[kwlug-disc] Specs for new home rig - Opinions and recommendation wanted

[unsolicited]

Paul Nijjar wrote, On 08/19/2011 4:59 PM:
> On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 12:58:48PM -0700, Raul Suarez wrote:
> 
>> It's funny. Today my son asked the specs for the desktop and he
>> laughed, his Android phone has better specs!

So, what's the difference - different hardware surrounding the 
processing power? And ramifications thereof?

Have to say, given the user interface of the iPhone, for example, I 
see people doing things / interacting with the device (replacing the 
keyboard / mouse, the hardware surrounding the processing power), in 
ways I couldn't have imagined as being practically implementable 10 
years ago. I see people taking to things like Android, with little 
instruction / research / reading, whom would never have gotten near 
such things 10 years ago. I'm regularly astonished. And the use is 
persistent, not just the latest toy or fad and on to the next big thing.

[Part of this, I guess, has to be that with more and more wireless, 
irda being replaced with bluetooth, then wi-fi, the need for directly 
attached, integrated, hardware surrounding the processing power, is 
substantially eliminated except for very specific and 'little used' 
use cases.]


> I guess I should not reveal that my personal computer has a 400MHz K6
> (K7?) processor? That's about as powerful as a Linksys router,
> although my computer has more hard drive capacity and RAM.

Sorry to burst your bubble further ... given usb connections for hard 
drives on the routers ...

3TB web cache, anyone?

> I would love to replace my desktop with a plug computer or even an
> ALIX-type machine (they're so cute!)  but I probably won't. 
> 
> The nice thing about general purpose computers is their versatility.
> Too bad they are going the way of the dodo. 

Nah, not the dodo, the way of the virtual. Virtual zen, even?

Or, pie in the sky.