So far I’m happy with my Fairphone 5. Not exactly cheap, but I’d argue it is value for money in the end. Timely security updates, unlockable bootloader (though I haven’t yet) and updates for (at least) 7 years after launch. I haven’t had the need to swap any of the middle things yet, but I’m starting to suspect my USB port has a loose pin or something so I’ll probably swap that module soon. Glad that I can.

That really depends on how the VPN is setup and configured on the company side. And possibly how the applications it their servers are configured as well. In our case, absolutely nothing breaks and it just works.

I know that isn’t the point of your comment, but what issues do you have with Logitech hardware on Linux? I have just mice from them, but honestly an embarrassing amount. I just use Solaar and I can configure all I need? I also have always only used the onboard memory (so I can move them between computers), and don’t really use macros though…

the form factor is easy to get around

Why did you just ignore everything I wrote, but you still replied to me? No, it isn’t easy to get around. You can use a server to game, but the server mainboards and CPUs expect and work with differently configured memory (registered DIMMs). All the AI infratructure uses that type. You can’t use that memory in a normal PC. Wikipedia reference if you’d like to read about it, but a relevant quote:

[…] the motherboard must match the memory type; as a result, registered memory will not work in a motherboard not designed for it, and vice versa.

You would have to un-solder all the chips and remanufacture new memory modules, and nobody is doing that, especially not at scale. It might be an actual buisness model to do that once the bubble pops, but it isn’t a problem that’s “easy to get around”.>

It no longer works as a shortcut, but the actual bypass still works. In practice the command line you have to enter just got a bit longer is all.

At least last time I needed it, to that still worked fine. It’s been a few months.

You can’t put the kind of memory used in servers (registered ECC dimm) into normal/personal computers. It’s not just that the ECC won’t work, they don’t work at all.

That’s different with unregistered ECC dimms, those will work (at normal spec speeds), but the ECC part will just be unused. These are in the minority though for servers, in practice they are more used in workstations.

Don’t buy anything by crucial, as you’ll have trouble getting a 2nd stick in the future. They are shutting down their end user business.

It’s the same with other vendors though. I man those that allow you to swap internals without losing warranty. Bought my laptop with just a 16g stick (base price/included), then bought 2x24g for the price one additional 16g module would’ve cost. And now I got a 16g module left over, too.

Same with normal floppy disks. Their reliability was abysmal, as was their longevity.

I had blocked the user, might have been before writing my reply. I guess that caused it to fail to the top level, weird. Deleted the comment as it doesn’t make any sense there.

deleted by creator

Might want to calculate out what the actual number is those “small” 3% represent. Or how the curve looks over time. how it changed from a mostly flat line to a very clearly and relatively steeply climbing curve.

CachyOS is basically vanilla Arch, from a resource point of view. They have their own repos, but they just mirror the arch repos. The arch wiki fully applies. For the very few special things, there is documentation (basically a few notes on gaming related performance options).

So why use it? Carter it’s trivial to install, and everything you need is preconfigured to just work with sane defaults. Installing it is like Mint or Ubuntu. But it uses optimized repos according to your available CPU instruction set, and optimized proton and wine (their own). Games just work (even more so than they already do generally), and are faster. Programs are faster (where it matters). But you don’t need to do anything for that, it’s just there by default.

They can’t sell this at a loss, or at least it would be incredibly risky. This is (intentionally) “just a PC”. It ships with SteamOS but you can of course install whatever you want, including windows. If it is (much) cheaper than a roughly equivalent normal PC, companies might just start buying them in bulk but obviously not generating the supporting sales needed.

I’ve stopped caring about physical sports and their broadcast literal decades ago. I only occasionally watch relatively niche sports during the Olympics (climbing for example), but that’s it.

What I do watch is eSports. More exciting than watching a bunch of people run over a field repeatedly, trying to get a ball into a things or whatever.

I assume you mean unsolicited phone calls with this? I haven’t gotten any of those in about a decade, if not more. And those were isolated cases as well. We have laws against that sort of thing. It’s not been a problem for a very very long time (early 2000s or so).

The 3$ isn’t a component price but also retail already.

The actual hardware cost of these devices is actually minimal. Basically any wifi capable microcontroller, a camera and depending on implementation some storage (or a micro sd-card holder). So that price is only cheap in comparison to existing products.

For reference, said microcontroller with basic camera can be had for like 3$ or something.

Sorry but the theoretical price of cells isn’t relevant to the consumer. The price of products containing them is. This thing costs currently on the official site 900€ (with some sort of sale going on). The Elite 100v2 with comparable capacity, but using LiFePo4 (included in the same current sale) costs just 550€. To add insult to injury, it also outperforms the Na model in nearly every aspect except sub-freezing performance (where it at least still works, but nowhere near normal spec values either). This includes an abysmal solar charging efficiency for the Na of roughly 50% at normal temperature. Somehow.

Again, once the price reflects the cell cost, this could be a very attractive option. At the moment, unless you’re into camping in sun-zero climates, it’s just a very bad deal.

Edit: to be clear the Na model also doesn’t have a better life expectancy, not according to the spec. Both models are specified to “over 4000 cycles”, not there is no percentage threshold specified for the Na model. The LiFePo4 model includes “to 80% capacity” in that definition. If this is specified somewhere for the Na model, I can’t find it.

The thing currently costs at least 50% more than the closest equivalent LiFePo4 from the same brand. The only real advantage seems to be it’s ability to handle sub freezing temperatures, but usability still drops dramatically (both capacity and available power delivery). Everything else is straight up worse in this one in direct comparison.

It’s only the first product, so it’ll most certainly get better. Also as numbers of products sold rise, costs fall. Once these are cheaper, that are a real choice.