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Anyone else sad that money and business took over IT? I feel like most of the commenters here would love to go back to a time where computers were fun to experi

Anyone else sad that money and business took over IT? I feel like most of the commenters here would love to go back to a time where computers were fun to experiment with and we’re just bound to “lab work and play”

zubairq 6y ago
Totally, money and business have taken over IT. Computers are still fun to experiment with however, it is just that people have a choice now of experimenting or playing games, and most people choose games
rleigh 6y ago
In part, yes. But at the same time, all of that money and business has spurred research, development and investment which have improved computing technology dramatically. Today, you can buy an STM32 Nucleo board for under £20 with all sorts of interesting capabilities. Then you have Arduino (ironically both more expensive and less capable than the STM32), then RPi and all the rest. All of these can be fun to experiment with, and they are all pretty open systems. With Apple's launch of their ARM systems, I do think we're entering a new stage of computing evolution: it's the beginning of the end of the dominance of x86. I do wonder where it will go for the mainstream. It's only a matter of time for ARM desktops and laptops to become more generally available. We've already got systems like the RPi 3 and 4 which are totally usable as desktop replacements. But they are designed to meet a low price point, and lack general PCI-E, fast and reliable storage options etc., which limit their use. It wouldn't take much to make a slightly bigger ARMv8 board with PCI-E/NVME, and sell it as a general purpose system. (I'm sure there are already options for this, it's just not widely available or price competitive.)
- alfiedotwtf 6y ago
  Yeah, I hear what you’re saying... but it’s not as fun. And I assume that we would have gotten to these developments eventually, maybe just a little later. I’m hoping the end of x86 dominance teaches people to not target single platforms. It would be nice to see a POSIX but for hardware (even a HAL)
the_only_law 6y ago
Kinda sorta. The way people, even in this thread, talk about working at some of these pioneering companies sounds really engaging, which is kill for. Half of the stories make it sound like the sort of problems they were working on were if nothing else, technically interesting and they had genuinely smart people to help guide them.

zubairq 6y ago

Totally, money and business have taken over IT. Computers are still fun to experiment with however, it is just that people have a choice now of experimenting or playing games, and most people choose games

rleigh 6y ago

In part, yes. But at the same time, all of that money and business has spurred research, development and investment which have improved computing technology dramatically. Today, you can buy an STM32 Nucleo board for under £20 with all sorts of interesting capabilities. Then you have Arduino (ironically both more expensive and less capable than the STM32), then RPi and all the rest. All of these can be fun to experiment with, and they are all pretty open systems. With Apple's launch of their ARM systems, I do think we're entering a new stage of computing evolution: it's the beginning of the end of the dominance of x86. I do wonder where it will go for the mainstream. It's only a matter of time for ARM desktops and laptops to become more generally available. We've already got systems like the RPi 3 and 4 which are totally usable as desktop replacements. But they are designed to meet a low price point, and lack general PCI-E, fast and reliable storage options etc., which limit their use. It wouldn't take much to make a slightly bigger ARMv8 board with PCI-E/NVME, and sell it as a general purpose system. (I'm sure there are already options for this, it's just not widely available or price competitive.)

alfiedotwtf 6y ago
Yeah, I hear what you’re saying... but it’s not as fun. And I assume that we would have gotten to these developments eventually, maybe just a little later. I’m hoping the end of x86 dominance teaches people to not target single platforms. It would be nice to see a POSIX but for hardware (even a HAL)

the_only_law 6y ago

Kinda sorta. The way people, even in this thread, talk about working at some of these pioneering companies sounds really engaging, which is kill for. Half of the stories make it sound like the sort of problems they were working on were if nothing else, technically interesting and they had genuinely smart people to help guide them.