General Computer Thread

[Marc]

Nowadays there are a lot of mini PC's out there and they're pretty good actually, some more expensive ones are even decent gaming rigs.

Strix Halo waves hello

Okay probably not quite mini PC format if you compare it the N1xx/3xx based ones but still packing a lot of power in a small box.

Downside is we're at the point where if something goes wrong hardware wise there's little work around so you have to toss the lot.

This could could really bit down the track if you start getting faults with memory that's soldered the board.

Even before Strix Halo platform became a thing, it was some being done on laptops because it allowed the ram to be clocked at higher speeds that socketed. Apple was also doing it but that's well Apple.

 

[Santaman]

I have two rather cheap mini PC's Huidun H50, so indeed a N150 which is quite fast actually, it has 8GB RAM which is a SODIMM and a M2 SATA drive so again not top of the bill but it's not even running all that hot, it is quiet and even the amount of connectivity you get isn't bad for something 10x10x4CM, front has two USB 3 ports, at the back two USB 2.0, HDMI and Display Port, it has WiFi6 and a Gigabit Ethernet port.
I also have two refurb Dell 3060 Mini's they're older and have a i3 8100T, they're still very small but more full grown machines, you can actually use 2.5" SSD's if you like.

I can't say much about the reliability of the Huidun machines, so far they do seem to be quite okay, the ports feel like high quality parts and also the casing doesn't flex or make funny noises, they both run Linux Mint and they're fast enough to be a daily office/non gaming PC.
Same goes for the two 3060's capable enough to do normal work, in my case they both run Manjaro XFCE.

 

[Marc]

I have two rather cheap mini PC's Huidun H50, so indeed a N150 which is quite fast actually, it has 8GB RAM which is a SODIMM and a M2 SATA drive so again not top of the bill but it's not even running all that hot, it is quiet and even the amount of connectivity you get isn't bad for something 10x10x4CM, front has two USB 3 ports, at the back two USB 2.0, HDMI and Display Port, it has WiFi6 and a Gigabit Ethernet port.
I also have two refurb Dell 3060 Mini's they're older and have a i3 8100T, they're still very small but more full grown machines, you can actually use 2.5" SSD's if you like.

I can't say much about the reliability of the Huidun machines, so far they do seem to be quite okay, the ports feel like high quality parts and also the casing doesn't flex or make funny noises, they both run Linux Mint and they're fast enough to be a daily office/non gaming PC.
Same goes for the two 3060's capable enough to do normal work, in my case they both run Manjaro XFCE.

Sure the H50s are M.2 sata?

I've got a GMKTek with the N150 and it came with a NVMe drive (Lexar 256GB)

 

[Santaman]

Yes, this is a cost reduction thing, the H50 was only 169 Euro, heck, the two Dell 3060's I have also have a SATA m2 drive, of course these machines are a bit less modern.

 

[Marc]

Yes, this is a cost reduction thing, the H50 was only 169 Euro, heck, the two Dell 3060's I have also have a SATA m2 drive, of course these machines are a bit less modern.

I got my GMKtek in Sept 2024 and paid $CA198.99 (about 124 Euros) before tax.

 

[Santaman]

^^ Good price, I'm looking into buying more of those refurbs, if my Optiplex is any indication then they'll last me a looooong time, I mainly run Linux which is a lot leaner and faster than Windows 11.

 

[Marc]

^^ Good price, I'm looking into buying more of those refurbs, if my Optiplex is any indication then they'll last me a looooong time, I mainly run Linux which is a lot leaner and faster than Windows 11.

Not at that price now.

I needed to replace the fan and it as either take my chance with ali express or find a barebones unit (move the drive and ram which I upgrade to 16GB across) but what out there is a) DDR5 and b) a lot more expensive.

Fan was only $CA22

just had to pull the thing completely to bits to replace it.

Use it a as remote desktop terminal. Could be a bit lighter in the software department but I've always been more KDE than other desktop for years but with 16GB it's fine.

