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> I very vividly remember double clicking some executable, and then immediately hearing the HDD start to spin, Are you sure about that? At that time, hard driv

> I very vividly remember double clicking some executable, and then immediately hearing the HDD start to spin, Are you sure about that? At that time, hard drives were constantly spinning. Getting them to suspend was a rare feat. > programs on Windows 98 (the only option for personal computers at the time) often did. 20 years ago, Windows 98 had long been abandoned. At that time I had been running a Linux desktop for many years already. > Nothing that runs off a HDD is ever snappy. Of course it can be. By already being in RAM. Open another window of some program didn't need to touch the HDD. If I nowadays open another instance of some electron thing, it takes a while load those gigabytes of bloat and make dozens of network roundtrips. I'm not saying all software 20 years ago was snappy. But today's bloat is undeniable. The user experience has not improved with the orders of magnitude (!) with which the hardware has gotten more performant. I think people don't realize how much more performant today's hardware is. Mostly because the bloated and terribly architected software eats it all up.

simiones 1mo ago
> Are you sure about that? At that time, hard drives were constantly spinning. Getting them to suspend was a rare feat. I am pretty sure, though, of course, memory is highly fallible (and note that I was a kid back then, and didn't understand that well what those sounds or the blinking disk light actually meant). > 20 years ago, Windows 98 had long been abandoned. At that time I had been running a Linux desktop for many years already. 20 years ago means the mid-to-late nineties. That's my position and I'm sticking with it /s But I think it's undeniable that Linux in the 2000s was a massive pain for anyone but the most dedicated tinker, and even then only for pretty carefully chosen hardware. The Year of the Linux Desktop meme existed for a very clear reason. Virtually the entire PC user base, both Consumer and Corporate, was running Windows XP in the 2000s.

simiones 1mo ago

> Are you sure about that? At that time, hard drives were constantly spinning. Getting them to suspend was a rare feat. I am pretty sure, though, of course, memory is highly fallible (and note that I was a kid back then, and didn't understand that well what those sounds or the blinking disk light actually meant). > 20 years ago, Windows 98 had long been abandoned. At that time I had been running a Linux desktop for many years already. 20 years ago means the mid-to-late nineties. That's my position and I'm sticking with it /s But I think it's undeniable that Linux in the 2000s was a massive pain for anyone but the most dedicated tinker, and even then only for pretty carefully chosen hardware. The Year of the Linux Desktop meme existed for a very clear reason. Virtually the entire PC user base, both Consumer and Corporate, was running Windows XP in the 2000s.