Am I an old millenial because I have a desktop and find even a laptop too restrictive?
Phone = small
Tablet = medium
Desktop = big
Laptop = worst mashup of everything
laptops are great when you need to be mobile with your set up, lugging an entire PC back and forth between places is a bit of a chore yk
I’ve had a windows tablet for this reason.
It’s great if I’m at home and want something compact to watch stuff in bed, but I can also grab it in a backpack with a low profile keyboard and mouse and now I have the weight of something like a netbook but more powerful.
there’s still the niche of people who work with graphics who need to be mobile (a lot of photographers & filmmakers, and quite the number of people who work with 2D & 3D graphics).
powerful laptops are not something bad, you’re just not the target audience
Oh for sure, I am not questioning the need for more powerful tablets if it fits your work/life style.
I do think that a lighter weight tablet would probably be better for a lot of people who don’t necessarily need GPU tasks/intensive CPU tasks on the go.
Laptops allow you to have LAN parties every single day
thats why i have a streaming server on my desktop. the laptop feels crazy fast if i have good internet on the go, at the much lower cost of a desktop.
Nah depends. On laptop. Decent specs and 15,6" screen is really great if you’re out of your house. But if there is a pc next to it that is better of course. I would say tablet is the worst of everything. Big ass phone with noe real features over phoke except larger screen. What the fuck you even do with that except browse internet? Laptop on the other hand has bunch of io ports and can be used for engineering work and with cars and for programming
What the fuck you even do with that except browse internet?
Binge-watch Stargate while sitting 7 hours in a train.
I mean fair enough
Or read Manga/eBooks, take notes using a stylus + note taking app, play video games using PlayStation Remote Play, etc. I also use Samsung Dex for playing movies on TVs while traveling.
Indeed.
Solid use case 👍.
Exactly right. Big laptops are great. My desktop monitors are even more bigasser
When do we finally get phones with a full Linux OS that you can plug into a docking station with monitors, keyboard and mouse attached?
I’ve been waiting for this for 15 years.I’m in my 40’s and haven’t bought a laptop yet. The need has never come up. I do purchases and all serious browsing on my desktop because big monitor and good focused seating position. Every time I have somehow had to use a laptop has been uncomfortable. They are slow, the screen is too small, pointing and clicking takes forever unless you connect a mouse, the ergonomics is just terrible.
I’m almost 40 and just got my first laptop for work recently. I find myself creating and editing documents on my desktop and only using the laptop to view them and to make some minor corrections while away from the desktop. I could do that more comfortably with a tablet tbh.
It does help if the laptop has touchscreen though. I hate trackpads and will never get used to them.
I love my laptop
Nope, Tablets are the worse of all worlds.
Can’t run a proper OS for getting things done, too big to make phone calls on.
Attaching a keyboard and mouse to one is basically saying what you really need is a laptop.
Phone = small, always attached screen.
Laptop = medium, portable screen that conveniently comes with keyboard and mouse
Desktop = large, multiple screens, for srsbsns
I am a young Gen X and i am the same way.
Young Gen X is starting to become an oxymoron. I’m there too.
Back in the 90s my grandpa had the webtv. He said his computer monitor was too small. We thought he was a fucking lunatic.
He was a fucking lunatic. The TV screen may have been physically larger, but the resolution was shit and the WebTV’s browser was shit.
Same. I ended up getting a laptop with a docking station and it’s a decent compromise.
Coward. Build your own PC and you can have every everything for half the price (especially if you can get your work to issue you a laptop and docking station for work stuff)
But can I sit on the couch and play games on my lap with a built PC
Yep, just run an HDMI cable from your PC to your TV or run a CAT6 to a Steam Link (some some similar bit of hardware) and you’re good to go
Yeah, I have a desktop for the heavy lifting and phone for whatever on the go. Laptop just feels like an unfortunate compromise.
Desktops are the most restrictive, the ONLY way to use it to say at some desk or whatever. I can use my laptop anywhere inside the house, outside the house, around the house, under the house, on the couch, on the stairs, in my bed, in the car, sitting, standing, walking, hanging upside down, lying, crying, flying or dying.
I have a desktop because I find a laptop too restrictive (but I don’t really game or anything) and I book travel on my phone
this only makes sense to me if your laptop screen is like 480p
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UI end up using my phone more than my pc now a days and I don’t own a tablet or laptop. Why would I want either of those things?Having a physical keyboard might let you spell the word “I” correctly, for one.
