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Shrig 🐌

Computers are as fast as they need to be. I know that's an old thing we've been joking about for decades, but these days it feels software is just getting more and more bloated for the sake of selling faster computers and features for the sake of more=good capitalism

1 June at 22:21 | Open on godforsaken.website
34 comments
Shrig 🐌

I've built a few really high-end PCs for people recently and nobody needs a computer that fast. It's like things load before you've even realised you've clicked on them. We don't need more than that! It's really silly

1 June at 22:22 | Open on godforsaken.website
rj

@Shrigglepuss hah I was telling someone today "computers peaked around Nehalem and SSDs"

1 June at 22:38 | Open on tacobelllabs.net
Shrig 🐌

@arrjay I've used a few PCIe 5 SSDs now, it's ridiculous

1 June at 22:39 | Open on godforsaken.website
Mx Jookia

@Shrigglepuss @arrjay

The two biggest computer upgrades I've seen are multicore and SSDs.

1 June at 22:55 | Open on social.tchncs.de
Elda King

@arrjay @Shrigglepuss It really was around that exact time, isn't it?

4-8GB of RAM was good enough for almost everything, we had multi-core processors for parallel tasks, we had GHz clock speeds. Our screens were all at least "high definition" LCDs. Nehalem was kind of a game changer, especially for laptops (lower TDP, good iGPU, some good modern features), and SSDs getting cheaper were the last bottleneck surpassed.

Everything since then was either minor, a huge cost/size/power increase, or actually inconvenient as fuck and less durable.

@arrjay @Shrigglepuss It really was around that exact time, isn't it?

4-8GB of RAM was good enough for almost everything, we had multi-core processors for parallel tasks, we had GHz clock speeds. Our screens were all at least "high definition" LCDs. Nehalem was kind of a game changer, especially for laptops (lower TDP, good iGPU, some good modern features), and SSDs getting cheaper were the last bottleneck surpassed.

2 June at 16:49 | Open on weirder.earth
rj

@eldaking @Shrigglepuss I'm still using a Xeon W3565 for "generic desktop stuff"

SSDs and a newer Radeon and it's...fine, y'know? totally competent day-to-day.

2 June at 16:55 | Open on tacobelllabs.net
Elda King

@arrjay Yeah I imagine it is totally fine, the xeons were beasts.

I still use my Ivy Bridge i5 laptop. The HDD died so it got an SSD, but it got no other upgrades and it is _almost_ enough for everything I do. It probably will fall apart before it stops being useful.

My dad still keeps occasionally using his first-gen i3 laptop (instead of his brand-new, fancier Win11 laptop), just because it has Windows 7 (last decent Windows version).

2 June at 17:15 | Open on weirder.earth
ティージェーグレェ

@arrjay I dunno about Nehalem, but I remember predicting SSDs coming into existence back when I was impressed by SRAM in the 1980s.

For me, the apogee of the personal computer probably still remains the Amiga.

Most code, even on far "faster" systems, doesn't even begin to impress me as much as things which run on OCS Amigas.

Circa 2013/2014 my employer had TrueNAS systems in a CARP HA pair with 384TB of storage, impressive numbers and high availability, sure!

But The Black Lotus's "Eon" with a score by @h0ffman which can run on an OCS/ECS Amiga? Art.

pouet.net/prod.php?which=81094

Glorious, and still enjoyable in 2024!

That past employer presumably long since retired and upgraded that TrueNAS system to something with even more daunting storage numbers and IOPS, and decidedly nothing that stirs my heart, pleases my ears nor impresses me with how much was done with so little.

@Shrigglepuss

@arrjay I dunno about Nehalem, but I remember predicting SSDs coming into existence back when I was impressed by SRAM in the 1980s.

For me, the apogee of the personal computer probably still remains the Amiga.

Most code, even on far "faster" systems, doesn't even begin to impress me as much as things which run on OCS Amigas.

2 June at 19:45 | Open on rap.social
Space Hobo Actual

@Shrigglepuss I think most of us are really quite relieved that ten-year-old laptops are...fine, really. 4G of RAM is...fine, I guess. SSDs made laptops feel faster than any CPU improvements ever did.

