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From: rbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Newsgroups: alt.comp.os.windows-11,comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: The problem with not owning the software
Date: 29 Dec 2024 00:53:43 GMT
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On Sat, 28 Dec 2024 17:11:52 -0500, Andrzej Matuch wrote:

> I was telling my wife the exact same thing. We're not doing much more
> than we were in 2008, yet a 2008 machine would be incapable of handling
> today's software (unless it's running Linux). At some point, people need
> to wake up and realize that the exponential increase in speed isn't
> offering any real benefit to users who are doing anything other than
> video editing or gaming.

Yes and no.  VS Code or Vim patiently waits for many more cycles while I 
figure out what I'm trying to do. Otoh I can do things with Python that 
wouldn't have been possible 25 years ago. The user doesn't have a clue if 
the back end is FastAPI or FastCGI using compiled C.

I recall when Java was young, lithe, and slender. Then Swing came along 
and it turned into a hog. The answer was 'you need a faster machine.' 

As far as the user is concerned there is no difference but the speed 
increases enabled technologies that (supposedly) made development faster.

There is a similar effect with microcontrollers. A 8048 was extremely 
limited and you usually wound up using assembler. The Atmel chip in the 
classic Arduinos is luxurious and you can work in C/C++. However there 
still are memory limits. The Arm based chips are faster and have more 
flash so for many applications you can use MicroPython or CircuitPython 
unless you need very fine control of the chip. If you want to do your 
Christmas lights with neopixels, Python is a lot easier than fiddling 
around with the C SDK.

Is that progress? Beat's me. I was at a museum that had a display of the 
development of household labor saving devices. It noted that when 
housewives received all these new time savers they tended to find new 
things to spend the saved time on. Filling your house with Victorian 
kitsch didn't advance civilization.