Off-Topic > Off-Topic - Tiny Core Lounge
The direction of the development of computing
Jakob Bysewski:
In my thread here I had written this post noticing it's going much to far so I'd like to open another discussion thread for it seperating this topic from the original thread.
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Targeting slower, low spec (also low RAM) hardware is a side goal of mine - my main system has 4GB RAM and a Core i3 530 overclocked to 3.5 GHz; but - and here it comes to taste and philosophy - I like small systems of every kind in a zen like spirit. This is for various reasons; among them is a bigger base of supported hardware, faster startup, lower power requirements (especially on netbooks or other small devices) and last but definitly not least the possibility to understand the inner workings of the system fully (if I like to). My processor is idling almost all the time, but I like it's power for compiling bigger projects (as an example: I build embedded systems using buildroot) and such. There are lot's of benefits of well thought of lightweight software. I joined MikeLookmore in his FLTK projects (hence the idea for a FLTK media player) because I don't like the big and cluttered ugly APIs of a lot of the other gui environments. If I look at was possible with computers 25 years ago and today I can easily get a bit frustrated as it seems by joining efforts and thinking more into depth we could have progressed much further.
A glorious example is the Apple Lisa - search Youtube for videos - which was put on the market in 1983!
Another nice example is the Atari Portfolio from 1989 which is all the netbook you'd want to have powered by 3 AA batteries which would last for a week (and included a DOS compatible operating system with integrated wordprocessor and spreadsheet capabilities). I'd so like to see a device in this spirit with this possibilities build with bleeding edge technology - smartphones dig in this direction but the development is distracted by glossy displays, touchscreens and discussions about multitasking.
It seems like with .uality (the society is over.ed, underf***** and prude in a way that is even mysterious to some of the older generation) the society has soo much access to modern media, computers, cell phones and so on but only so little people really understand computers beyond the folder / file analogy. I'd like to enforce computer science in schools so much more beyond learning word and excel (and never hearing the tiniest bit of LaTeX). I'm frightened by the power one has knowing how to do linux servers and a bit about operating systems - as with every knowledge I don't believe having only a tiny fraction know about these things (and natuarally only an even smaller fraction cares for the others in a forgiving and loving way - the others use such powers in every possible way to make profit) will do humanity well.
So how do you feel about the developent of computing, computer science and knowledge about it in the broad society?
nick65go:
Hi, I am not happy about the general computing direction. I like the idea of tiny, small, very efficient software. This is the main goal that I am hanging here, to learn more about this lovely TC. I like also the Arch linux.
There is so much info about linux, kernels, packages , on the internet. It is shame that more distributions appears, but not much real value added. Just clones of others, some are mimics of ubuntu kinds.
Ubuntu, for example, 'fight' against M$windows, maybe not a bad idea, but not right direction. Energy is lost by not focus on tiny apps, but on integration like Gnome or KDE. Jut few kernel developers still program in ASM (machine assembly language).
(BTW did you try http://www.kolibrios.org/ as a prove of efficiency?)
The bad thing is that software developers concentrate on complex GUI, which depend on a lot of library. I think it is a deal in the background between hardware manufactures (to produce more powerful devices, new, expensive) and software developers (do not care about size, efficiency, as they have bigger resources HDD/CPU/RAM). Plus linux software is free, why try to optimize in advance? first make some software, and if it had success then maybe try improve something.
It is shame that linux is not massively learn in schools. It is still a jungle, world is dominated by money makers companies.
About privacy:
some government like to spy (hm, aka 'control') their people; by using close source you can not easy protect yourself, and government can enforce by law decryption / interception calls / monitoring (by pushing close source makers).
Think about what happens if some antisocial people could communicate very secure / cryptic... big pain in the ass for police ;) or maybe no blackmail business.
hiro:
I don't think people want more efficient software. They don't want to raise their productivity.
At least IT creates jobs.
Jakob Bysewski:
--- Quote ---At least IT creates jobs.
--- End quote ---
:D
This is not the kind of IT job I like doing...
I worked as system administrator for linux servers and windows clients for some time and I always got the best feeling in knowing I had satisfied a customer so he won't complain the same problem again - but you are right in that you can get the feeling a lot of companies are working the other way. But this seems like wasted time of manhood.
As a software developer I'm sometimes scared by the duplicity in a lot of open source projects but I also know that it's very hard to get into a project with more than some thousand lines of code - especially when no code style or patterns are enforced.
When we get to raised productivity I think a lot of people are really scared of loosing their jobs and being replaced by machines. While this is often bad for a single individual I tend to think humans can do better with their time on this planet than working with heavy machines in not so secure environments if robots can do the same thing easily. On the other hand mangers have to squeeze as much productivity and value for the stockholders as possible. In this case I think it's not always good to be more productive as this productivity is not to serve mankind but to serve the money and the greed for it.
tinypoodle:
--- Quote from: Jakob Bysewski on December 28, 2010, 01:44:35 AM ---Targeting slower, low spec (also low RAM) hardware is a side goal of mine
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So how do you feel about the developent of computing, computer science and knowledge about it in the broad society?
--- End quote ---
Excellent post, expressing me to a big part, only that I could never put it that well into words... :)
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