Years ago I was excited to get another used laptop as a backup, or re-purpose a chromebook. these days I look around and think "I have too many laptops: I don't use all of them" and that's kind of amazing.

1 June at 23:43 | Open on teh.entar.net
Shrig 🐌

@spacehobo It is! I get people's old laptops given to me sometimes so I refurbish them and donate them onwards to a few local charities I'm in contact with.
I have 0 need for them, but a person being supported through homelessness can do a course and their admin on it if it can browse the web and do word processing still. There's simply too much tech out there now, and distributed all wrong

1 June at 23:47 | Open on godforsaken.website
Steve Lord

@Shrigglepuss @spacehobo and people are pushed into the wring compromises because they dont know better. The quest for thinner, cheaper laptops has led to compromises across cases, keyboards, thermal management, even using glue instead of screws. So people get conditioned to thinking laptops need to be replaced every few years. My main portable is my x230 from 2012 withmaxed out ram, screen and keyboard upgrades. Does everything i need aside from slowness on a few sites here and there.

2 June at 8:07 | Open on bladerunner.social
Lord Caramac the Clueless, KSC

@Shrigglepuss Well, _some_ people need machines that fast. People who play high-end computer games, people who use video editing software, people who do professional graphics editing or 3D modelling, people working with AI. The kind of stuff for which you would use an incredibly expensive workstation 20-40 years ago, but which nowadays can be done with a machine for €800-3000.
However, we really need to make our high-end electronics, whether computer hardware or anything else, last a lot longer

1 June at 23:55 | Open on discordian.social
Elda King

@LordCaramac @Shrigglepuss That is like saying "some people need an oscilloscope" or "some people need a lathe". It is technically true but it should not change anything for anyone else.

2 June at 16:25 | Open on weirder.earth
Lord Caramac the Clueless, KSC

@eldaking @Shrigglepuss I own two oscilloscopes, and I've been thinking about building a small lathe for myself using the electric motor from an old drill.

2 June at 16:28 | Open on discordian.social
Lord Caramac the Clueless, KSC

@eldaking @Shrigglepuss Most of the time I don't even start my big PC though because my RaspberryPi 400 is more than enough.

2 June at 16:30 | Open on discordian.social
matlag
@LordCaramac @Shrigglepuss The need for high end computer for games is a marketing fabrication. Read the reviews of games from 10years ago and tell me how often you see "This is the best of its time and it still sucks but fortunately 10years from now we'll reach a decent level". Or tell me how bad it is today and how much you're looking forward for the graphics 10years from now.
We used to have fun with old consoles. We were only convinced they're old and their games ugly because we're showed nicer graphics now.
If were to freeze graphics quality, 3D modelling would also be suddenly less demanding.

I would add that games are made more and more complex for no reason. Nowadays you need to follow series of tutorials to play. Is there any fun in a tutorial?? Where is the good old "launch and you'll have it figured out in 5mins"? Because we had "shooting game", and then "multiple choices of weapons" and soon "full training on the weapons available to all armies in the world". Why not add an exam at the end of the damned game course because that's what I would expect from a game: feeling I'm back at schools with all kinds of evaluations and tons of information to know by heart.
@LordCaramac @Shrigglepuss The need for high end computer for games is a marketing fabrication. Read the reviews of games from 10years ago and tell me how often you see "This is the best of its time and it still sucks but fortunately 10years from now we'll reach a decent level". Or tell me how bad it is today and how much you're looking forward for the graphics 10years from now.
2 June at 20:02 | Open on pleroma.chtisurel.net
DNAvinci

@Shrigglepuss
I think I'm in the one field where it's still viable to build a 128 core behemoth with 4 GPUs as a workstation, and still want it under a desk for a single user.
Even for us it's getting rare and impractical.
I like to freak those folks out by A: being more senior and better at everything while also B: using a rockpro64.

2 June at 3:42 | Open on genomic.social
Julianoë

@Shrigglepuss
This but also it's like some apps keep requiring more and more specs the more you have to give them and in the end you don't really do "more". Just the same things but less efficiently

2 June at 8:13 | Open on mastodon.xyz
JustAFrog

@Shrigglepuss I just kept slowing down new computer purchases.

