5 ms·

4 has been true for over a decade.

kome 2y ago
i use a 10 years old macbook air and honestly i can do everything i need, statistics, light programming, browsing and photo editing. perfect. i wait it to break before moving on, changing for the sake to changing feels like waste.
- skyyler 2y ago
  I use a 10 years old macbook pro and the only thing I dislike is the battery life and the heat generated. I simply can't afford the replacement 16" MBP right now. Hopefully it lasts another couple of years.
  - lotsofpulp 2y ago
    Surely, the new MacBook Airs offer better performance than a 10 year old MacBook Pro. The M3 is very reasonable, 16GB/512GB for $1,100 or $1,300 for 15 inch I think. Could be going lower too with M4 MacBook Air purportedly releasing in Mar or Apr.
    - omnimus 2y ago
      I have cheapest air 8gig and its just fine for anything i do if i dont open 80tabs. But for sure wait for M4 as 16gig ram will be the base model. Coworker just got MacMini m4 and i dont see why that machine wouldnt be enough for 90% of people.
    - trinix912 2y ago
      I just wish they upped the storage a bit. 512GB on an $1100 machine in 2025 just feels like a bad deal, especially if you already have a machine from 10 years ago that has the same amount.
    - skyyler 2y ago
      My ten year old computer has an SD card slot and an HDMI port. I would like to replace it with something that has an SD card slot and an HDMI port, as I use those frequently and don't want to deal with adapter solutions.
gotoeleven 2y ago
Literally the only reason you need a computer less than 10 years old for day to day tasks is to keep up with the layers of javascript that are larded onto lots of websites. It's sad. Edit: oh and electron apps. Sweet lord, shouldnt we have learned in the 90s with java applets that you shouldnt use a garbage collected language for user interfaces?
- whatever1 2y ago
  What is wrong with garbage collection and UI?
  - wtallis 2y ago
    Latency spikes, probably. But most UIs shouldn't be churning through enough allocations to lead to noticeable GC pauses, and not all of today's GCs have major problems with pause times. I don't think Electron's problems are that simple.
    - skydhash 2y ago
      From a non expert point of view, it’s about bringing in so much dead code. Like support for every os audio subsystem for a graphic app, or the whole sandboxing thing while you’re already accessing files and running scripts. Or even the table and float layout while everything is using flex. All those things need to be initialized and hooked up. At least Cordova (mobile) runs only on the system web engine which was already slimmed down.
      - mook 2y ago
        I work on an Electron app, and we have a ticket open to investigate why the heck it's asking the OS for Bluetooth permissions even though we'd never use it. There are, of course, higher priority things to get to first, bugs that have larger effects. I'd love to be able to get to that one…
    - iforgot22 2y ago
      The renderer isn't going to pause on JS execution or GC.
bentcorner 2y ago
But has it been true for the type of person who runs CPU benchmarks?

kome 2y ago

i use a 10 years old macbook air and honestly i can do everything i need, statistics, light programming, browsing and photo editing. perfect. i wait it to break before moving on, changing for the sake to changing feels like waste.

skyyler 2y ago
I use a 10 years old macbook pro and the only thing I dislike is the battery life and the heat generated. I simply can't afford the replacement 16" MBP right now. Hopefully it lasts another couple of years.
- lotsofpulp 2y ago
  Surely, the new MacBook Airs offer better performance than a 10 year old MacBook Pro. The M3 is very reasonable, 16GB/512GB for $1,100 or $1,300 for 15 inch I think. Could be going lower too with M4 MacBook Air purportedly releasing in Mar or Apr.
  - omnimus 2y ago
    I have cheapest air 8gig and its just fine for anything i do if i dont open 80tabs. But for sure wait for M4 as 16gig ram will be the base model. Coworker just got MacMini m4 and i dont see why that machine wouldnt be enough for 90% of people.
  - trinix912 2y ago
    I just wish they upped the storage a bit. 512GB on an $1100 machine in 2025 just feels like a bad deal, especially if you already have a machine from 10 years ago that has the same amount.
  - skyyler 2y ago
    My ten year old computer has an SD card slot and an HDMI port. I would like to replace it with something that has an SD card slot and an HDMI port, as I use those frequently and don't want to deal with adapter solutions.

gotoeleven 2y ago

Literally the only reason you need a computer less than 10 years old for day to day tasks is to keep up with the layers of javascript that are larded onto lots of websites. It's sad. Edit: oh and electron apps. Sweet lord, shouldnt we have learned in the 90s with java applets that you shouldnt use a garbage collected language for user interfaces?

whatever1 2y ago
What is wrong with garbage collection and UI?
- wtallis 2y ago
  Latency spikes, probably. But most UIs shouldn't be churning through enough allocations to lead to noticeable GC pauses, and not all of today's GCs have major problems with pause times. I don't think Electron's problems are that simple.
  - skydhash 2y ago
    From a non expert point of view, it’s about bringing in so much dead code. Like support for every os audio subsystem for a graphic app, or the whole sandboxing thing while you’re already accessing files and running scripts. Or even the table and float layout while everything is using flex. All those things need to be initialized and hooked up. At least Cordova (mobile) runs only on the system web engine which was already slimmed down.
    - mook 2y ago
      I work on an Electron app, and we have a ticket open to investigate why the heck it's asking the OS for Bluetooth permissions even though we'd never use it. There are, of course, higher priority things to get to first, bugs that have larger effects. I'd love to be able to get to that one…
  - iforgot22 2y ago
    The renderer isn't going to pause on JS execution or GC.

bentcorner 2y ago

But has it been true for the type of person who runs CPU benchmarks?