[conspire] No more GNU HP Minis

[Don Marti]

begin Rick Moen quotation of Thu, Nov 05, 2009 at 11:35:13AM -0800:
> Quoting Ruben Safir (ruben at mrbrklyn.com):
> 
> > I want computers with GNU/Linux preloaded everywhere.... 
> 
> Which effectively means you want Broadcom and Nvidia crap chipsets, 
> and people obliged to throw away their computers and replace them,
> because they cannot reinstall the OS.  Sorry, I've seen your preferred
> future, and it sucks.

Most of the children's toys you can buy easily are
really crappy.

Most of the microphones you can buy easily are
really good.

If you go on a random shopping trip for a toy and a
microphone, you will probably end up with some noisy
garbage that the kid will play with for 15 minutes,
then break and never look at again, and a Shure SM58
that will last the rest of your life and that you
never have to worry about.

Why?

Most toys are designed to appeal to people who are
very young and don't know how to shop yet.

Users of microphones communicate among themselves
a lot, and how well your mics work affects your own
reputation.  Most users have bought more than one,
and have used other people's.

So why is the computer hardware market more like the
market for toys than like the market for microphones?
I can understand why it might have been that way in
the 1980s, when the percentage of people who owned
and used a computer was still going up rapidly,
and there were so many new users, but today?

-- 
Don Marti                                 +1 510-332-1587 mobile
http://zgp.org/~dmarti/
dmarti at zgp.org