The enshittification of computer repair is happening.
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The enshittification of computer repair is happening.
AI has amazingly managed to make repairable computers practically worthless.
The increase in memory and storage pricing is destroying the second-hand market for computing hardware and this makes me sad. I watched a video from someone that runs a repair shop, and this is what's happening:
The memory/storage alone is worth more than the rest of the computer, so people are stripping them out to sell separately.
The second hand market is now flooded with computers that have no memory or storage. Buying new memory or storage to put in these used computers is now more expensive than buying a new computer.
So we now suddenly have a giant e-waste problem PLUS a giant problem for repair shops that want to stay in business.
In the video, he was basically saying that they have to pivot to the only computers that folks aren't stripping RAM and storage out of - computers that have those things soldered on. The irony here is that repair shops now have to ignore the most repairable computers and focus on the least repairable computers instead.
@sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit that‘s why: fuck „ai“
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The enshittification of computer repair is happening.
AI has amazingly managed to make repairable computers practically worthless.
The increase in memory and storage pricing is destroying the second-hand market for computing hardware and this makes me sad. I watched a video from someone that runs a repair shop, and this is what's happening:
The memory/storage alone is worth more than the rest of the computer, so people are stripping them out to sell separately.
The second hand market is now flooded with computers that have no memory or storage. Buying new memory or storage to put in these used computers is now more expensive than buying a new computer.
So we now suddenly have a giant e-waste problem PLUS a giant problem for repair shops that want to stay in business.
In the video, he was basically saying that they have to pivot to the only computers that folks aren't stripping RAM and storage out of - computers that have those things soldered on. The irony here is that repair shops now have to ignore the most repairable computers and focus on the least repairable computers instead.
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@sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit soldered RAM has upsides like better bandwidth, especially in the DDR5 era. I'm so glad I bought a maxed out T14s gen 6 AMD right before the shortages started. I was intentionally avoiding slotted RAM in my upgrade because I'd rather have faster memory and I would've maxed it out as soon as possible anyway. SODIMMs need to go in the mobile space, they just can't get the necessary signal integrity and take up extra space, and there are alternatives out there on the horizon that solve these issues. On destkop side, DDR5 has been a nightmare to deal with and it took years for CPU vendors to write proper code to train and handle RAM that doesn't cause multi minute training times at random and even a shot at faster speeds.
@tofu @sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit
"the headphone jack NEEDS to go"
"X11 NEEDS to go"
"slotted ram NEEDS to go"I respect this kind of opinions but I'd rather have the choice. Not everyone needs ultra low latency, one of my workstations still uses DDR3 and for my tasks (programming, Internet surfing, music/photo management and general productivity) works very well.
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@ferrix @sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit yes please
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@tofu @sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit
"the headphone jack NEEDS to go"
"X11 NEEDS to go"
"slotted ram NEEDS to go"I respect this kind of opinions but I'd rather have the choice. Not everyone needs ultra low latency, one of my workstations still uses DDR3 and for my tasks (programming, Internet surfing, music/photo management and general productivity) works very well.
@emilianosandri @tofu @sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit for what Bluetooth, CAMM, and X12.
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@emilianosandri @tofu @sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit for what Bluetooth, CAMM, and X12.
@jamesb192 @tofu @sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit Bluetooth has many annoyances (manly another battery to manage when I already have multiple battery powered devices to charge) so I'd rather keep the jack as a choice... not sure if a serious X12 exists but if they actually develop something that keeps X11 strengths while mitigating its drawbacks I'll be happy to use it compared to the radical change which is Wayland.
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@tofu @sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit
"the headphone jack NEEDS to go"
"X11 NEEDS to go"
"slotted ram NEEDS to go"I respect this kind of opinions but I'd rather have the choice. Not everyone needs ultra low latency, one of my workstations still uses DDR3 and for my tasks (programming, Internet surfing, music/photo management and general productivity) works very well.
@emilianosandri again, this is within the context of laptops, and memory bandwidth is crucial for things as common as integrated graphics.
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@emilianosandri again, this is within the context of laptops, and memory bandwidth is crucial for things as common as integrated graphics.
@tofu I used laptop with slotted RAM since late 2000s and never had graphical issues. You may need cutting edge performance and I respect that sis but why should we take away the choice in favor of something considered "superior" by enthusiasts?
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@tofu I used laptop with slotted RAM since late 2000s and never had graphical issues. You may need cutting edge performance and I respect that sis but why should we take away the choice in favor of something considered "superior" by enthusiasts?
@emilianosandri You'd be stuck with slots that require low clocks to maintain signal integrity. My point is that this is specific to DDR5 and the reality of it as someone who's used it for years at this point and ran into nightmares related to it. The downside with laptops is that you basically have to fork out money up front and the vendor charges you for RAM, and that the lower configurations become worthless. I'm assuming that trying to upgrade those would be pretty obnoxious with having to source ram, do BGA soldering and then figure out the SPD part..
