[GTALUG] NUC NUC NUC

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Lennart Sorensen via talk <talk at gtalug.org>

| My 6 year old laptop has higher specs than that NUC, never mind what my
| 6 year old desktop has in it.  I guess they were a bit overkill at the
| time and the reason I haven't had to upgrade anything in years (and
| still don't).

1) yes they were overkill.  I know your habits :-)  A W-series
   ThinkPad!

2) processor speed improvements have plateaued.

3) computer-makers have trouble coming up with must-have innovations
   for desktops

- UltraHD displays are new, but Haswell DisplayPort interfaces
  can support it at 60Hz.  Haswell HDMI cannot.

- NVMe is great and new.  But SATA SSD is good enough for most of us
  (SATA HDDs are not)

- USB 3.0 is much better than USB 2.x, but Haswell supported that

- USB 3.1 is better, but I've not needed it.

- WiFi has gotten better, I guess.  I don't notice since my desktop is
  wired (it has WiFi but I don't even install the firmware blob).


4) for notebooks, there are more innovations, but not everyone cares

- USB 3.1 (?) supports high bandwidth video

- NVMe

- touch screens

- better touchpads (and worse)

- higher resolution displays

- IPS and other improved screen technology (my old ThinkPad's FullHD
  screen was disappointing in this respect)

- worse keyboards

- thin and light (and hard to service)

- no ability to update RAM

- no optical drive (or bay for an extra battery)