The last one I bought was mostly because the previous one had lots of little issues from wear.

I was let down by how little improvement I saw. Yes, everything works now, but the experience is about the same as with the old one.

Unless something radically changes, I think I'll stick to "only if it's broken" for the rest of my life.

2 June at 9:57 | Open on mstdn.social
Rich Felker

@Shrigglepuss We do need loading that fast, but we had it 25 years ago, and lost it because the software keeps getting worse thanks to new ideologies and frameworks aimed at making the people who make software fungible and disempowered rather than a skilled craft we only need a small number of people who actually care to be doing.

2 June at 12:21 | Open on hachyderm.io
Niclas Hedhman

@Shrigglepuss

Well, DevOps, Serverless and Kubernetes on the server side will ensure that computers are never fast enough. ;-)

If you have been around long enough; GEM ran desktop publishing (Ventura?) on like a 2MB 386 with disk space less than the size of a regular web page today.

It is mind-blowing when thinking about it, and lived it.

2 June at 12:25 | Open on angrytoday.com
.:fyrfli:. ...is home...safe

@Shrigglepuss built two for me and the hubster ... just under 10 years ago ... the vid card i chose ... still good today. we've had to do some storage tweaks but by and large those two rigs are still firing on all cylinders almost as good as they did 8ish years ago.

2 June at 14:34 | Open on diaspora.im
Shrig 🐌
.:fyrfli:. ...is home...safe

@Shrigglepuss indeed ... tbh i am shocked they're still this good considering what the industry is up to

2 June at 14:42 | Open on diaspora.im
Internet Rando

@Shrigglepuss the last few notebooks I've bought all come from e-recyclers. great thinkpads, slapped linux on them, bam total daily drivers

1 out of the last 12-15 machines, in as many years, ive bought or built came from erecyclers. the only new one i got was for my kid's gaming rig, and even that runs linux.

i have two machines from 07, 08 which still run just fine with linux.

it can be done. just not by apple or microsoft.

used machines last decades. i have proof

2 June at 18:21 | Open on mastodon.seattlematrix.org
Female-presenting nipples

@Shrigglepuss I want cheaper lower spec lower powered hardware and really nicely written software that runs fast on it.

1 June at 23:02 | Open on toot.lgbt
DELETED
João Pinheiro

@Gilliosa

There are some crazy people needing theirs replaced! 🤣🤣🤣

@Shrigglepuss

2 June at 11:34 | Open on kolektiva.social
DELETED

@joaopinheiro @Shrigglepuss I was chatting to the Hui Muslim from Yunnan Province about pc tech. This community are very traditionally functional still cooking on solid fuel stoves etc but still displaying the latest tech even for the tots. DIY PC seems to be a thing there too. Nowt halts progress it seems...archeomodernism in the flesh!

2 June at 12:08 | Open on mastodon.social
Carl

@Shrigglepuss
You can't (gasp!) be meaning those 'stalwarts' of the economy, share trading, commodities and the foreign exchange markets can you?

(and by stalwarts I mean the bloodsucking vampires of human endeavour for whom no opportunity to screw over their fellow man is too outrageous)

2 June at 6:15 | Open on mastodon.nzoss.nz
Alexander Hay

@Shrigglepuss Bloat, by far, is a major problem.

2 June at 8:02 | Open on mastodon.social
Embers :ms_transgender_flag:​ :Blobhaj_Ghostie_Alive:​

@Shrigglepuss yes!
super power efficient devices are so interesting

yeah, genuinely if modern decent computers are ever 'obsoleted' by software requirements, a lot of things have gene seriously wrong

2 June at 14:22 | Open on blobfox.coffee
josh buermann

@Shrigglepuss

Computers need to be so powerful to support the additional processing and memory necessary to handle the JavaScript bloat of the spyware to sell us to advertisers and propagandists.

2 June at 20:40 | Open on mastodon.social
Rocky Lhotka 🤘🖖

@Shrigglepuss not arguing, but I find dark humor in this sentiment being echoed again and again since at least the early 1990s

2 June at 21:03 | Open on fosstodon.org
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