Most people don’t need a machine, they just need a thin client
Amazing how we’re come full circle
Brkdncr@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I’ll repeat what I said elsewhere:
Renting PCs is probably overall cheaper and a lot better for the environment. Most people don’t need a machine, they just need a thin client and something to access a few apps maybe 30 mins a day.
Even “power users” don’t need a machine.
If there were a non-profit or not-for-profit that was selling maybe an rpi we’d be saving a lot of money and reducing climate harm.
I just don’t trust bezos to not be greedy.
irmadlad@lemmy.world 2 days ago
SilentObserver@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Right! I had no idea Bezos used Lemmy either!
Broken_Window@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
How do you do, my fellow progressives? Did you know that renting everything instead of ownership is good for the planet? You should rent an apartment NOW! Oh, and throw out that rusty old PS2. You get a lot more value if you buy our monthly Amazon Gaming Plus subscription (you also get 30 second ads instead of a full minute ones! What a crazy value!)
irmadlad@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I mean, of course Bezos wants to rent you a cloud PC. Bezos would sell your shit back to you if he thought there was a market. Hell, I’d sell your shit back to you if I thought you’d buy it. When I see headlines like these I think ‘Well…duh’.
Euphoma@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
This pretty much already exists as the business model for web based apps and chromebooks, but it doesn’t work for all types of apps which is why chromebooks added android and linux app support
Brkdncr@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Desktop streaming isn’t the same as web apps.
Euphoma@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
Its the same idea of putting compute in datacenters
Auli@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
what a bunch of bullshit. Act like the individuals are responsible and ignore the massive data centers that would be required using water and power.
timmytbt@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
If only “greedy” was his only problem!
RamRabbit@lemmy.world 2 days ago
This assumes we have amazing internet all the time. I sure don’t.
This assumes latency between your location and the remote location is almost non-existent. It isn’t.
This assumes I will be able to use the cloud computer in every way I use my current computer. It won’t.
This assumes, as you point out, they won’t be greedy once they control everyone’s machines. They will.
Brkdncr@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Modern desktop streaming is quite impressive. 100ms, 5% loss is no problem for most tasks. You don’t even notice it, and as a result your experience can sometimes be better.
Additionally you can offload some tasks to the local machine where appropriate.
You dont need to fit every users needs into a thin client setup, but you could fit probably 50% of all users onto one and they wouldn’t know any different. Think of the energy savings. Think of all that plastic that goes into a desktop or laptop that isn’t needed in a virtualized blade chassis. Think of the rolling performance upgrades. Think of never having your hardware go End of Support. Think of the old equipment that ends up properly e-wasted instead of shoved into a dump. Think of the batteries that no longer need to get produced.
I might play around with this idea and host my own non-profit Desktop as a Service.
tal@lemmy.today 2 days ago
I will say that, realistically, in terms purely of physical distance, a lot of the world’s population is in a city and probably isn’t too far from a datacenter.
calculatorshub.net/…/fiber-latency-calculator/
It’s about five microseconds of latency per kilometer down fiber optics. Ten microseconds for a round-trip.
I think a larger issue might be bandwidth for some applications. Like, if you want to unicast uncompressed video to every computer user, say, you’re going to need an ungodly amount of bandwidth.
DisplayPort looks like it’s currently up to 80Gb/sec. Okay, not everyone is currently saturating that, but if you want comparable capability, that’s what you’re going to have to be moving from a datacenter to every user. For video alone. And that’s assuming that they don’t have multiple monitors or something.