[Shiunbird]

If we are to consider utility for utilities sake...
I spent an unreasonable amount of time on my work computer (dual boot FreeBSD and Windows 10) and on my phone (Librem 5) doing updates. It's a productivity drain.

Heck.. even games. I hardly ever have time to play and very often, when I get a chance, I do enjoy a bit of Flight Simulator. The other day I had one hour to play and... 40 GB UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IMPOSSIBLE TO SKIP.

Society got accustomed to accept that software can be shipped unfinished, can crash, can be shit. I think there was a lawsuit in the US in the 80s that ruled that "software engineering" is not like "aerospace engineering" or "construction engineering" in the sense that it can fail.

I spent Sunday installing a bunch of software on nextstep. So many glorious programs, with perfect functionality even today. Impressive stuff, often made by a single person. And going to "About" and seeing the names and sometimes photos of the developers always puts a smile in my face, and makes me grateful for what they did. You know... I AM SIGNING THIS THING - IT MUST HONOR MY NAME kind of attitude.

Now? Who the heck knows who coded whatever atrocity coming out of the cloud? The person behind downloading 15MB of junk before you see a single line of text? No idea.

Nothing is ever finished. Code keeps being produced for the sake of maintaining employment (from the coder's perspective) or to pursue "endless growth" (the employer).

Most of my web browsing happens on a Qubes OS laptop and, for the rest, I usually turn on an old computer. They don't get on my way of getting stuff done.

Older Mac OS? You turn the computer on, you launch the application, you work.
IRIX? You turn the computer on, you launch the application, you work.
NEXTSTEP? Solaris?
Let's say... create a PDF invoice for my employer - I can get it done in any of the platforms I mentioned faster than I can on a modern computer. Especially if I have to figure out for the 72nd time how to do the same thing because a UX designer knows better. WHERE IS THAT BUTTON?
My newish (4 years old) postscript laser printer prints from every single computer I own, full color, full duplex. My Octane loads 45mp files from my camera just fine (and I prefer the older GIMP with detached windows anyway).

A month ago, I created a flowchart of my projects on Diagram! (nextstep) and sent it to my Canon A2 printer, all good. I am also writing some C to parse

Now? Even some Linux distros!
Turn the computer on, install updates, find out that some updates require subscription (Ubuntu Pro wtf), dismiss 372 notifications, launch application, wait for smartscreen/gatekeeper to check if the application is ok (which takes many seconds depending on connection), wait for an electron glorified IRC client (teams or zoom) to eat 1GB of your memory and many more seconds before you get to write something, and experience the glory of delayed keyboard input for the first time in 30 years thanks to webapps.

We may be soon the only people left on Earth that can work on a computer efficiently.

So, I don't know, hamei... new computers render and transcode and decode faster. They transfer large files faster. The rest? Everything lags, wastes screen real estate, is usually an inconsistent eye sore.

So asking an honest question: besides Internet BS and online banking, what is it that you can't do with your collectibles? For example, Photoshop, since 7.0, has nothing really that I need, and for the last 4-5 years, nothing that I would want.