Uhm... Why?, just curious as to the point Options

[ubernewb]

so i'm not one to be a nay-sayer to someone's creativity, but what's the point in this whole thing? i understand that you think it'll be nice for older people and children, but what reall convenience does it offer them?

you say not having to deal with a hdd is a good thing so they can't accidentally delete things.. well, they can't exactly save things either. what real use do older people have for computers? pictures.. that's the first thing older customers ask at best buy.. same thing with kids.. they like pictures, and they also like to play with things like ms paint and save and print off pictures. my kids absolutely love going thru their older pics..

next reason would be a virus.. not many kids or old folks pick up viruses. most of those are obtained by teenager timmy going to a website and downloading himself a new game (or watching some porn) .. those could easily be avoided by a variety of means

next reason is cost? $450 is still kinda up there. you can easily buy a cheap system (including a monitor.. which your budget did not include) for that at a big box store.. the only thing you're really saving money on is a hdd.. and even then, you have to spend more cuz you need a better video card, etc..



like i said, not trying to be negative about it.. i'm just curious as to what makes this a better solution. cuz right now.. weighing the options.. it just seems kinds.. bleh

but i am still totally open to this.. just help me understand it

[openxdkman]

"What real convenience does it offer them?":
If it's successful, the ultimate result may be (of course don't expect it before a few years):
- As powerful as Vista+DirectX10+GeForce8800 but costing much less (- hard disk cost, - vista cost)
- Monkey-proof (let's say kids-proof and elders-proof). Whatever app is used, data is safe on another PC.

"Well, they can't exactly save things either":
I've made some testing, I could load, edit, save, jpeg pictures on a PC0 configuration. Pictures were stored in user FTP area (on another local PC in house, or directly in FTP area on ISP server of current connection account, with each member of family having only access to a subdirectory in the global shared ISP account FTP area. Either thru DHCP connection or full working direct PPPoE session. Can also work with a POP free account). So, saving data is possible. Only difference is that they see a progression bar, just like when you save your game on a memory card in a ps2 game (because it can't be instant since data is transfered over ethernet). It can be 100% reliable (all you have to do it save to a temporary file, then read it back to compare with data, and if it's ok, throw out instant 'rename' commands to swap files -works well with FTP-).

"Those could easily be avoided by a variety of means":
These means are not 100% efficient, require money, online updates, firewalls, antiviruses, etc...
No local hard disk is 100% efficient without the need of all these. Also, allows safe monotask code usage.

"$450 is still kinda up there":
I'm pretty sure it's more $350 than $450 because of low VAT in your country.
It's still a bit high because of the need for PCI express 16x for those who expect HUGE graphic horse power soon. Cost will go down in next years. And until then, you can get a PC0 for $0 by just using a recycled computer and accept 2D non accelerated graphics for now.

"Because right now.. weighting the options.. it just seems kinds.. bleh":
Sure, right now, without nv40 driver fully mastered (but Nouveau project team made huge progress), it's nothing compared to Vista. But to avoid a complete lock of PC platform by Vista, it's necessary to start some alternate research project (unfortunately, without the help of ATI and NVidia, who are parts of the monopoly creation attempt with the DirectX10 plan).

Give me a few months and nice stuff should appear.

This post has been edited by openxdkman: Mar 31 2007, 07:51 AM

[ubernewb]

ok.. now this is starting to make a lot more sense to me.. i guess i didn't catch the part where this was a secondary computer. now that i have a better idea, this sounds really interesting.

come to think about it, i've got an old pc sitting in my garage that i was considering loading linux on.. perhaps i'll leave it for testing out this pc0 stuff instead

uber