NO U
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I’m a big purchase desktop kinda person, but there are always Bluetooth physical keyboards you can use with your phone. There are even nifty folding ones that can fit in your pocket.
Ya, but if I’m gonna do that, then I may as well just buy a mechanical Bluetooth one and sling it around with me all day. I only keep 4 things in my pockets my keys, my wallet, my phone, and my pepperspray or gun, depending on how I’m feeling that day(I don’t just have it loose i use a pocket holster).
To each their own, as long as you know you’ve got options.
Yes, because only people on phones or other devices without a physical keyboard make typos. And you have definitely never ever made a mistake in your life. Right?
It was just an offhand joke that I couldn’t resist, no offense intended. I guess quick access to emoji to convey tone is one point for phones!
If you don’t want a laptop that’s fine, more power to you. That said, you can at least acknowledge that many people would be able to perform some tasks much faster and more reliably with a laptop.
I just want to find the best price for the most quality, and I’m not about to do extensive research on a screen the size of a coffee cup
This is it exactly. Touch screen interfaces feel too clunky or imprecise to quickly search for a lot of stuff. Maybe it’s because there is an animation between every action like switching tabs it’s not a quick thing to do and multiple on screen windows is not an option.
My phone is for chatting, videos, and Lemmy/mastodon.
Yes, but for some of us a laptop is too expensive for something that isn’t a necessity rush. Phones are also quite expensive, but are nearly required in today’s society.
I think for probably close to a decade now, the phones I’ve bought have consistently been more expensive than the laptops I’ve bought… and I don’t buy expensive phones.
I’ve never spent less than $500 on a laptop, and I’ve never spent more than $500 on a phone. I buy both refurbished.
I’ve spent less on both, and more on laptops. I’ve bought at least 7 laptops over the past 20 years. Have never spent more than $300 on a phone though.
Not sure why you’re being downvoted. This meme is correct but most activity happens on phones these days because most of the world can’t afford more than one device.
It’s also why phones, including cheap ones are so oversized :(( If it’s your only device, you don’t want a small one
I want a big screen so I don’t miss the fine print, terms and conditions, opt-ins, opt-outs, and hidden fees they’re hoping I won’t notice. On a small screen, it’s too easy to scroll past that shit. I wouldn’t be surprised if web pages were deliberately formatted in a way that makes those things easy to miss, while just barely staying within the bounds of the law.
This.
Plus, if you need to check the price on multiple airlines or services, switching back and forth between multiple tabs is so much easier on a laptop (or even…a desktop with multiple monitors gasp, clutching pearls).
Plus plus, it’s so much faster and easier to type in all your info on a real keyboard (or maybe that’s just me showing my age)
In addition, I want to use tools like Seat Guru to know if there are serious issues with the seat I’m about to choose. And, with a lot of those tools it’s easiest if you have the booking website open next to the tool (say Seat Guru) website. If you have to switch back and forth you need to remember details like “it’s seat 26A on a 737-MAX”. If you can have both open side-by-side you can glance from one window over to the other one.
You still fly on 737s?
Why, is seat 26A on a 737-MAX a bad seat for some reason?
It’s no worse than any other seat on a 737, so far as I know. But it seems that every airline disaster in the news for the last several years has involved a 737. Based on that alone, I wouldn’t willingly get on one. Not any Boeing aircraft, if I’m being honest.
Seat 26A might be slightly worse than other seats, actually.
Great gods, you’re right. Also, there’s nothing in that article that makes me feel safe about any 737.
Seat guru is just commercialized ticket scalpers. Enjoy getting scammazed
Why would you think I’m buying a ticket there? I’m just talking about looking up good seats.
That certainly makes you a certain type of person, but I think the type transcends the generations
Nah I just need to be able to press tab when filling out fields
Typing on a phone is horrible. If I need to fill any kind of form, it’s happening on a computer.
Also my computer doesn’t auto"correct".
My phone also doesn’t, because it can be turned off.
That’s great, but there’s a reason autocorrect is more prevalent on phones than on computers, that being that input it not as precise, and when precision for inputs is important (like in buying flight tickets), I just prefer the computer.
Not that I haven’t bought tickets on the phone in my life. Just feels safer on computer
I thought that you meant that your computer doesn’t have autocorrect as a good thing as opposed to the phone. That’s certainly the first thing I turn off on my phone because it’s shit.
