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On 27/09/2020 15:41, Ciarán Ainsworth wrote: > On Sun Sep 27, 2020 at 3:31 PM BST, Brad Rogers wrote: >> Hello Ciarán, >> Chicken and egg; hardware gets better, more and more shit is loaded >> into web pages, requiring better hardware to render/run all the >> java(script) and christ knows what else, hence faster machines,so web >> designers get paid to put in even more spyware, tracking crap and god >> knows what else. > > Yeah, it's getting pretty obnoxious, really. There are some things which couldn't > possibly work without something like Webassembly/Javascript, but I would go so far > as to say that the vast majority has no business using any of this stuff. Any > textual information can be presented much more efficiently and effectively with > pure HTML/CSS, and even more complex stuff such as logins can be handled without > these if you just put a bit of effort into it (see sites like Sourcehut as an > example of how to build a fully-featured application with no JS). > >> I still can't understand ppl that are totally euphoric about Apple >> hardware. It's expensive and, especially when it comes to their phones, >> seems to hit the news in a bad way all too often: >> >> Looses signal; you're holding it wrong. >> It bends; don't put it in your pocket. > > I was once a part of the cult of Apple (I was duped into dropping £899 on a > MacBook Pro back in 2009). It really is just marketing and preying on the hopes of > users who want to ditch Windows. There is a vain hope that Company B is going to > treat you better than Company A, but in reality each thinks just as little of you > as the other. Apple's hardware quality has walked off a cliff in recent years as > shipping volume has increased, so they can't even really pull that justification > out any more. > > When it comes to hardware manufacturers, Apple is clearly ahead in the consumer > field because they have the resources to focus on marketing to consumers. It's > much rarer that you see dedicated commercials for hardware vendors such as Lenovo, > HP, and Dell. They usually get lumped in on the back of Currys, Amazon, and John > Lewis ads. For this reason there's no prestige associated. Apple? Now they must be > quality. Didn't you see? They had a full advert for just one device! > >> Indeed. It's simply arrogant to assume that just because I can afford >> to be online 24/7, buy the latest £400(1) 'phone, etc. that everyone >> can. >> Even in this country. Although (if I recall the facts correctly), in >> India, where over 60% of ppl don't have access to a flush toilet, approx >> 80% of the population owns a mobile 'phone. > > Even so, affordability is not the only consideration here. The fact of the matter > is that there isn't a country on earth that has 100% WiFi coverage (certainly not > with free connectivity), which means that an always-online device is inherently > less useful than one that has online and offline capabilities built in. At least > with smartphones they can join a mobile network but A) this costs and B) it still > isn't 100% coverage. > > With all this being the case, I struggle to find any real justification for > devices like the HP Stream and Chromebook(s). They are simply lesser devices > pegged at the same price as vastly superior machines that run a full OS. > Unfortunately, Pine64 has no marketing department to speak of, so nobody's heard > of it. > > Ciarán > My Chromebook is fantastic. I love it. It's fast, works well in offline mode (which is rarely used) for the files I need. It's great hardware at a reasonable price. It's a Gentoo derivative (originally Ubuntu), so apart from i9t have the Google badge, the Linux arrogance spouted here seems a little misdirected. Yeah, Google want data and lots of it, but most of us have Android (or iOS (Expensive tat) phones so arguably that ship has already sailed... I tried Chrome OS on an old laptop so i knew what I was buying into, but with the hardware married to the OS, it runs like greased lightning. I got one for my 83-year-old dad, and he loves it - he has no reason to store data locally, and although it's small, he can read everything better than on his phone screen. Battery life is amazing also. -- Kind regards, Mark Smith juglugs.com PGP fingerprint: FE57 FF27 C090 186C BFDE EF8B 9502 6421 F69F 0742
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