bought a CyberpowerPC desktop from Amazon. It was less expensive than if I tried to build it myself - and came with everything I was looking for.
That's my plan for when I'm ready to upgrade.
Sat Jun 22 2019 18:38:43 MST from TheDave
Sat Jun 22 2019 15:30:56 MST from ParanoidDelusionsI just bought a CyberpowerPC desktop from Amazon. It was less expensive than if I tried to build it myself - and came with everything I was looking for.
That's my plan for when I'm ready to upgrade.
That same brand? I'll look into it!
Oh, never mind. I need a laptop.
In which case, I have an MSI gaming laptop with a GTX 1070 GPU. Affordable, and can recommend. I've used it all day before at a Commodore convention in Vegas to demo VR on an Occulus Rift.
Sun Jun 23 2019 08:16:03 MST from ParanoidDelusionsIn which case, I have an MSI gaming laptop with a GTX 1070 GPU. Affordable, and can recommend. I've used it all day before at a Commodore convention in Vegas to demo VR on an Occulus Rift.
That's what I'm talking about! Checking now.
Wow, their mobile site is amazingly sucky, lol. I'll check it out later.
Mon Jun 24 2019 11:53:48 MST from ParanoidDelusions
That 17.3" one is right up my alley. I'd drop 16 more megs in, but that's cheap to do. Thing is, then it would just have the same specs as the one I bought 6 years ago except L a little faster processor.
Mon Jun 24 2019 16:26:52 MST from New User
Interesting.
I think I just decided to buy one of these so I can get used to it. I need to get comfortable with this kind of hardware just like I needed to get comfortable with bitcoin.
I've got 4 Pi 3B+ devices. Two are RetroPie, one is a Citadel BBS, and the other is a little Linux test box.
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+
The third-generation single-board computer
1.4GHz 64-bit quad-core processor, dual-band wireless LAN, Bluetooth 4.2/BLE, faster Ethernet, and Power-over-Ethernet support (with separate PoE HAT)
https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-3-model-b-plus/