Yeah it does, you are just using it wrong
Most importantly, phones are shitto compare stuff. Or multitask.
Currently using scrcpy but beforebthat I got so pissed off with texting on my phone that I would have a text file synced to my phone with syncthing and farted about with copying & pasting it on my phone. Gnna have another go at getting gsconnect working in Gnome tho. Fuck phones though, for many reasons.
A lot of mobile sites are so awful to use and laggy I am convinced companies behind them don’t want you to use them too.
It’s actually the opposite. They’re laggy because they have so much bloat to track you, to advertise to you, to steal your identity - they absolutely want you to use them.
Also Desktop users are far more likely to use an ad blocker. Breaks most of the bloat.
Also Desktop users are far more likely to use an ad blocker. Breaks most of the bloat.
Firefox mobile app ftw
Or they want me to use the app🤮
downloads the “app”
looks inside
web wrapper
They don’t want you to use the website they want you to download their crappy app which has no actual additional features over the website except they can track you more.
Yep. Images are better, text isn’t as hidden, form fill is better on a desktop browser. It’s just better on a desktop with a big screen.
It isn’t the screen that is the reason, it is being able to use keyboard and mouse
And since they said laptop they possibly mean shitty keyboard and shitty trackpad. Desktop ftw.
Only if you buy a shitty laptop. This is why I only buy old Thinkpad T-series (that and awesome Linux compatibility)
Hell the keyboard case for my OnePlus Pad is better than some cheap laptop keyboards.
Old thinkpads have a tiny shitty trackpad and the keyboard isn’t that good.
Which keyboard you talking about here? The epic IBM Thinkpad keyboard that Lenovo replaced with chicklets around the T430/530 era? The best laptop keyboard ever?
Even the modern ThinkPads don’t have particularly good keyboards. They are serviceable I guess, but they’re not great.
T-Series, specifically, as the business/productivity line of laptops, usually has a pretty good keyboard, IMO. I’ve got a 440p, a 460, and a 495s, and I’ve been happy with all of them.
We use those for work and I’m happy in general, but why the fuck must they “innovate” by swapping Ctrl and Fn???
It’s such a shitty design choice that messes my workflow every time I go from dock with a normal keyboard to using the laptop alone.
You can soft-swap their location in bios settings.
I will only send SMS on a mainframe running kdeconnect.
I do it with an even shittier folding keyboard & trackpad, on my phone, plugged into a monitor. COME AT ME
The bigger the purchase, the bigger the screen required. I’ll buy a cheeseburger on my watch. If I ever buy a house, I’ll need a jumbotron.
Houses have to be done in person so the screen is both your eyeballs.
Even though it’s far harder to read through 7,000 pages of legalese you have no ability to read regardless. Can’t Ctrl+F ‘First born child’.
I could probably put up all 7,000 pages on my jumbotron.
If the same shit keeps happening, they will never let you buy a house!
Always book flights in private mode, the shit they do with cookies is insane
Wasn’t that workaround proven not to work?
It’ll work to some degree, but with retailers using price discrimination they’ll give you prices based on many factors that they think will get them the most money.
Also consider:
- iPhones and MacBooks are an indicator of wealth, crank up those prices
- location is another significant indicator. Live in the Bay Area? You rich, you can probably afford higher prices. Bay Area MacBook? Chriiiiist gonna rinse you dry.
- browser fingerprinting bypasses cookies and is the same in incognito and regular tabs.
OK, so you should spoof your hardware to get the best prices? And use a VPN to poor city?
Prolly, you have any documentation?
what about the firefox tab containers?
Big Purchases need big price-compares that are best suited for The Big Screen
Extra tabs help a lot
My reason is that I’m less likely to make a mistake on the computer.
- larger screen
- physical keyboard and actual mouse
- no chance of a random call or notification covering half the screen
Or more simply
- its easier to do things on the computer, so sensitive tasks are easier to do on the computer
Making any purchase in my phone gives me anxiety. But the true psychopaths buy shit over the smart TV / fire stick, especially with one click purchases. Or Alexa… shudders
I can sort of understand smart TV assuming its an app like Amazon but Alexa? Fucking Alexa buying shit that you simply ask with no visual confirmation? That is undebatable psychopathic behaviour. I heard about asking Alexa to add something to shopping cart like a notepad but never knew it can actually buy things for you.
