The computer thread

OK, I don't understand the term crApple.

I switched to PC/Linux exclusively from Apple years ago when they took a distinctly anti-small guy/DIY stance and actively shut small developers and users out by making the hardware and system closed to anyone that did not pass their "standards" test. I think a long time ago one of our members here was a victim of this. They were not loath to out and out lying about the existence of internal features that they disclosed to "blessed" vendors.
 
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Joined 2000
Paid Member
Using RPi for:

Video frontend (Openelec/Kodi)
VPN (OpenVPN)
Music server (Volumio) One of 4 Linux music servers in house.
Linux based video surveillance. Not used currently, but tested fine.

Also use:

Windows 10 laptop and Workstation.
2 Qty, 5Tb FreeNAS (FreeBSD) NAS and iSCSI storage.

Last summer built a laptop with Linux Mint for my friend's kids (ages 3 and 5). They love it. Never called me with a problem. Recently added a 22" flat screen to their laptop. They flipped out! :D

Vince
 
If you want to (be forced to) learn how computers work - Buy a Windows PC
If you want to geek out and spend your time with ultra-geeking - Install Linix
If you want to get work done - Buy a Mac.



disclaimer, I have all 3. ;)

Hey its 2018, you can have it all. Build a "hackintosh" (Apple Mac and Windows and also Linux if you want). I have two of these (one at work and one at home). Can choose Mac or PC at bootup and store files in single exfat drive accessible to both. Involves a little diy so its fun right?

see Home | tonymacx86.com

Also if you build it with the right motherboard and sufficient cooling you can overclock it for processing capability exceeding real macs.
 
no shitstemd and pulseaudio, etc.

:D
The Manjaro team had, among the two or three official desktop variant distros, for some time also a community edition with another init system which was eagerly propped by a few fans, but last year a few guys finally left Manjaro to create their own spin off called Artix without the s*D, don't know what exactly happened behind the stage but can only imagine whenever a popular Linux distro gets market penetration the hidden hand will somehow infiltrate and subvert any Linux distro and force out "wrong thinkers" who doesn't fit in with the"!\! \/\/ ()" agenda. :forbiddn:

Artix Linux * GitHub
Artix Linux – Artix Linux is a fork of Archlinux to use different init systems
Migration to Artix – Artix Linux – Artix Linux is a fork of Archlinux to use different init systems
artix-linux download | SourceForge.net
Archlinux, systemd-free

For serious work 1 or 2 21~24 inch monitor(s) is/are the sweet spot.
27 inch is almost too big already.

I have been thinking of a smaller 4K TV as PC monitor, something like ~30", they are so much cheaper these days in comparison to equivalent PC monitors, I am not into gaming so the lag is not that important but I don't know whether the lag would be so sever it would distract also normal computer use too, often the more picture processing features are enabled the greater the lag is, maybe I will visit some shop and test with a laptop on any of their demo TV's with all picture processing turned off.

btw, recently got to test some public internet computers which are now replaced by small Chrome boxes, surprisingly responsive for surfing considering the small size of something like 15x15x4 cm cookie jar.
 
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:D
The Manjaro team had, among the two or three official desktop variant distros, for some time also a community edition with another init system which was eagerly propped by a few fans, but last year a few guys finally left Manjaro to create their own spin off called Artix without the s*D, don't know what exactly happened behind the stage but can only imagine whenever a popular Linux distro gets market penetration the hidden hand will somehow infiltrate and subvert any Linux distro and force out "wrong thinkers" who doesn't fit in with the"!\! \/\/ ()" agenda. :forbiddn:

Artix Linux * GitHub
Artix Linux – Artix Linux is a fork of Archlinux to use different init systems
Migration to Artix – Artix Linux – Artix Linux is a fork of Archlinux to use different init systems
artix-linux download | SourceForge.net
Archlinux, systemd-free

Probably.
Thanks for mentioning Artix, didn't know about that one either.


Ultima Thule said:
I have been thinking of a smaller 4K TV as PC monitor, something like ~30", they are so much cheaper these days in comparison to equivalent PC monitors, I am not into gaming so the lag is not that important but I don't know whether the lag would be so sever it would distract also normal computer use too, often the more picture processing features are enabled the greater the lag is, maybe I will visit some shop and test with a laptop on any of their demo TV's with all picture processing turned off.

Good idea.
On some TVs lag is pretty high.
But often they get tested for input lag, you can find quite a few comparison tables.

This one for example:
https://www.rtings.com/tv/tests/inputs/input-lag

Depending on resolution and processing some will exceed 150ms !

Try to stay around 12-15ms (max. 20) (without processing) if possible and you will be fine.
For example a high end asus gaming monitor will have around 2.3ms.
(Asus VG248QE, probably still the fastest despite its age.)