Off to the inlaws tomorrow for the long weekend and it will come with me. on the wifi at their place, connect VPN and I'm back where I left off. Firefox synch has it's uses but no enough for what I want.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Spoiler: Cheap Audio Man - I'm Shocked! What is REALLY behind the CD Comeback!

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Thank goodness for T-Swift, she might be the reason why CD's come back along with K-Pop.
Taylor Swift sold 2 Million CD's in the US Alone in the modern day!
If that's what it takes to bring Audio CD's back, so be it.

CDs return to Christmas shopping lists as gen Z embrace ‘retro renaissance’

Now if we can revive Mini-Disc/Hi-MD properly, maybe even update it for the modern age.

 

[Marc]

Spoiler: Cheap Audio Man - I'm Shocked! What is REALLY behind the CD Comeback!

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Thank goodness for T-Swift, she might be the reason why CD's come back along with K-Pop.
Taylor Swift sold 2 Million CD's in the US Alone in the modern day!
If that's what it takes to bring Audio CD's back, so be it.

CDs return to Christmas shopping lists as gen Z embrace ‘retro renaissance’

Now if we can revive Mini-Disc/Hi-MD properly, maybe even update it for the modern age.

And this has what to do with thread subject?

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

And this has what to do with thread subject?

As a slow way to inspire the next generation into being interested into Optical Discs.

Which is a critical source/medium for long-term off-line archival that is very much in risk of extinction.

 

[Santaman]

CD's for music have been doing better since 2021, many people got cold feet and got their favorite music instead of relying on streaming etc because stuff disappears from there, some genres very much rely on CD sales like it's the case with Metal.

As for data applications, in many cases it will be DVD(RW) that's more usable, the 700MB max storage capacity is already too small for many aplications.
CD-R's can be okay for storage for moderate amounts of time, depending on the used dye and also the reflective materials, gold is literally golden, silver will oxidize and then that data is gone, old CD-R's with Taiyo Juden's Cyanide dye will degrade within a short time, the Azo dye (dark blue) is far more stable, combined with a gold reflection layer it can last up for decades, rule of thumb being, go cheap go data loss.
CD-RW's are not, never, ever to be used as backup or long term storage, they're toss something on it and use it to move stuff to another location or a play around disk.

As for generation Z "discovering" the CD, well yeah, they also suddenly "discovered" old digital cameras and they probably will "discover" many more things older people already know.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Well, we of the "Older Generations" needs to pass on love for storing data on Optical Discs.

There are so many "Cold Storage" benefits to be had with them.

BD-ROM can easily do 25/50/100/128 GB

ODA (Optical Disc Archive) got up to 500 GB Double-Sided across 3-layers per side for a data density of 83⅓ GB per layer
That would've been very nice to release to the consumer public for storage.
If they could've done Quadruple Layer on 1x side you could get ⅓ TB per side.

 

[XCV330]

in the odd and small community of modern-retrocomputing Stefany Allaire, the designer of the brilliant Foenix C256 is stepping back. She's sold the rights to market most of her computers to someone else who still be offering it under a different name. It has never sold many copies but was far more affordable than the Mega 65, and unlike the Commander X16, was usually available for purchase. Hopefully it survives as a community builds around it. But one of the things that caused the decision to move back from it was Perifractic's revival of Commodore.

Commodore is now actually shipping C-64u's, and it's easy to believe that might become the hardware that everyone interested in this kind of thing has been looking for. It's not running an emulator the way previous versions have done, and is compatable with most old hardware, while also having some internet connectivity to connect to retro BBS's.

Myself I made the mistake of buying a Colour Maximite 2 awhile back and interest in that computer just completely evaporated.

 

[Marc]

in the odd and small community of modern-retrocomputing Stefany Allaire, the designer of the brilliant Foenix C256 is stepping back.

google seems to confuse Foenix with Phoenix.

Haven't heard of it so looked it up. One of the chips that it can have is in the Motorola 68030 family.

Lead to the thought of whether it's used to run classic era Macintosh OS but my google foo is fubared.

