4 ms·

>If you take care to avoid the "modern" bloated crap, or notoriously intensive like new games, or now AI-related stuff, a decade-old computer is absolutely more

>If you take care to avoid the "modern" bloated crap, or notoriously intensive like new games, or now AI-related stuff, a decade-old computer is absolutely more than enough computing power for a lot of things. Most likely your phone is more powerful than those old computers. Why not just hook it into an external monitor and use it?

all2 3y ago
Samsung DEX was exactly this. When I bought a Pad 6 it came with Dex bundled and it queued quite nicely as a simple Linux-ish desktop environment.
- jeroenhd 3y ago
  DeX still exists! I think the lack of USB monitors and dongles in the real world makes it so that very few people use it, but if you've got a higher end Samsung device andd access to a dongle, more people should definitely give it a go.
  - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    >I think the lack of USB monitors and dongles in the real world makes it so that very few people use it You don't need USB monitors, there are plenty of cheap USB-C to DMI/DP dongles and adapters. If you already have a USB-C dock for your laptop, then the same one can be used for the DEX. The reason it's not more wildly used it's poor marketing and low consumer interest as the PC usage has been on the steady decline.
    - jeroenhd 3y ago
      Perhaps, but those adapters often lack USB ports in my experience. USB-C docks also aren't always reliable, because many of them use the accursed DisplayLink protocol to do video. I think the general consumer just isn't aware that this is an option. Perhaps Samsung should offer free dongles with their flagship phones to build a market, because it's a real shame people don't know about DeX.
      - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
        >Perhaps Samsung should offer free dongles with their flagship phones to build a market, because it's a real shame people don't know about DeX. Most casual average people at home don't even have PCs with monitors anymore these days. Most people who aren't on their computer all day, just have a solo laptop with no other peripherals making DEX pretty useless to the average joe
deniska 3y ago
Because they come with not-really-multitasking OSes, with restricted access to file system and limited selection of software.
krylon 3y ago
I have a soft spot for old hardware. And a 10-12 year old machine is able to play 1080p video smoothly (unless it was a low-end machine at the time), which makes it fine for 90+ percent of my needs. Plus, these older machines can be obtained very cheaply. With a bit of luck for free, if you offer to save friends and relatives the effort to dispose of them properly.
nottorp 3y ago
> Most likely your phone is more powerful than those old computers. Why not just hook it into an external monitor and use it? Phones are content consumption devices. Maybe he wants to do something beyond watching tiktok.
- jeroenhd 3y ago
  App support for tools like IDEs may be lacking (browser based debugging only, but there are cloud based versions of VS Code you can use) but I could do most desktop tasks on Samsung Dex. A USB C monitor with two USB ports for mouse and keyboard would be enough for many people. It's unfortunate that Samsung abandoned its tests running a fully fledged Ubuntu when hooked upmto a monitor.
  - nottorp 3y ago
    > A USB C monitor with two USB ports for mouse and keyboard would be enough for many people. Yeah, sadly there are entry level laptops cheaper than a phone or said monitor plus a keyboard and mouse. I said "or" not "and". Plus you know, people cursing Apple for making Mac OS look more like iOS. I don't think the great convergence will happen any time soon. > browser based debugging only, but there are cloud based versions of VS Code you can use So nothing works offline.
    - jeroenhd 3y ago
      > Yeah, sadly there are entry level laptops cheaper than a phone or said monitor plus a keyboard and mouse Many people already have a monitor, mouse, and keyboard lying around. They'll also have a phone already. Plus, there are very cheap docks where you can just slide your phone into a laptop shell, priced similarly to the worst and most awful Chromebooks imaginable. > So nothing works offline. You can run a vscode server on your phone (https://github.com/gitpod-io/openvscode-server/releases https://github.com/gitpod-io/openvscode-server/releases). What's lacking is the VSCode GUI, so pointing a browser at http://[::1]:8080/ http://[::1]:8080/ will work just fine.
  - greggsy 3y ago
tom_ 3y ago
The Geekbench results for my phone (3 year old iPhone 12 Mini) do suggest it might actually be better than my 15" 2014 Macbook Pro, which at the time was about the fanciest you could get. Just 6 years of progress! I imagine the latest round of iPhones are even better, particularly if you go for the enormous ones. But, meanwhile, my Macbook Pro can drive two external displays, as well as having a good size internal display of its own that will still be useful. It's got 2 standard USB ports, for connecting keyboard and mouse. Add USB hub, and you have even more options. It has fans inside, so it can run at full tilt for quite a while before hitting any thermal throttling. 16 GB RAM means it's feasible to run a VM - and, since it's an x64 system, it can be persuaded to run many x64 OSs natively. One example would be Microsoft Windows, which you may have heard of, and which has been ported to x64. The UX without any extra devices is fine as well. As well as the nice built-in display (which is a good size, and >200 dpi), it also has a solid inbuilt keyboard and a very useable trackpad. For all that I do much prefer a proper setup on a desk with a full-size keyboard and a mouse and a nice set of displays, the UX for general use without any peripherals is quite reasonable. Also, it has a headphone jack.

