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What could you feasibly use this for? The 1.2GHz CPU seems like it would put a bit of a damper on almost anything besides answering email and basic word process

What could you feasibly use this for? The 1.2GHz CPU seems like it would put a bit of a damper on almost anything besides answering email and basic word processing.

mikhuang 9y ago
This comment seems hilarious to someone who grew up with 486s that did those things fine. However, I’m inclined to agree that i would find this machine challenging to use as my daily thing.
- c22 9y ago
  My Lifebook p7010 has a 1.2ghz processor and I still use it for programming, web browsing (mostly with javascript off), writing, light photo editing in gimp, 2d cad (qCAD and inkscape), and with two batteries I can watch movies for about 11 hours on the plane. It's true that I own other computers for 3d cad and gaming.
  - serf 9y ago
    I loved that era in laptop design. The Lifebooks and the VAIOs were both so cool.
qplex 9y ago
It is a notebook. You carry it with you when you travel somewhere and then dial back to your supercomputer for the heavy lifting.
mythz 9y ago
Just being able to run a browser gives it a lot of utility at an attractive price point which is comparable to the cost of a nice toy. Sub $100 makes them close to disposable so you could have them scattered around a work site without much care for security or being careful to take good care of them. They could also be cheap enough for a classroom to afford that otherwise wouldn't be able to make any computing devices available.
tluyben2 9y ago
It all depends on what you do; I do a lot of software dev on (far) less powerful devices than that. And SSH or vnc etc work fine on low powered systems. I notice that mostly web dev, a lot of (but not all) gamedev and ML does not work at all on this kind of device. But API dev, some gamedev, language dev, embedded dev and a lot more work fine. For me, but this is all personal, I notice I can work on very diverse systems as long as I do not need a browser; browsers are so hungry for computer power that they render perfectly fine computing devices unworkable, fast. Well, not browsers, but the websites they run. For a laptop like this or with even lower specs (the Pandora for instance), I have no issues doing most of my work (which is api, embedded, code reviews and docs) if I have a second device like a tablet, or, ofcourse, two of these, for web browsing.
hyperpallium 9y ago
My phone is slightly faster, but only 1GB RAM. For linux tasks, it is overkill - many unix utilities were designed in the 70's with many magnitudes less power available. Command-line java development (ecj, dx, git, etc) is practically instant. (If you need an activity-center IDE, you're gonna have a bad time.) The only problems I've encountered are super javascript-heavy retail pages (Why do they do that? They can only restrict their audience. Interactivity needn't be heavy. Are they just using frameworks upon frameworks upon frameworks?) And unfortunately, some Khan Academy graphical exercise. Strangely, "kalite" (offline version) works instantly, probably because it uses an older presentation - I bet it's "modern" frameworks again (though maybe because offline?).
- jillesvangurp 9y ago
  Back in the day at Nokia Research we were abusing their N800 linux tablets (mind you, this was 2007, way before the iphone shipped and when android was a mere rumor). These things were running a debian linux based OS with X based UI, and a mozilla based browser. Pretty much anything command line just worked after a simple apt-get install and most gui stuff kind of worked except for formfactor issues (low resolution screen, touch based interaction, keyboard overlay, etc.). The N800 specs were very modest compared to this stuff (something like 500Mhz and 256MB if I'm not mistaken). So, for command line stuff, most of the stuff you'd use 12 years ago would still be valid today. Stuff hasn't really changed that much. If anything, some things might run a bit faster than they used to on the same hardware due to ongoing optimizations and cumulative fixes. E.g. python has improved a lot since 2.5, which I think was current then. Compilers have gotten better, kernels have improved a lot, etc. However, these days, a minimum requirement for most would be to be able to run a modern browser (i.e. with all the security holes patched) capable of browsing all popular websites. Unfortunately, that just requires a lot of memory and CPU these days. Websites have gotten a lot more complex in the last 12 years. I'd say memory is actually the biggest bottleneck here. Most laptops are effectively idling most of the time and grow extremely hot if you actually run them at 100% CPU. So a modern low power ARM SOC with enough memory suitable for e.g. a mid range smart phone of around 200$ should have everything you need for comfortable browsing.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
0xfaded 9y ago
If you happen to hand code ARM assembly, it is extremely convenient for working on the go.
tdb7893 9y ago
Most people I know who aren't video gamers use their home computer for almost solely web browsing. My phone browses the web fine on that amount so it should be enough for most people.
bikamonki 9y ago
For a few years now, I have been doing web/api dev on one Asus Eee Box with Intel Atom 1.8Ghz and 3GB of RAM. It does take a few extra seconds to load heavy web apps like Google Sheets or Google Maps; however, on the upside, if I make my apps run fast on such limited device, it will be super fast on most of my users' devices. I also love it b/c it makes zero noise.
bigiain 9y ago
You'd be surprised - although it's a pain to get some software running on it - it runs all the SDR software I use pretty well (mostly rx only using RTL SDR sticks, but I've used it for tx with my HackRFOne as well). Anything you can run on a Raspberry Pi you can get going on this - I largely use it as "a Raspberry Pi with a keyboard/screen/battery" - which it mostly does better than my PiTop (which has a vastly inferior screen and keyboard).
imtringued 9y ago
The fact that it's only 1.2GHz is irrelevant. The important aspect is that it's an A53 core. These cores are incredibly slow. Each A53 core has geekbench score of roughly 300. Compare this to an A72 core which has a score of roughly 1500. Intel gets anywhere from 2000 to 6000 per core. A72 cores are moderately slower than intel. A53 cores are excessively slower than either A72 and intel.
phkahler 9y ago
You know back in the 1990's we had email and web browsers and MS office. We even had CAD software. All that stuff could run on a 200MHz Intel chip with 128-512M of RAM. I wonder why people think it's OK that their daily use software is too big for a computer like this.
- tomcooks 9y ago
  Yes I remember (and agree with you), but there was no Youtube non Netflix nor social networks, sites were 400kb of text plus a couple of images. That's why.

