[mdlug] Parallella: A Supercomputer For Everyone by Adapteva — Kickstarter

[Adam Tauno Williams]

Michael Mol <mikemol at gmail.com> wrote:
>On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 10:17 AM, Adam Tauno Williams
><awilliam at whitemice.org> wrote:
>> On Thu, 2012-10-11 at 16:23 -0400, Michael Mol wrote:
>[snip]
>>> Yes, a programmer with the mindset of a 1980s assembly coder could
>>> achieve absolutely amazing performance on a modern system,
>> He could.  But I really, seriously, do not believe he could create a
>> compelling application.  He'd have to write *tons* of code to work in
>a
>> modern environment.
>>> All that 'bloat' is really a set of tools designed to allow
>> Assuming it really is "bloat" and not functionality I really want. 
>If
>> someone is using a computer the same way for the same purpose they
>did
>> in 1984 - then yes, it is all bloat.

>Incidentally, you're making my point.


Good, because I agree with you.  I think we are in the same page from slightly different angles.

My issue is that comparing the performance difference perceived between a 1980s platform and its applications and a 20xx platform and its applications is very apples-and-oranges.  There are many significant both technological and philosophical differences.

I also don't believe there is a performance problem;  I'm very satisfied with the performance of the devices and applications I use.  In my experience performance, on the same hardware, has noticeably *improved* in the last several years.  LibreOffice, for one example, churns through my data an order of magnitude faster than it did a couple of years ago.  The big Java app I use all day (DbVisualizer) has gotten perceptibly faster with every release.  The start up delay I used to see with .NET apps like Monodevelop and F-Spot is simply gone.


-- 
Adam Tauno Williams, LPI1 / NCLA