Yeah, when you start your thread off with whooshing a Molotov cocktail at the world ya gotta not be surprised when the tanks show up.

So you use Arch, which means you understand the Linux command line to a degree.  Me, I'm a linux cripple who wants it to hold my hand and lead me along all nice like, so I use Mint.   She's nice and purty and she holds my hand jest fine and she smells all minty fresh.

My semi-fried processor (fan issues) and faulty hard drive will still run Mint at full speed for everything except playing Youtube videos, so this machine is still functional as a desk PC for 95% of my uses.

Have you read about this cute little toy?

http://liliputing.com/tag/raspberry-pi

I find this intriguing, a $35 computer that as of now can do just about all my limping HP big white box can do.   It comes with Debian and Ubuntu preloaded.

The ARM world will really take off soon, with much lower priced stuff available for the folks who can get away from the Microsoft/Intel mind set.  

 Somehow, the Iphone/Android generation has no issues with that.

I remember how shocked I was when the AMD Athelon 64 chip and motherboards started advertising that they could put more computing power on your desktop than the original Cray Supercomputer had, period.

It blew my mind.   More power than NSA's best codebreaker from 10 years earlier.   More power than the machines that dynamically modeled the H bomb fission implosion / fusion explosion cycle for the first time.

Heck fire boys, you got more computing power than that now in yer silly Android and Apple cell phones !!

And those stupid tablet gizmos ain't no slouches neither.


======================


Hewlet Packard, worlds largest manufacturer of PC's and Laptops has just announced they are getting out of the desktop computer business.  They have sold off all stocks of HP tablets using their own custom operating system and are gonna refocus on their printer business.  They will soon be running sales on all desktops still in stock.

Wend through all the public relations bullfarkle and it goes like this "Intel/Microsoft desktop machines are a thing of the past -- we are getting out NOW before we go down with the ship".  

Laptops may continue as long as they remain profitable, but competition is fierce and technical innovations are coming too fast to predict any long term technology winners.  

"The Cloud" means any old machine that can get you on the net is jest about as good as any other these days.  A Roku box or a game box is jest as good as a Wintel Desktop box, the monitors you look at are jest a little different.

Times, they are a changin'

I used to feel that way.   I bought my daughter the VERY FIRST 64 bit laptop that was ever made.   It was seriously hot shite.

She was "da man" when she was in college -- she coud run Solidworks 3-d CAD on her laptop -- half the full tower desktop boxes in the lab didn't have enough ass to run it.   We stuffed that laptop with all the fast memory it could possibly hold -- one full meg of systems memory.

Last time we talked computers (at Best Buy of course) we were chuckling about her old heavy hot running laptop -- and how the specs on it had been eclipsed by all the friggin' netbooks sitting over there on the display.

It is a progression thing -- Cray Supercomputer -- AMD Athelon PCs -- Super AMD 64 notebook -- friggin' netbooks -- Verslagen's cell phone

Now it is a $35 computer that gets you to Google's server farm.


Life goe on . .....  ON ! (la de da da da)

Just in case you don't know it, you can go to walmart.com and find about anything you need, pay online with a card and pick it up at your favorite store with NO s&h charge. They have lots of stuff that's not in the stores. My wife works for WM and we do this quite often. Just sayin'.

Point, he brings up a good point about gaming -- Intel stopped developing faster chips whenever 1) new stronger GPU's started taking the load of running the advanced games away from the processor 2) PS2 and game machines took over gaming (mostly).

We do have actually stronger processors now, but it is with multiple parallel processors that are actually slower (less energy wasteful cores) than the earlier fast single core 64 bit chips.


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Windows 8 (if it is done right) should be able to run well on all existing hardware -- and I do mean the older stuff too.

If Windows 8 won't run well on an XP class machine then Microsoft is screwed (done gone down for the last time).    People are tired of Microsoft's upgrade bullshit -- they are adding NO VALUE to anything lately by doing so.

XP class hardware is fine for Linux.    Linux runs like a scalded ape on old XP class hardware, faster than XP has in a long time as a matter of fact.  

(XP used to be fast, reload yours and don't patch it for a few days and just check it out for yourself)

XP class hardware can run Android, but nobody is really putting any effort into that as XP still works and is still going to be supported up through April 8th, 2014.

Microsoft has a real issue with their continuing existence if they don't pluck their heads out of their arses over the new Windows 8.   They seem to be trying to make it all restrictive again, and that won't work this time.

Watch out for Chrome OS -- it is beginning to be able to handle various softwares apart from the internet connection.   Windows 8 needs to beat Chrome at its own game or Microsoft is finished within 5 years.    

If Google did combine more of Android with Chrome and have a self sufficient full operating system that had that million item App store's worth of cheap software to feed off of ....  that's some real serious competition.

Google could do that -- Chrome and Android share a lot of the same code base.   Android Ice Cream Sandwich will be the Android 4.0 that is the SAME STUFF on cell phones, tablets (and bootlegged laptops).   Chrome will still be separate at that time, but for how long?

If you say "Computing device" and count all smart phones, tablets and everything else that computes -- Windows is about 60% of that combined market (and is shrinking year on year).   What is dead nuts scary for Microsoft is desktops are dead (so says HP) netbooks are shrinking (see tablets) and android smart phones are the clear single largest growth market.   Laptops are still doing OK, but tablet sales and super phones are hurting that as well.

Hit the ball out of the park with Windows 8 and you survive another 5 years in fairly good shape.

Shank it, and you get no second chance.

Here is the future, it has a fast dual core "state of the art low current draw" AMD chipset in it that can run anybody's OS and the machine ships without an OS loaded (no Microsoft Tax).

And get scared again Microsoft -- this Zotach all in one thingie is intended as a TV/internet/Netflix combination tool.   Surf the internet on your main screen TV while soaking up your shows over the internet (quietly in the background no less) to view whenever you want to see them.   Or stream them and watch them as they come in as a live stream if your ISP is fast enough to do that.

http://liliputing.com/2011/09/zotac-launches-zbox-nano-ad10-nettopo-with-an-a...

Gah, too much tech speak... brain melting...

Seriously though, I'm continually amazed at the decreasing physical size of electronic gadgets these days.

Nvida's Tegra superchip, currently called Kal-EL
(yup, that's Kryptonian for Superman)


I know, well,, knew,  a guy who named his son that.. his middle name is Kal-El,,