What could you feasibly use this for? The 1.2GHz CPU seems like it would put a bit of a damper on almost anything besides answering email and basic word processing.

mikhuang 9y ago

This comment seems hilarious to someone who grew up with 486s that did those things fine. However, I’m inclined to agree that i would find this machine challenging to use as my daily thing.

c22 9y ago
My Lifebook p7010 has a 1.2ghz processor and I still use it for programming, web browsing (mostly with javascript off), writing, light photo editing in gimp, 2d cad (qCAD and inkscape), and with two batteries I can watch movies for about 11 hours on the plane. It's true that I own other computers for 3d cad and gaming.
- serf 9y ago
  I loved that era in laptop design. The Lifebooks and the VAIOs were both so cool.

qplex 9y ago

It is a notebook. You carry it with you when you travel somewhere and then dial back to your supercomputer for the heavy lifting.

mythz 9y ago

Just being able to run a browser gives it a lot of utility at an attractive price point which is comparable to the cost of a nice toy. Sub $100 makes them close to disposable so you could have them scattered around a work site without much care for security or being careful to take good care of them. They could also be cheap enough for a classroom to afford that otherwise wouldn't be able to make any computing devices available.

tluyben2 9y ago

It all depends on what you do; I do a lot of software dev on (far) less powerful devices than that. And SSH or vnc etc work fine on low powered systems. I notice that mostly web dev, a lot of (but not all) gamedev and ML does not work at all on this kind of device. But API dev, some gamedev, language dev, embedded dev and a lot more work fine. For me, but this is all personal, I notice I can work on very diverse systems as long as I do not need a browser; browsers are so hungry for computer power that they render perfectly fine computing devices unworkable, fast. Well, not browsers, but the websites they run. For a laptop like this or with even lower specs (the Pandora for instance), I have no issues doing most of my work (which is api, embedded, code reviews and docs) if I have a second device like a tablet, or, ofcourse, two of these, for web browsing.