Here is a table of computer monitors:
https://www.rtings.com/monitor/tests/inputs/input-lag

Personally I can`t stand it when I move the mouse and "half an hour" later the pointer will follow on the screen.
 
Also a tv as monitor will have major input lag. For serious work 1 or 2 21~24 inch monitor(s) is/are the sweet spot.........I have been thinking of a smaller 4K TV as PC monitor, something like ~30",

I have been using mostly TV sets for monitors on my two main computers for a couple of years. One computer is for daily work, mostly PCB layout, spreadsheets and other engineering work, plus the usual email and web use. The other computer is strictly a music / video workstation.

Some 1080 TV's are OK, but many can't do the small fonts correctly. I got a 40 inch 1080 TV at Walmart on a Black Friday sale over 2 years ago for $149 and it worked great, so I went back and got another for the other computer.

Both computers were dual monitor, with a 27 inch PC monitor and a 40 inch 1080 TV. I found that I used the TV for work more than the real PC monitor.

just over a year ago I got a cheap 43 inch 4K TV for $229 again a Black Friday deal, and installed it on the general purpose PC to replace the 1080 TV. I don't notice any lag, but I am not a gamer. 4K video content plays fine when streamed from YouTube, but there is some frame rate related flicker due to the old PC, not the TV. The PC runs a 4th generation core i5-4670 and does not have any video card. It uses the on chip video which isn't even rated for 4K. Text is sharp and clear, and I can open a dozen windows without issue.

NOTE: Many 4K TV's, and all the cheap ones, cut corners by reducing the chroma (color) resolution. This can render some colors with less than perfect accuracy. It is noticeable, but not highly annoying to me, on my cheap 4K TV in flesh tones, especially lips when contrasted with nearby similar colors. There are test patterns available on the internet to make this more obvious when testing TV's. The issue is 4:3 chroma VS 4:4 chroma.

The music workstation got the second 1080 TV and used them both as monitors. This is good when running a dual screen DAW like Ableton Live and being able to see what's going on while standing away from the PC playing a guitar.

I got interested in video, and time lapse photography editing using Blender (a cool FREE video and animation editor) so I got a $300 4K TV for the music workstation last Black Friday. It is capable of doing justice to my pictures that were taken on an old Panasonic camera with 4000 X 3000 resolution. I had to get a real video card (albeit a cheap one) in order for 4K @ 60 Hz video to play properly. The PC's on board video couldn't deal with that.
 

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Banding

Great input on the 4K TV stuff, I will sure look into it closer, one thing that is coming more and more on PC monitors and TVs too I guess is 10 bit color resolution in comparison to the long prevailing 8 bit which as I have understood has been a reason for color banding.

Some times when looking at pictures or videos I find banding some of the most annoying issue, it's very apparent especially with scenery where the colors, hues and shades are ever so slightly changing such as the sky, attached "8 bit vs 10 bit" picture is self explanatory.

Colour banding - Wikipedia
 

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A lot of the banding you see has to do with the compression algorithm used by the content delivery system that you are getting the video through. I don't know much about TV content delivery in Europe.

Here in the US we have 6 MHz wide RF channels that can be used to deliver a single 1080 HD video stream, or divided up with multiple streams. If the entire channel is used for a single 1080 stream there is very little compression and you have to look hard to see the compression artifacts.

Where I live there are only two broadcast transmitters that I can receive. One delivers two 1080 video streams, and the other two 1080 streams plus a 480 stream. The compression is obvious, especially on a dark scene where multiple shades of near black are rendered the same shade and the border between two shades is obvious.

Cable TV is worse. They have about 600 MHz of bandwidth for TV. The popular channels get enough bandwidth for minimal but plenty visible banding. The less watched channels are often rather ugly.
 
Actually I like apple products, I have an 13inch macbook pro 2012 -works like a real pro(hdd replaced by ssd of course) and an 2015 15 inch macbook pro. No complains.
The monitors these apple laptops have are the best. I am not that rich to buy a mac pro desktop and because of that I built my own Hackintosh, works great.
I tried ubuntu but it's not for me.
I love computers 386, 486 , Cyrix 6x86,
pentiums, k6, k6-2 3dnow .........some xeons ......... i7-s....my favorite brand for motherboards is of course Asus , I had Soyo, Soltek , epox, DFI , MSI, Gygabite , Biostar, intel and other ones , Asus worked for me the best.
My next gadget will be an 27-29 inches IPS monitor 4k with at least 100hz refresh rate.
 
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Joined 2017
I bought a GTX 1050 recently and I've been playing a lot of Rust (The video game) in single player mode on my own server. Multiplayer is just too difficult.

I'm also going to be buying a Fractal Design Define Mini case soon because my old case is just too big and has holes in it.

Fractal Design

NOT the Mini C. Just the regular Mini.

This case has noise dampening material all throughout the case, so should make a really nice sound proof system.
 
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