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What do you mean "little or no change in performance since the 90s"? Computers now are hundreds if not thousands of times faster than in the 90s. Also, if anyt
by fluoridation 3y ago
What do you mean "little or no change in performance since the 90s"? Computers now are hundreds if not thousands of times faster than in the 90s.
Also, if anything, modern desktop hardware is so complex not because of centralization, but because of decentralization. If your computer was made by a single manufacturer, that manufacturer could optimize the final product as much as it wanted, because it'd have control not only of each component, but of the communication between each pair of components. It'd only need to make sure that the programming interface remained the same, so that the software could still function. Because different companies make your CPU, your motherboard, your storage, your memory, etc. and they all have to agree on some protocol so the parts can talk to each other, each manufacturer focuses their optimization efforts on the part that they manufacture, irrespective of what the rest of the system is doing. That's how you get SSDs running garbage collectors, GPUs with little operating systems, motherboards with little operating systems, etc.
- interroboink 3y agoThey might be referring to the fact that, eg, opening Microsoft Word today can take significantly longer than Word 2003 on Windows XP (or similar). See also Wirth's Law[1] and such. EDIT: though they focus on the hardware-could-be-better side, rather than the software-could-be-less-awful side (: There have been some good outspoken critics of how software bloat has canceled out (or more) modern hardware gains. Casey Muratori, Jonathan Blow, and Mike Acton come to mind — they have some good material on the subject [2][3][4]. Some of the issues you mention, w.r.t. the hardware being discombobulated, are addressed in that first blog/video. No big surprise these people come from a video games background; video game hardware is traditionally much more tightly-bound-together. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirth%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirth%27s_law [2] https://caseymuratori.com/blog_0031 https://caseymuratori.com/blog_0031 [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW-SOdj4Kkk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW-SOdj4Kkk [4] https://youtu.be/rX0ItVEVjHc?t=4211 https://youtu.be/rX0ItVEVjHc?t=4211 (timestamp, but the whole talk is good)
- Aerbil313 3y ago> What do you mean "little or no change in performance since the 90s"? Computers now are hundreds if not thousands of times faster than in the 90s. Do you seriously think the person you’re replying to didn’t know this?
- rcxdude 3y agowell, it's quite hard to interpret that statement any other way, so I can understand the request for clarification including a direct contradiction of the obvious interpretation.