Alexa is dangerous, too. Friends and I were on discord and a friend of mine uses speakers for his audio. Well, we found out how Alexa could hear us and, the natural next step was for me to shout out “Alexa, order me 100 diaper wipes!” And other fun things and it did it. He was able to shout back to cancel it (I presume from his kitchen or bathroom, it sounded distant). That was fun, haha (and he’s a good sport, he thought it was funny and promptly turned that feature off).
Yeah, one of the setup steps is a recommended option to add a code for purchases. That’s kinda on him.
My dad used to speak louder when the person on the other end of the phone was calling from further away geographically. I remember coming home from school once and he was screaming into the phone because his friend had called from Canada.
Was your father a Navy vet? The Navy has/(had?) voice powered phones on the ships, so that was literally how it worked. The farther away the other phone was, the louder you had to shout.
That’s interesting. He wasn’t in the navy but his first job was passing tools to telecoms engineers in the 60s. Maybe they were using something similar…
The phones were powered by voice? Wasn’t it just that the amplifiers weren’t very good.
Technically yeah your voice has power because it’s moving air around, but it’s a microscopic amount of energy. If you hold a piece of paper up in front of your mouth and just speak normally it will barely move, even if you yell it hardly goes anywhere. There’s more energy in a calm breeze.
Ex-navy electrician here. They use a microphone transducer to convert sound pressure from your voice into electric current. They convert it back to sound by a transducer at the receiver node. The Navy still uses it because it doesn’t require any outside electricity which is prefect for emergencies.
Fun fact, one of the things we’d do to haze new recruits is to send them to the ICmen to ask for a sound powered telephone battery.
My dad still does this. He yells into the phone (on speaker) as if he was screaming for his life. He’s a successful businessman whose sole job is to talk to people and somehow convince them to work together or win a project over. I don’t know how he does this by yelling into his phone as if he was shouting at strangers to call an ambulance. He also has hardly any knowledge of English and his German really sucks, yet he mostly works with these two languages. I don’t know how he makes it work. And he hates talking on the phone because it stresses him out. But somehow addressing the fact he is trying to make crocodile dundee hear him when he uses a phone doesn’t seem to be the answer to his stress.
He grew up in a remote soviet village with like one phone for everyone. My guess is the connection back in the days sucked and he never adjusted.
Your dad sounds hilarious!
He is, in a very weird and awkward way. My favorite story is how he called home from a work trip (it was somewhen before the internet, late 90s/early 2000s) and just told me to put my mom on the phone because Gorbachev wants to say hi to her. I delivered the message, having no clue who that guy is but I guessed some former classmate, while my mom was losing it and totally froze on the phone. Turned out my dad randomly met Gorbachev at a restaurant, befriended him, got drunk with him (well, my dad doesn’t drink, but the other guy), and then he was so eager to call my mother that they picked up the phone of the restaurant/bar in Russia and called Germany via landline. Both yelled their souls out on the phone, I’m not sure they would have needed a landline to reach us.
Years later they passed each other at the airport, my dad thought of saying hi, but assumed he wouldn’t remember him. But Gorbachev turned around, yelled my dad’s name, and hugged him.
My dad is really not a social guy and has no friends but business trips bring out a weird ass impressive side of him.
This is likely an unconscious throwback to his youth.
I grew up on an acreage that still had older phone lines. And long distance used to be super spotty at times. Speaking louder used to be literally necessary to get past the static and interference in long distance calls.
It’s amazing how far communications have come even since the 80s when I was a kid.
Ok, but did he do that weird thing where he would wait to pick up the phone between rings?
Yes, he did!
There was a podcast where a host said she realized she was no longer the target market when she booted up the laptop to go to a certain store. She realized it was phone app only.
Oof. That had to hurt.
You need a real computer to do real work.
If you had seen the birth and growth of Android from its early days to now, you’d be leery about relying on phones for anything involving three figures or more, too.
I don’t even like doing stuff on a laptop. That’s what desktops are for. Desktops == real and important computer tasks… and gaming. LAPTOPS == paid work and … like watching netflex when I’m on business trips. phone == … toilet time internet browsing? Phones aren’t good for much.
I use a desktop and a tablet. Work laptop doesnt count. My phone is just a camera, I have a smart watch with a data plan for nfc paying, texting, weather, etc.
