The PC is Dead: It’s Time to Make Computing Personal Again
The PC is Dead: It’s Time to Make Computing Personal Again
VC&G | » The PC is Dead: It’s Time to Make Computing Personal Again
The PC is Dead: It’s Time to Make Computing Personal Again
VC&G | » The PC is Dead: It’s Time to Make Computing Personal Again
Good read, in line with what Cory Doctorow had to say almost 15 years ago in The Coming War on General Computation, as well as his more recent If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing.
Tech monopolies must be held to account, the outsized influence of some tech billionaires must be held in check, and competition must be allowed to thrive. We may also need to consider the protection of both consumers themselves and human-created works (including our history) as part of a conservation effort before extractive models permanently pollute our shared cultural resources.
Honestly feels like the main and perhaps only thing to do. Sure we can all do our own individualistic things, such as what we’re doing here on the Fedi.
But the whole AI thing reveals I think just how big of a problem this all is … big tech would rather consume and replace the whole internet with some fuzzy hype tech than empower its users in any way.
I read it as Its Time to Make CP Again
Poor choice of wording xD
Why would you post that?
Because I found my brain's fuckup funny and I wanted to share it with the word.
What a dumb take.
This is not compelling commentary, yo 🧐 Can you elaborate? I’m down to have my mind changed.
You can list a hundred negative aspects of present day PC use like this article does, but it totally ignores improvements and positive aspects. Like yeah you could use word 95 without it contacting a Microsoft server but office 95 compared to office 2010 or later is like a night and day difference.
They mention DRM and say it's gotten bad in the last decade but DRM has been terrible for the last 25 years. You used to buy a music CD (in like 2003) and put it in the computer and you couldn't play it because of DRM.
It's just not a balanced article. I actually think they have a lot of good content here and they make some good points but they shoehorned all these things to fit their conclusion and there's no counter-point.
Edit: it's just factually incorrect that "The PC is dead" You have DJs making electronic music, artists painting, PC Gaming, You can manage your finances, keep photo albums, and basically anything they are being romantic about in this article is just a talking point, I could argue counter points for almost every paragraph. Things are better than they were. Email barely worked, always getting flooded with spam because there weren't any spam filters. Devices weren't plug and play, they were very difficult to get working. So what if there are garbage products on Amazon or wherever, that doesn't make the point the author is pretending that it makes.
We do need privacy rights and right to repair like the author says, but there have always been things to fight for. Maybe I'm just missing the point- since 2001 people have been saying "I won't use .Net!" Because everyone was worried that office suite would run in a web browser or wherever and people thought the PC was dead, we'd all be using terminal sessions instead (where you just see the remote desktop not the computing is done on a server somewhere else). The point the author is making isn't any more true today than it was 20 years ago, it's not a new point, it's something people have always agreed with. But the PC is not dead.
I really like self -hosting, and some great concepts are coming out of containerization, but I also feel like the next generation are being fed a steady stream of "Rent, lease, stream" to such an extent that kids I know literally don't understand files on their computer, only cloud connected apps and content. I kind of wish there was a philosophy of tech course that made people carefully consider some of the trade-offs we're constantly making with the big five.
This is true.
My 14 yr brother was using stock android on one of the old phones and I flashed lineage os on it with Android 14. The UI was a major upgrade and home screen looked very modern on an old phone.
The very first thing he did was install instagram and YouTube to watch reels and shorts.
I asked him if he finds anything different and he says he does not find anything different.
New generation isn't even aware of the Android os they just straight go to SM to consume short video content.
Meanwhile I got my 3 year old daughter playing educational flash games on the PC like a good Millenial.
She even knows how to get her video files playing on VLC.
It really baffles me when I hear about "pirate streaming sites" being taken down. Why are those even a thing? If you're into piracy already, why not download a copy?
I mean, keeping copies is actually pretty stupid and wasteful for most people. Most only watch things once but still keep the copy around taking up space for no good reason other than because they can. Why waste storage on things you don't really have a need for? That's just hoarding...
That said, I'm still the type of person who keeps things around just in case I want to watch it again...but if I'm being honest, I probably don't need to store ~80% of my library though.
For the longest time in the EU streaming was not considered illegal on the users end, as long as he is not collecting a big enough part of the file, wheras downloading was illegal already.
Why do i want a copy of something I am only going to watch once? And why should I keep a copy if I can just stream it again from the same or some different site for free in the future?
Streaming is just more practical. Doesn't matter if its legal or piracy
Edit to clarify: I am not saying this opinion is good, it is an example of how many people think and the reason why pirate streaming sites exist
Sports is a big one that comes to mind. Or competition shows people want to live vote for.
To me, mostly convenience. I do that with anime and, if the show doesn't grab my attention by halfway of the first episode, I won't feel like I wasted extra time waiting for the full episode to be downloaded only to decide that nah, not worth it.
Not everyone can afford a laptop or a computer and torrenting is a pain in this ass on a phone with low storage.
I'm a big self-hoster and had been using the *arr stack for years, and manual torrenting before that, all the way back to XBMC.
Last year I finally got around to trying real-debrid, and it was so convenient I dumped everything else. Now I only torrent for music and ebooks.
It's just so effortless to use 🤷