hyperpallium 9y ago

My phone is slightly faster, but only 1GB RAM. For linux tasks, it is overkill - many unix utilities were designed in the 70's with many magnitudes less power available. Command-line java development (ecj, dx, git, etc) is practically instant. (If you need an activity-center IDE, you're gonna have a bad time.) The only problems I've encountered are super javascript-heavy retail pages (Why do they do that? They can only restrict their audience. Interactivity needn't be heavy. Are they just using frameworks upon frameworks upon frameworks?) And unfortunately, some Khan Academy graphical exercise. Strangely, "kalite" (offline version) works instantly, probably because it uses an older presentation - I bet it's "modern" frameworks again (though maybe because offline?).

jillesvangurp 9y ago
Back in the day at Nokia Research we were abusing their N800 linux tablets (mind you, this was 2007, way before the iphone shipped and when android was a mere rumor). These things were running a debian linux based OS with X based UI, and a mozilla based browser. Pretty much anything command line just worked after a simple apt-get install and most gui stuff kind of worked except for formfactor issues (low resolution screen, touch based interaction, keyboard overlay, etc.). The N800 specs were very modest compared to this stuff (something like 500Mhz and 256MB if I'm not mistaken). So, for command line stuff, most of the stuff you'd use 12 years ago would still be valid today. Stuff hasn't really changed that much. If anything, some things might run a bit faster than they used to on the same hardware due to ongoing optimizations and cumulative fixes. E.g. python has improved a lot since 2.5, which I think was current then. Compilers have gotten better, kernels have improved a lot, etc. However, these days, a minimum requirement for most would be to be able to run a modern browser (i.e. with all the security holes patched) capable of browsing all popular websites. Unfortunately, that just requires a lot of memory and CPU these days. Websites have gotten a lot more complex in the last 12 years. I'd say memory is actually the biggest bottleneck here. Most laptops are effectively idling most of the time and grow extremely hot if you actually run them at 100% CPU. So a modern low power ARM SOC with enough memory suitable for e.g. a mid range smart phone of around 200$ should have everything you need for comfortable browsing.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

0xfaded 9y ago

If you happen to hand code ARM assembly, it is extremely convenient for working on the go.

tdb7893 9y ago

Most people I know who aren't video gamers use their home computer for almost solely web browsing. My phone browses the web fine on that amount so it should be enough for most people.

bikamonki 9y ago

For a few years now, I have been doing web/api dev on one Asus Eee Box with Intel Atom 1.8Ghz and 3GB of RAM. It does take a few extra seconds to load heavy web apps like Google Sheets or Google Maps; however, on the upside, if I make my apps run fast on such limited device, it will be super fast on most of my users' devices. I also love it b/c it makes zero noise.

bigiain 9y ago

You'd be surprised - although it's a pain to get some software running on it - it runs all the SDR software I use pretty well (mostly rx only using RTL SDR sticks, but I've used it for tx with my HackRFOne as well). Anything you can run on a Raspberry Pi you can get going on this - I largely use it as "a Raspberry Pi with a keyboard/screen/battery" - which it mostly does better than my PiTop (which has a vastly inferior screen and keyboard).

imtringued 9y ago

The fact that it's only 1.2GHz is irrelevant. The important aspect is that it's an A53 core. These cores are incredibly slow. Each A53 core has geekbench score of roughly 300. Compare this to an A72 core which has a score of roughly 1500. Intel gets anywhere from 2000 to 6000 per core. A72 cores are moderately slower than intel. A53 cores are excessively slower than either A72 and intel.

phkahler 9y ago

You know back in the 1990's we had email and web browsers and MS office. We even had CAD software. All that stuff could run on a 200MHz Intel chip with 128-512M of RAM. I wonder why people think it's OK that their daily use software is too big for a computer like this.

tomcooks 9y ago
Yes I remember (and agree with you), but there was no Youtube non Netflix nor social networks, sites were 400kb of text plus a couple of images. That's why.