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@jamesb192 @tofu @sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit Bluetooth has many annoyances (manly another battery to manage when I already have multiple battery powered devices to charge) so I'd rather keep the jack as a choice... not sure if a serious X12 exists but if they actually develop something that keeps X11 strengths while mitigating its drawbacks I'll be happy to use it compared to the radical change which is Wayland.
@emilianosandri @tofu @sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit I'm sure they will start working on more of X12 than the single document just as soon as the fix all the fires in X11. By which point Wayland will cover all of X12s bullet points better.
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@emilianosandri @tofu @sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit I'm sure they will start working on more of X12 than the single document just as soon as the fix all the fires in X11. By which point Wayland will cover all of X12s bullet points better.
@jamesb192 @emilianosandri @sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit wayland realistically needs a punchole like gamescope to be realistically usable. I'd call it a downgrade myself, but I decided to move over just to avoid the pains of dealing with an unsupported platform even if X11 is superior.
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@emilianosandri @tofu @sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit I'm sure they will start working on more of X12 than the single document just as soon as the fix all the fires in X11. By which point Wayland will cover all of X12s bullet points better.
@jamesb192 @tofu @sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit Wayland and X11 have very different philosophies, the fact that in Wayland you basically have to build your own compositor brings challenges unique to it and makes smaller window manager harder to implement reinforcing GNOME/KDE duopoly
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@jamesb192 @tofu @sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit Wayland and X11 have very different philosophies, the fact that in Wayland you basically have to build your own compositor brings challenges unique to it and makes smaller window manager harder to implement reinforcing GNOME/KDE duopoly
@emilianosandri @jamesb192 @sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit That and the fact that even with wlroots you have to crank out boilerplate code to support extensions to get basic functionality are ruining it. Then you have forced vsync that's causing issues as well as the higher memory footprint and having to give it some GPU resources. If you use any X11 software within wayland, you'll have a spare X11 server running in the background. Gamescope? Another one gets added into the mix.
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The enshittification of computer repair is happening.
AI has amazingly managed to make repairable computers practically worthless.
The increase in memory and storage pricing is destroying the second-hand market for computing hardware and this makes me sad. I watched a video from someone that runs a repair shop, and this is what's happening:
The memory/storage alone is worth more than the rest of the computer, so people are stripping them out to sell separately.
The second hand market is now flooded with computers that have no memory or storage. Buying new memory or storage to put in these used computers is now more expensive than buying a new computer.
So we now suddenly have a giant e-waste problem PLUS a giant problem for repair shops that want to stay in business.
In the video, he was basically saying that they have to pivot to the only computers that folks aren't stripping RAM and storage out of - computers that have those things soldered on. The irony here is that repair shops now have to ignore the most repairable computers and focus on the least repairable computers instead.
@sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit I am holding on to a failing 8GB DDR4 SODIMM (That I replaced with 16GB for 22€ in may!) of ram because it fails little enough to still let an OS boot...
So... my backup plan for any of my ram sticks failing is a literal piece of garbage because the alternative is like 70€
I just hope if something fails it isn't the soldered half of the ram on my ThinkPad :'(
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The enshittification of computer repair is happening.
AI has amazingly managed to make repairable computers practically worthless.
The increase in memory and storage pricing is destroying the second-hand market for computing hardware and this makes me sad. I watched a video from someone that runs a repair shop, and this is what's happening:
The memory/storage alone is worth more than the rest of the computer, so people are stripping them out to sell separately.
The second hand market is now flooded with computers that have no memory or storage. Buying new memory or storage to put in these used computers is now more expensive than buying a new computer.
So we now suddenly have a giant e-waste problem PLUS a giant problem for repair shops that want to stay in business.
In the video, he was basically saying that they have to pivot to the only computers that folks aren't stripping RAM and storage out of - computers that have those things soldered on. The irony here is that repair shops now have to ignore the most repairable computers and focus on the least repairable computers instead.
The shortage will be followed by a glut.
Me so old I remember the great 10kΩ resistor shortage of 1985.
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@skjeggtroll @sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit Ooh, I'd forgotten those times where someone would break into an office and ransack the computers for CPUs and memory.
@skjeggtroll @sawaba @pluralistic @iFixit @X31Andy
Yikes, I remember those days. Had one customer suffer dozens of busted open PCs. And they weren't gentle about it. Lots of collateral damage. We (tiny accounts software house with a sideline selling PCs and installs) also got broken into. MD was cross none of the office doors were locked. The next time, they found locked doors, so kicked through them all. Cost 10x as much to fix it all.
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