it's a tablet with actual joystick and button input, instead of touch screen garbage. And honestly, that alone sounds like everything I've ever wanted from a tablet.
Didn't the Archos GamePad, the NVIDIA Shield, and a bunch of Android tablets by JXD do that?
If there isn't enough demand for low end computers they'll just disappear
Exactly my point. The market will have locked down appliances at the low end and high end general purpose computers at the high end. This spells trouble for anybody who wants to make the transition from tasks that can be done on a locked down appliance to tasks that require a general purpose computer.
The fear is that low end builds will rise to the price of high end builds as the majority of the low end market switches to a phone, tablet, or Chromebook as a daily driver.
My only cheap computers are an old Netbook I didn't have the heart to get rid of, and a Chromebook I take to breakfast. Those are cheap and I don't care if they are lost or get stolen.
With 10.1" netbooks becoming harder to find as manufacturers make 11.6" their smallest size, I do care if mine gets stolen.
if you imagine the development server being as locked down as a Chromebook or iDevice
By this, do you mean incapable of running programs in any language other than JavaScript?
an era when leaving Firefox open for a day with 20 or so tabs open seems to result in it eating 4+Gb of memory
Do you have privacy.trackingprotection.enabled turned on? It turns off scripts that track the user from one site to another, which tend to be big RAM hogs in my experience.
PCs with Windows 7 that remain disconnected from the Internet won't stop working. But if such a PC is connected to the Internet, an intruder could exploit a forever-day vulnerability in Windows 7 and thereby cause Windows 7 to stop working.
It's bigger. How can I determine before committing to buy it whether it will fit into my satchel? I currently carry a Dell Inspiron mini 1012, but I'm trying to keep my options open once it finally dies.
My parents forbade 22-years-ago me to apply for a paper route. I don't know whether my parents would have allowed 22-years-ago me to mow lawns or rake leaves for strangers, but January is not the month for either.
You could, in theory, use your Chromebook as-is in the future, with a third party, locked down, server that has an IDE on it, to develop Android apps.
But how would one connect to this server while riding the bus? Wi-Fi doesn't hand off nearly fast enough in my experience, and switching from cable Internet at home to cellular Internet everywhere would reduce my monthly data transfer quota from 1000 GB per month to 5 GB per month.
What? Is Peter Noone from Herman's Hermits the new Chuck Norris?
If you meant "no one", then ability to run multiple games at once means you can do split screen co-op more easily instead of having to buy a separate machine for each player.
Rendering wise, was indered by internet if we talk remote computing.
It still is, at $5 to $10 per GB over cellular if you want to do anything on a tablet or laptop while at from home.
True of x86 and x86-64 Windows tablets, not so true of anything with an ARM CPU. Windows RT and Windows Phone are deliberately locked down to prevent, say, a compiler from running on the device.
I grew up in the 90s, and compilers were too expensive for a child. A single release of a crappy 16-bit compiler cost a quarter what the computer shared by the whole family cost, so it was like a combined birthdaychristmas present to get just one of them.
Turbo Pascal ad Turbo C were $99.
Key word: "child". When I was growing up, $99 was a combined birthday and Christmas present. And it was a crime for anyone to employ me.
The problem comes once the loss of economies of scale make it no longer profitable to market PCs to individuals. Then you'll have to be in "academic and industry work" just to afford one.
The problem comes when someone wants to try doing "so much more than just programming" for the first time but can't afford $2000 for what will have by then become a niche product. We already saw this with the discontinuation of netbooks at the end of 2012, for example. A warranted 10 inch laptop suddenly went from $300 to thrice that.
Developing for iOS requires "no capital" only if you already develop apps for macOS. Otherwise you need to replace your PC with one made by Apple because Xcode is exclusive to macOS, and macOS is exclusive to Apple hardware.
Around 2008-2011, there used to be 10 inch laptops with an Atom CPU for $200 to $300. These were usable for even lightweight programming, as a suitable font size choice on the 1024x600 pixel display allowed viewing the program and its output side by side. Now PC makers won't touch that form factor, instead making more expensive tablets that need a clip-on keyboard (sold separately) for the same use cases.
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it's a tablet with actual joystick and button input, instead of touch screen garbage. And honestly, that alone sounds like everything I've ever wanted from a tablet.
Didn't the Archos GamePad, the NVIDIA Shield, and a bunch of Android tablets by JXD do that?
If there isn't enough demand for low end computers they'll just disappear
Exactly my point. The market will have locked down appliances at the low end and high end general purpose computers at the high end. This spells trouble for anybody who wants to make the transition from tasks that can be done on a locked down appliance to tasks that require a general purpose computer.
I'll think I'll write an app where you talk, it then produces text
That'd be a killer app. Double the killer, in fact.
