Laptop replacement

Why don't you apply that argument to car manufacturers? They make a number of variations of the same car.

I have always been grateful for free software.

It's backward thinking & greedy to expect the best of everything for free just because it's available.

I have an Opliplex 3050 but with HDMI. Bought on a whim because it was so cheap. Good little machines

I've seen Youtube s*it the bed many times, often with elaborate javascript error strings.

--scott

Hmmm, let's see if that lives up to scrutiny...

You might note that the linux kernel has sizeable and frequent contributions from IBM, Google, MS, Red Hat, Oracle. Plus loads of CPU optimisation from AMD and Intel. I don't recall needing to pay for all the work on linux for WSL either.

Kubernates - originally developed by Google, now with contributions for MS, VMWare, Amazon and IBM.

Chromium, initially developed by Google with substantial additional work by MS, Opera, Samsung

React - faceache (Meta), MS, Shopify

VS Code - MS, Read Hat, Google.

Apache Spark - Originally UC Berkeley, now MS, Amazon

LLVM - Apple, Google, Intel, AMD

Android yada yada, the list goes on.

Note that the above include substantial contributions from developers being paid by their employers to make contribution to free software products - not just "spare time" hobby contributions from their developers.

That would probably be because in some cases it is not as good. