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I am Seriously Considering Going Back to Desktop Computers

Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Thursday 5th of November 2020 10:35:47 PM Filed under
GNU
Linux
Hardware

The future of personal computing looks rather bleak to me. The golden age of personal computing in the 1980's is long over. During the past ten years or so, I have been hearing about and seeing the effects of new approaches that governments and computer hardware and software vendors have been inventing to limit the power and utility of our computers. As far as I can see, the end is our subjugation within their ecosystems and our dependence on their cloud solutions. Whether their tools are UEFI, the elimination of useful software (as in the DMCA take-down of the Youtube Downloader website last week), the creation of new operating systems that move computing power out of our computers and into the cloud, "secure" hardware that we cannot modify, or some other approach does not matter. The point is that they are making it harder and harder for us to do what we want with our computers. They are successfully taking away our general-purpose computers and replacing them with little more than Internet appliances.

While an Internet appliance has its place, so does a general-purpose computer. General-purpose computers allow us to own our music and videos--not just watch them until Netflix's contract for our favorite Star Wars movie expires or Apple decides to somehow prevent us from accessing our favorite song in its inventory. A general-purpose computer also allows us to own applications that governments, computer hardware and software companies, and the music and movie industries would rather we did not have--software like Kodi, Handbrake, VLC player, Youtube Downloader, DVD rippers, and open source decentralized applications, just to name a few.

Much of what I do not like about the new computer hardware has been thrust upon us in the name of thinness. I can only surmise that laptop manufacturers' fixation with thinness is about profitability, because it certainly is not about usability. Thin laptops are thermally throttled due to insufficient airflow. They are also less repairable and upgradeable. Some are not upgradeable at all. In fact, it seems that a higher percentage of laptops are completely nonupgradeable every year. User-replaceable batteries are long gone.

[...]

Perhaps my use of Linux will forestall the future to which others have already succumbed, but I cannot continue buying old laptops forever. I have been using laptops manufactured before 2012 partly to avoid UEFI and secure boot. I know that new "open" laptops are still available, but most of them--the System76's, the Purisms, etc.--are overpriced in my opinion. I also know that HP and Dell continue to be more Linux friendly. How long with that last? For years, I have put up with the drawbacks of laptops in exchange for their use wherever I wanted. Now, nine or more years out of date in computer technology, I am still using laptops with mostly USB 2.0 ports and internal SATA SSD's. That means dealing with very slow backups. I seem to be forever making backups. Eventually, laptops manufactured before 2012 will be too slow to do the things I need to do. When that time comes, I will have to transition to something else.

Read more

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