4 ms·

Ask HN: Is it bad that smartphones are becoming our primary computing devices?

6 points by slategruen 5y ago

rektide 5y ago
no! it only is happenstance that two vast dipshit useless consumerizing anti-computing applicationizing loser companies control all the smartphone market & that the market is sucky & awful & has no innovation or verve! like a lot of computing! the form factor is not the problem nor really a big constraint. thr form factor so happens to be dominated by even loer than regular fi computing, subcomputong, of the lowest ambitions. dominated by unexpert systems & portals. that's not a real restriction of the technology. it doesnt reflect anywhere near as bad on mobile tech as the situations seems.
- emteycz 5y ago
  I have no idea what you're talking about. The phone I am holding is one of the most beautiful, most innovative devices I have ever seen. It's truly amazing that a pocket device made in 2018 that sells for $150 (second hand, like new) can be as capable as a desktop from just few years ago (octa-core CPU, 6GB RAM and 256 GB disk + 400 GB SD). While by default the OS is ridden with Google, you can trivially replace it with a free version and again, it's the best thing I've ever used - including PCs. I'm running full KDE, Node.js and VSCode on it - if that's not innovation then I don't know what is.
  - rektide 5y ago
    > While by default the OS is ridden with Google, you can trivially replace it with a free version and again, it's the best thing I've ever used - including PCs. You are living in fantasy land! Congratulations. I'd make a big bet less than 1% of phones out there allow this. Everyone else is locked into the small balkanized application-centric hell-world of consumer smartphone OSes.
    - emteycz 5y ago
      There is absolutely no shortage of Samsung devices, and second-hand ones are even cheap. If people are buying pricier locked up alternatives, perhaps they don't care about our fantasy land... Anyways I meant AOSP Android, it's truly good. X runs headless alongside it and is accessible via an Android Xorg client.
Flankk 5y ago
Well it's bad if you consider we're headed for a hellish nightmare where corporations and government collect your personal data and use technology to limit your freedom. Oh wait, we're already past that. Scan your vaccine passport and quit asking questions.
mikewarot 5y ago
As long as general purpose computing remains something that business and a significant fraction of the public rely on, we'll be ok. If we lose the battle for general purpose computing, we're faced with unassailable corporate overlords.
uniqueuid 5y ago
Of course it's bad, and of course it's good. The question is too simple. Smartphones are democratizing access to information, so they enable potential empowerment. Smartphones also nudge users towards stupid, irrational, emotional, impulse decisions that harm them (microtransactions, subscriptions, mindless consumption). They also make it hard to do meaningful empowering work, such as reading up contracts, laws and education-related information (i.e. cannot read a PDF on a smartphone). [1] A simplistic model would be that smartphones help those wo are worst off, but harm those in the middle. Highly privileged people are in an entirely other world of course. [1] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2050157917708329?casa_token=Y0gym7N4DMQAAAAA:Iri9sLT8Eh7Bt-MbPyUcKxw2PLGiyqWXvqbEzeuS7W-oo8y_DkN7aBKC-BRoQ48RAmeA1I0I7zqCZA https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/205015791770832...
fbrncci 5y ago
I don't think it is, just think about all the people (billions) which either can't afford a desktop or laptop, or can't connect one in their home. Now they are connected to the entire world, their families and communities through smartphones. And that cost of entry does keep getting lower. Perhaps it is transitional? Until something better comes along (AR/VR)? Then a smart phone is just a mobile computing device that generates/renders the virtual world around you (while remaining in your pocket). Who would want a laptop or desktop then, hah.
emteycz 5y ago
Yesterday I installed NixOnDroid, Code-Server, Node.js and a full X server with KDE on my phone. There's no practical difference anymore. You don't even need to root it.

6 points by slategruen 5y ago

no! it only is happenstance that two vast dipshit useless consumerizing anti-computing applicationizing loser companies control all the smartphone market & that the market is sucky & awful & has no innovation or verve! like a lot of computing! the form factor is not the problem nor really a big constraint. thr form factor so happens to be dominated by even loer than regular fi computing, subcomputong, of the lowest ambitions. dominated by unexpert systems & portals. that's not a real restriction of the technology. it doesnt reflect anywhere near as bad on mobile tech as the situations seems.

emteycz 5y ago
I have no idea what you're talking about. The phone I am holding is one of the most beautiful, most innovative devices I have ever seen. It's truly amazing that a pocket device made in 2018 that sells for $150 (second hand, like new) can be as capable as a desktop from just few years ago (octa-core CPU, 6GB RAM and 256 GB disk + 400 GB SD). While by default the OS is ridden with Google, you can trivially replace it with a free version and again, it's the best thing I've ever used - including PCs. I'm running full KDE, Node.js and VSCode on it - if that's not innovation then I don't know what is.
- rektide 5y ago
  > While by default the OS is ridden with Google, you can trivially replace it with a free version and again, it's the best thing I've ever used - including PCs. You are living in fantasy land! Congratulations. I'd make a big bet less than 1% of phones out there allow this. Everyone else is locked into the small balkanized application-centric hell-world of consumer smartphone OSes.
  - emteycz 5y ago
    There is absolutely no shortage of Samsung devices, and second-hand ones are even cheap. If people are buying pricier locked up alternatives, perhaps they don't care about our fantasy land... Anyways I meant AOSP Android, it's truly good. X runs headless alongside it and is accessible via an Android Xorg client.

Flankk 5y ago

Well it's bad if you consider we're headed for a hellish nightmare where corporations and government collect your personal data and use technology to limit your freedom. Oh wait, we're already past that. Scan your vaccine passport and quit asking questions.

mikewarot 5y ago

As long as general purpose computing remains something that business and a significant fraction of the public rely on, we'll be ok. If we lose the battle for general purpose computing, we're faced with unassailable corporate overlords.

uniqueuid 5y ago

Of course it's bad, and of course it's good. The question is too simple. Smartphones are democratizing access to information, so they enable potential empowerment. Smartphones also nudge users towards stupid, irrational, emotional, impulse decisions that harm them (microtransactions, subscriptions, mindless consumption). They also make it hard to do meaningful empowering work, such as reading up contracts, laws and education-related information (i.e. cannot read a PDF on a smartphone). [1] A simplistic model would be that smartphones help those wo are worst off, but harm those in the middle. Highly privileged people are in an entirely other world of course. [1] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2050157917708329?casa_token=Y0gym7N4DMQAAAAA:Iri9sLT8Eh7Bt-MbPyUcKxw2PLGiyqWXvqbEzeuS7W-oo8y_DkN7aBKC-BRoQ48RAmeA1I0I7zqCZA https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/205015791770832...

fbrncci 5y ago

I don't think it is, just think about all the people (billions) which either can't afford a desktop or laptop, or can't connect one in their home. Now they are connected to the entire world, their families and communities through smartphones. And that cost of entry does keep getting lower. Perhaps it is transitional? Until something better comes along (AR/VR)? Then a smart phone is just a mobile computing device that generates/renders the virtual world around you (while remaining in your pocket). Who would want a laptop or desktop then, hah.

emteycz 5y ago

Yesterday I installed NixOnDroid, Code-Server, Node.js and a full X server with KDE on my phone. There's no practical difference anymore. You don't even need to root it.