 

[XCV330]

google seems to confuse Foenix with Phoenix.

Haven't heard of it so looked it up. One of the chips that it can have is in the Motorola 68030 family.

Lead to the thought of whether it's used to run classic era Macintosh OS but my google foo is fubared.

I think she's going to continue on with the 32bit processor line, so maybe? I know someone else is making a new motherboard for Mac SE/30's though. Finding all the chips would be difficult. Some would be no problem. others would require a dead donor mac and lots of luck.

GitHub - TheRealBolle/SE30: Macintosh SE/30 logicboard recreation

Macintosh SE/30 logicboard recreation. Contribute to TheRealBolle/SE30 development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[Allyn Gibson]

2008's Linux Mint 5 had a little application called mintDesktop. It did four things:

• Turn system icons on the desktop on or off
• Set the behavior of Nautilus when opening folders (ie., would they open in the same window or a new window)
• Turn the compositor on or off
• Install custom Mint-themed loading splash screens for OpenOffice and GIMP

A hiring manager recently suggested I try my hand at "vibe coding." After some thinking and a little research, I decided to rebuild this for Mint 22.x/LMDE 7 in Python 3 and GTK3, even though Mint's Desktop application handles the first, Nemo itself can handle the second, the third is unnecessary in 2026, and Mint abandoned the fourth after Mint 6.

I poked at it with ChatGPT for a few days. I think it would have written the whole thing if i'd asked it to, but I wanted to do some of the coding myself, and on Wednesday I had a program that looked good and worked exactly as should. The last two days I've poked at it some more on my own, making it work with MATE as well as Cinnamon; disabling the parts of the application that wouldn't work in another DE if opened in, for example, XFCE; and adding some features that weren't included in 2008 (setting one-click or two-click openings and reversing the custom splash logos). At this point, it's probably 55/45 ChatGPT/me.

I'm happy with it. Nothing it does is necessary, since the two important things it does are handled elsewhere within Mint already, but opening GIMP and seeing the Mint-themed splash screen makes me feel a little chuffed.

Screenshots here on my blog.

 

[Santaman]

Hey, that's awesome.
I started using Mint as of version 13 (Maya) so I don't know the even more ancient stuff.
Also, the last time I programmed anything was on a Atari 65XE 8 bit machine...

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Hey, that's awesome.

Thanks!

I started using Mint as of version 13 (Maya) so I don't know the even more ancient stuff.

I opened a desk drawer about two years ago and found a whole stack of Mint install CD-Rs, going back to Mint 3. (The thing is, I have no memory of ever having used Mint 3, and the disc itself was unreadable. Mint 5 is the first I remember installing, and that came after Ubuntu 8.04, which I am certain was my first Linux.) I copied all of them back into ISOs, and I have a Mint 5 VM for nostalgia purposes. The tools and the technology have changed, but from a usability standpoint, Mint feels almost exactly the same today as it did then. In that sense, I do understand why people criticize Mint for still looking like Windows XP. But it's a solid design metaphor that is well known. Change for the sake of change isn't necessarily a good thing.

Also, the last time I programmed anything was on a Atari 65XE 8 bit machine...

Nice. I miss those old hobbyist days.

 

[John Clark]

I think the oldest version of Mint I used was a little dabble with 19, so definitely newbie to is. As extended use, 21/22.

As for my programming? - Think the last time was some writing of simpler stuff for the spectrum 48k. Probably something I should try again. You never know when it might come in handy.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I fired up Mint 13 in a VM this morning. (That too was among my stack of install CDs.) I had forgotten that was the first version with Cinnamon, and it was so limited and visually stark at the time. I was going, "Where is this? Where is that?" And they hadn't been built yet as the team dealt with the fallout of GNOME 3. I loved the default wallpapers in that period, but I found them too bright to use.

My progression was 5 -> 6 -> 9 -> 13 -> 14 -> 17.2 -> 19.1 -> 20.x (the point I got serious, thanks to COVID) -> 21.x -> LMDE6 -> LMDE7.