Post #567237
2026-02-28 05:05 UTC
Replies (4)
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@DFX4509B__dup_13501@lemmy.wtf 2026-02-28 07:26
Assuming the bootloader is not super locked down or even nonexistent, think Wyse thin client levels of locked down.
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@OwOarchist__dup_68352@pawb.social 2026-02-28 08:04
I’m still petty enough to hope this effort is a miserable failure I hope this is effort is a miserable failure … because if it catches on, it could spell the end of desktop PCs in general as a consumer product. Desktops will always exist, because you need the local processing power (and the cooling to support it) for certain professional workloads. But if everyday computing and even gaming becomes mostly done on thin clients fully dependent on internet servers, then desktops will become more and more of a niche, professional product. Which means they’ll become more expensive and harder to get. Replacement parts will become more expensive and harder to get. A desktop PC will be an expensive industrial machine, hard to justify the upfront price of for an average consumer. (Especially when a cheap thin client with a “cheap” monthly subscription can do essentially all the same things.) It may also slow the adoption of open-source software because these thin clients are likely to be locked down and not able to install any other software without putting up a fight, if it ends up being possible at all. And if most people get used to the paradigm of renting their computing power from the cloud, they’ll be resistant to change that and go back to locally run software on their local machine that they then have to buy because their old thin client hardware can barely run anything, even if you do manage to install other software on it. (Imagine how hard it will be to convince someone to install Linux instead of using Windows if the first step of installing Linux is that they have to replace all their hardware with much bigger and more expensive hardware…)
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@Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 2026-02-28 09:17
Goodbye local Windows with Linux having a 3% market share means entirely different market & society too, regardless of our Linux desktops that can’t get new parts.
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@Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-03-01 12:12
I jumped ship like 2 years ago too, but kept a “windows game box” i5 8500 with an rx6400 to play. The sff (usff?) thinkcentre 6500t with linux is so good it’s insane. Somewhere 6-9 months ago I just stopped booting the win-box. One day I’ll probably switch os on it and use the better PC as my daily driver, but my quad core is enough for now, crazy actually when I think of the sluggishness of windows on a “+50%” (or more) pc…