The fear is that low end builds will rise to the price of high end builds as the majority of the low end market switches to a phone, tablet, or Chromebook as a daily driver.
My only cheap computers are an old Netbook I didn't have the heart to get rid of, and a Chromebook I take to breakfast. Those are cheap and I don't care if they are lost or get stolen.
With 10.1" netbooks becoming harder to find as manufacturers make 11.6" their smallest size, I do care if mine gets stolen.
That said, why would you cancel your cable Internet for this?
A lot of people have to choose one or the other because they can't afford both $60/mo cable Internet and $60/mo cellular Internet. See the previous Slashdot story "Americans Abandoning Wired Home Internet, Shows Study".
if you imagine the development server being as locked down as a Chromebook or iDevice
By this, do you mean incapable of running programs in any language other than JavaScript?
an era when leaving Firefox open for a day with 20 or so tabs open seems to result in it eating 4+Gb of memory
Do you have privacy.trackingprotection.enabled turned on? It turns off scripts that track the user from one site to another, which tend to be big RAM hogs in my experience.
PCs with Windows 7 that remain disconnected from the Internet won't stop working. But if such a PC is connected to the Internet, an intruder could exploit a forever-day vulnerability in Windows 7 and thereby cause Windows 7 to stop working.
10 inch
11.6"
It's bigger. How can I determine before committing to buy it whether it will fit into my satchel? I currently carry a Dell Inspiron mini 1012, but I'm trying to keep my options open once it finally dies.
My parents forbade 22-years-ago me to apply for a paper route. I don't know whether my parents would have allowed 22-years-ago me to mow lawns or rake leaves for strangers, but January is not the month for either.
I would recommend only hiring freelancers that have a few completed jobs with good feedback.
If everyone followed your recommendation, how would freelancers find "a few completed jobs" and earn "good feedback" in the first place?
But was it practical to use debug to write programs and sell copies in order to fund your purchase of a C compiler?
You could, in theory, use your Chromebook as-is in the future, with a third party, locked down, server that has an IDE on it, to develop Android apps.
But how would one connect to this server while riding the bus? Wi-Fi doesn't hand off nearly fast enough in my experience, and switching from cable Internet at home to cellular Internet everywhere would reduce my monthly data transfer quota from 1000 GB per month to 5 GB per month.
Let me know when Visual Studio is ported to a smartphone.
noone plays 3 games at once.
What? Is Peter Noone from Herman's Hermits the new Chuck Norris?
If you meant "no one", then ability to run multiple games at once means you can do split screen co-op more easily instead of having to buy a separate machine for each player.
Rendering wise, was indered by internet if we talk remote computing.
It still is, at $5 to $10 per GB over cellular if you want to do anything on a tablet or laptop while at from home.
They will be programmed using the tools available to experienced professionals at established businesses.
True of x86 and x86-64 Windows tablets, not so true of anything with an ARM CPU. Windows RT and Windows Phone are deliberately locked down to prevent, say, a compiler from running on the device.
"Connected" just means more rent paid to the cellular carriers.
Just that computer cost me almost 3 thousand dollars. I didn't blink either - it was a cost of doing business.
Key word: "business". If you're not using a $2000 to $3000 machine as part of a for-profit venture or registered charity, it becomes cost-prohibitive.
I grew up in the 90s, and compilers were too expensive for a child. A single release of a crappy 16-bit compiler cost a quarter what the computer shared by the whole family cost, so it was like a combined birthdaychristmas present to get just one of them.
Turbo Pascal ad Turbo C were $99.
Key word: "child". When I was growing up, $99 was a combined birthday and Christmas present. And it was a crime for anyone to employ me.
The problem comes once the loss of economies of scale make it no longer profitable to market PCs to individuals. Then you'll have to be in "academic and industry work" just to afford one.
The problem comes when someone wants to try doing "so much more than just programming" for the first time but can't afford $2000 for what will have by then become a niche product. We already saw this with the discontinuation of netbooks at the end of 2012, for example. A warranted 10 inch laptop suddenly went from $300 to thrice that.
What do professionals plan to do roughly three years from now once Windows 7 no longer receives security updates?
Developing for iOS requires "no capital" only if you already develop apps for macOS. Otherwise you need to replace your PC with one made by Apple because Xcode is exclusive to macOS, and macOS is exclusive to Apple hardware.
All Android devices run Linux.
Around 2008-2011, there used to be 10 inch laptops with an Atom CPU for $200 to $300. These were usable for even lightweight programming, as a suitable font size choice on the 1024x600 pixel display allowed viewing the program and its output side by side. Now PC makers won't touch that form factor, instead making more expensive tablets that need a clip-on keyboard (sold separately) for the same use cases.