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> It frustrates me that computers become obsolete this way. Honestly, I'm optimistic. Technological progress is plateauing (at least single-threaded CPU speeds
by Osmium 10y ago
> It frustrates me that computers become obsolete this way.
Honestly, I'm optimistic. Technological progress is plateauing (at least single-threaded CPU speeds), and this will naturally need to more stability.
I think the last few decades of rapid technological change has led us through a dark ages of sorts, and the next few decades will hopefully be a maturing of platforms and standards, at least as far as desktop/laptop computing goes.
To put it another way: Moore's law has led to a multitude of sins, and once we can no longer rely on Moore's law to make our computers faster, we're going to really think through past decisions and make smarter choices going forwards. It'll be the only way to keep making progress.
To bring this back to your comment specifically, I think computers will take longer and longer to become obsolete, as these technologies mature. I think this is already happening: I can quite happily use a 5 year old computer now for most current computing tasks, whereas this would not have been true a decade ago.
- majewsky 10y ago> Technological progress is plateauing (at least single-threaded CPU speeds), and this will naturally need to more stability. That's a surprisingly narrow perspective on technological progress (although convenient for your argument). > once we can no longer rely on Moore's law to make our computers faster Moore's law is still making our GPUs faster as planned. Our only hope is Amdahl's law. :) > I think computers will take longer and longer to become obsolete No need to look at the future. The average lifespan of a computer is already 4 years and maybe even more. We are starting to see the same larger lifespan for smartphones. (The biggest issue with keeping my phones for longer is actually the availability of Android updates.)
- sliken 10y agoSadly the longer lifespan for phones is being sabotaged by epoxied in batteries My 2 year old note 4 will be fine (quad core, 3 GB ram, 96GB storage) for many more years... only because I can replace the battery (which I've already done once). Finding a replacement for my note 4 with a replaceable battery has been tough. Hopefully in the next few years someone will offer it.
- comex 10y agoUser-replaceable batteries are definitely a benefit, but that's a false dichotomy. There is such a thing as battery replacement service.