People ask why I bother with a desktop. Outside of a pair of 27 inch monitors?
I bought the chips to upgrade Black Beauty to 64 gig of RAM. Well did you know my Mobo has four simm slots?
Tee-Hee, 96 gig of RAM. Ninety-SIX GIG OF RAM!!!
Take that mobile computing.
And big Edit: 12 core 4.1 gig CPU. And this is not even a high end machine.
Why do I bother with a desktop? I want to be able to have greater control over my online experience (i.e. block as much tracking, targeted ads, etc… as possible). Also it’s a pain to do many things on a mobile device (i.e. image editing, word processing, map creation, audio/video encoding, etc…).
Oh yes, right there. I run Linux because I’m a control freak. (OpenSUSE Leap 15.4). I have a big tablet 10", a pile of the things dating form 2012. They are one step above a TV for personal control, Android or not. Anyone that would do any creative content on that or a phone must have 20/10 vision and itty-bitty fingers.
My recent two stints in the hospital I had to use a tablet and a bluetooth keyboard to get out. Yes that and my phone saved my sanity. But I did nothing creative. I watched youtube to the end. I did some e-mail gaming. I all but kissed The Beast when I got home (Last computer)
Black Beauty was built in 2022. So called because when I fired it up the front panel lit up in a gorgeous chromatic display. I didn’t know that about the case.
A picture quietly working away.
I’ve been running some distro of Linux since at least 2007. It’s very nice to have 64+GB of RAM & not need to worry about slowdowns or freezes. Currently running Ubuntu Studio with Mate desktop environment, handles all the multimedia encoding/creation I need with ease. Outside of recent, high-end AAA games desktop Linux can do everything what most people would want to do on a computer.
And one can argue that the games are not worth the gelt. Bill Gates forced my hand to use Linux in 2003, when I had to re-install Windows for the third time in a week. The fix was going to require a cold reinstall of winders. I happened to have OpenSUSE 8.2 in hand. I installed a dual boot and never looked back. The next upgrade was just Linux. That was…four computers back? Gate, Phoenix, The Beast, and now Black Beauty.
I started with Amigas, I have a certain expectation of reliability.
You have heard about the concept of cable management, right?
Just pulling your chain, besides I have no room to talk, you should see my server rack right now 
I’ve heard of it, bought products to accomplish it. Yet as you see. The cables win every time. And that is better than it was. I recently did an audit of the cables.
12 core 4.1 gig CPU. And this is not even a high end machine. No not a flex. Many a gaming machine or 3D render machine has better stats. I’m amazed. My first new computer in 91 was an Amiga 1200, Motorola 68020 processor, 6 meg of RAM. A 2.5" 80 meg hard drive. I have an 80 gig 2.5 on my desk I consider nearly useless.
I can emulate that machine better than it ran itself.
Hmmm, I wounder what would happen if I put an SSD into that A1200. I’d have to find one in IDE…might be worth it. Is there a SATA to mini IDE adapter?
I did put an SSD into my old T61 IBM Thinkpad. It really perked the old beast up.
Fuckerdoddle! RIGHT HERE! https://tinyurl.com/484e4uaa The very thing a female IDE to female SATA. Now I have to buy one.
I write my own daunting fantasy ttrpg on my desktop computer. I am 59 yoa. How on Earth would I do that on a tablet or a phone screen? All you young people not having trouble with eye sight - yet - could’nt understand my needs. And I can find everything I need for my game in my 1000+ folders that I’ve created over the almost 40 years I’ve continued to do this. Plucking with my world of imagination and myriad ways of character sheet looks over the years and all the rules variants and world background variants - would I do that on a 2 by 4 inch screen like I am doing RIGHT NOW when writing this text on my 6th generation iPhone? My eyes are already aching and my fingers want a vacation. So I long for my PC master race tools. As I will ever do.
The MD&D drawer is only 1,7 gig, but that is mostly text. So lots. The computer was not just a fun tool but one of freedom. My handwriting is chicken scratch I can barely read. I’m dyslexic and fear typewriters. A mistake is forever. Computer? Fail and pray, go back and clean up the mess. I love it. For the first time I could truly write.
The massively massive hardware is just a bonus. Yes, I would give up most but the pair of 27" monitors. I have lusted for 32" replacements. But I have only so much room. Yea, the 96 gig of RAM is a nerd flex. I was not expecting the machine would take ALL of it. My first one gigabyte hard drive cost $395.95. That was a hard drive, RAM was still measured in megabytes. Today you can get a decent appliance computer for that price. I love how computers have gotten cheaper and cheaper.
I get the eye thing. I struggle with ageing, diabetic eyes. My font sizes can approach a newspaper* headline. Although aging eyes did help me. After cataract surgery I don’t need glasses for everything like I did before.
*For you whipper-snappers out there a “newspaper” is a broadsheet printed paper news source printed daily or weekly and having less ads than the average website.
Maybe because I am 57 years old, I see people using their cell for everything. I only use it for talk and text, that’s it and that isn’t much. I use home phone most often. The only reason I got a cell was for emergencies. Hard to call for help with no phone booth and people afraid to open the door to strangers. I have a desktop and use it for all my online things.
People also use E-books or whatever you call it. I like books better, I enjoy them and I like a physical book in my hand, same goes for newspaper.
Yeah, the cellphone has a lot of good, but also has a lot of bad too.
I originally got the cell foe emergencies, but it has crept into my life. I do most calls on it because I can use the stereo headphones that make it easier to hear people.
Other uses only if I don’t have a real computer handy.
