Sun 14th Feb 2021 (Happy Valentines Day)

Opinions on Computer Hardware

There are people in this world that use computers professionally to earn a living, video creators/editors, music creators, CAD designers, game developers etc, etc. Yes, they need as many cores/threads as possible, and a bucket-full of RAM, much as a professional racing driver needs the fastest car possible, or a craftsperson needs the finest grade of tools available rather than stuff from Home Depot.

And then there are the rest of us.

We benefit from the above because when their cutting edge equipment that they paid a Kings ransom for is a generation behind after 18 months of use, we get to scoop up their sloppy-seconds for a fraction of the cost price. Plus, with their insatiable appetite for more and faster, hardware manufacturers are forced to keep developing, this keeps on pushing the envelope and we all benefit.

There are of course some of 'the rest of us' that want what the pros want, are capable and willing to pay for it, and then use it to play Minecraft and post pics of their cat on Fa**bo*k. That's fine with me, I don't have any envy at their purchasing power because I too could buy a rig with a zillion threads, 32 gazillion xigaytes of Ram and a GPU that can mine a Million Dollars of Bitcoin a minute, but I don't, in the same manner that I drive a 2015 Volvo Estate and not a Maserati, my Volvo gets me to all the same places as the Maserati can (maybe not some Country Clubs), but the Maserati can't take my tent and camping paraphernalia, spare wheel, dog, generator and suitcases. Admittedly, I wouldn't turn as many heads in my Volvo. Obviously my point is practicality.

The beauty of GNU/Linux and BSD is that I can run a 2021 kernel on 2005 equipment, I use a TTY most of the time as it provides everything I need, including some bits of the WWW. Although I've been using a TTY for a very long time, I've never had a spare 5 years to learn VIM, so I use nano to write tools in BASH to do all the basic day-to-day stuff. I'm not a coder or a computer wizard, far from it, but I am reasonably coherent in the brain department, so I learn from smart people who can do that stuff.

Don't confuse my use of old hardware with the retro scene, those guys and girls use retro hardware and retro software, I use old hardware and modern (secure) software.

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