all2 3y ago

Samsung DEX was exactly this. When I bought a Pad 6 it came with Dex bundled and it queued quite nicely as a simple Linux-ish desktop environment.

jeroenhd 3y ago
DeX still exists! I think the lack of USB monitors and dongles in the real world makes it so that very few people use it, but if you've got a higher end Samsung device andd access to a dongle, more people should definitely give it a go.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  >I think the lack of USB monitors and dongles in the real world makes it so that very few people use it You don't need USB monitors, there are plenty of cheap USB-C to DMI/DP dongles and adapters. If you already have a USB-C dock for your laptop, then the same one can be used for the DEX. The reason it's not more wildly used it's poor marketing and low consumer interest as the PC usage has been on the steady decline.
  - jeroenhd 3y ago
    Perhaps, but those adapters often lack USB ports in my experience. USB-C docks also aren't always reliable, because many of them use the accursed DisplayLink protocol to do video. I think the general consumer just isn't aware that this is an option. Perhaps Samsung should offer free dongles with their flagship phones to build a market, because it's a real shame people don't know about DeX.
    - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
      >Perhaps Samsung should offer free dongles with their flagship phones to build a market, because it's a real shame people don't know about DeX. Most casual average people at home don't even have PCs with monitors anymore these days. Most people who aren't on their computer all day, just have a solo laptop with no other peripherals making DEX pretty useless to the average joe

deniska 3y ago

Because they come with not-really-multitasking OSes, with restricted access to file system and limited selection of software.

krylon 3y ago

I have a soft spot for old hardware. And a 10-12 year old machine is able to play 1080p video smoothly (unless it was a low-end machine at the time), which makes it fine for 90+ percent of my needs. Plus, these older machines can be obtained very cheaply. With a bit of luck for free, if you offer to save friends and relatives the effort to dispose of them properly.

nottorp 3y ago

> Most likely your phone is more powerful than those old computers. Why not just hook it into an external monitor and use it? Phones are content consumption devices. Maybe he wants to do something beyond watching tiktok.

jeroenhd 3y ago
App support for tools like IDEs may be lacking (browser based debugging only, but there are cloud based versions of VS Code you can use) but I could do most desktop tasks on Samsung Dex. A USB C monitor with two USB ports for mouse and keyboard would be enough for many people. It's unfortunate that Samsung abandoned its tests running a fully fledged Ubuntu when hooked upmto a monitor.
- nottorp 3y ago
  > A USB C monitor with two USB ports for mouse and keyboard would be enough for many people. Yeah, sadly there are entry level laptops cheaper than a phone or said monitor plus a keyboard and mouse. I said "or" not "and". Plus you know, people cursing Apple for making Mac OS look more like iOS. I don't think the great convergence will happen any time soon. > browser based debugging only, but there are cloud based versions of VS Code you can use So nothing works offline.
  - jeroenhd 3y ago
    > Yeah, sadly there are entry level laptops cheaper than a phone or said monitor plus a keyboard and mouse Many people already have a monitor, mouse, and keyboard lying around. They'll also have a phone already. Plus, there are very cheap docks where you can just slide your phone into a laptop shell, priced similarly to the worst and most awful Chromebooks imaginable. > So nothing works offline. You can run a vscode server on your phone (https://github.com/gitpod-io/openvscode-server/releases https://github.com/gitpod-io/openvscode-server/releases). What's lacking is the VSCode GUI, so pointing a browser at http://[::1]:8080/ http://[::1]:8080/ will work just fine.
- greggsy 3y ago

tom_ 3y ago

The Geekbench results for my phone (3 year old iPhone 12 Mini) do suggest it might actually be better than my 15" 2014 Macbook Pro, which at the time was about the fanciest you could get. Just 6 years of progress! I imagine the latest round of iPhones are even better, particularly if you go for the enormous ones. But, meanwhile, my Macbook Pro can drive two external displays, as well as having a good size internal display of its own that will still be useful. It's got 2 standard USB ports, for connecting keyboard and mouse. Add USB hub, and you have even more options. It has fans inside, so it can run at full tilt for quite a while before hitting any thermal throttling. 16 GB RAM means it's feasible to run a VM - and, since it's an x64 system, it can be persuaded to run many x64 OSs natively. One example would be Microsoft Windows, which you may have heard of, and which has been ported to x64. The UX without any extra devices is fine as well. As well as the nice built-in display (which is a good size, and >200 dpi), it also has a solid inbuilt keyboard and a very useable trackpad. For all that I do much prefer a proper setup on a desk with a full-size keyboard and a mouse and a nice set of displays, the UX for general use without any peripherals is quite reasonable. Also, it has a headphone jack.