I’m a millennial but I didn’t own my own PC until I was like 21 (even then, half the parts in it were handmedowns from my Dad). I would have never been able to afford a laptop of the time. Computers are an expensive purchase all at once. Phones come with subsidized plans. That’s probably why you see a lot more bias towards them.
The 180€ Mini PC I have as torrenting server, NAS and TV Box (and it’s overkill for just that) says otherwise.
$300 will buy you a lot of Desktop PC nowadays if all you want is to browse the web and read emails (in fact that approx. $200 mini-PC of mine is more than enough if you’re running Linux on it as I do and if you add a simple monitor, keyboard and mouse you’re about $40 shy of $300).
A $300 PC is only shit if you’re trying to run things like AAA games on it or use Windows 11.
There used to be a point back in the day when you did need a good PC for things like document edition or watching videos, but now we’re well past the point where you needed anything more than the most basic PC for everyday stuff.
I dunno sort of have the opposite experience, up until this year I used a 2015 MacBook I found at a relatives house and Linux installed. Got me through college until I finally caved in and got a used thinkpad(13th gen) for $350. Phones are a whole different ballgame where as I can all day get a computer decent enough to use for $100. New phone ended up costing me 400 for enough storage
Yeah, I work in a making very high end scientific equipment. Almost almost the whole operation runs on Linux. All laptops are refurbished Thinkpads, and most desktops are pretty old and slow from a maimstream POV, but they are just fine for the task, and then some. My “new” laptop I got last summer is a 2018 laptop which cost 300€ refurbished.
If I can do decent science on that, I’m not sure what everyone else needs a 2000€ machine for.
I’m sure someone does, but I expect really they’re few and far between.
Yep. If you want a real computer instead of a cheap-ass disposable office machine, be prepared to spend quite a bit of money. That was a fact 20 years ago and is still true now. We had crappy sub-$500 E-machines and Gateway PCs in those days too.
I was surprised how many co-workers my age and younger (GenZ) don’t even own a laptop let alone a desktop.
I know it was becoming more niche, but didn’t expect it to happen that fast…
It’s weird that I had a tower desktop as a kid when it was niche, and I still have a tower desktop 35 years later when it’s niche again.
I’m a millennial but I didn’t own my own PC until I was like 21 (even then, half the parts in it were handmedowns from my Dad). I would have never been able to afford a laptop of the time. Computers are an expensive purchase all at once. Phones come with subsidized plans. That’s probably why you see a lot more bias towards them.
I think this and a 300 dollar phone tends to work fine, a 300 dollar computer is absolute shit.
The 180€ Mini PC I have as torrenting server, NAS and TV Box (and it’s overkill for just that) says otherwise.
$300 will buy you a lot of Desktop PC nowadays if all you want is to browse the web and read emails (in fact that approx. $200 mini-PC of mine is more than enough if you’re running Linux on it as I do and if you add a simple monitor, keyboard and mouse you’re about $40 shy of $300).
A $300 PC is only shit if you’re trying to run things like AAA games on it or use Windows 11.
There used to be a point back in the day when you did need a good PC for things like document edition or watching videos, but now we’re well past the point where you needed anything more than the most basic PC for everyday stuff.
I dunno sort of have the opposite experience, up until this year I used a 2015 MacBook I found at a relatives house and Linux installed. Got me through college until I finally caved in and got a used thinkpad(13th gen) for $350. Phones are a whole different ballgame where as I can all day get a computer decent enough to use for $100. New phone ended up costing me 400 for enough storage
You, sir, need to see what an Optiplex 7040 can do.
Yeah, I work in a making very high end scientific equipment. Almost almost the whole operation runs on Linux. All laptops are refurbished Thinkpads, and most desktops are pretty old and slow from a maimstream POV, but they are just fine for the task, and then some. My “new” laptop I got last summer is a 2018 laptop which cost 300€ refurbished.
If I can do decent science on that, I’m not sure what everyone else needs a 2000€ machine for.
I’m sure someone does, but I expect really they’re few and far between.
Yep. If you want a real computer instead of a cheap-ass disposable office machine, be prepared to spend quite a bit of money. That was a fact 20 years ago and is still true now. We had crappy sub-$500 E-machines and Gateway PCs in those days too.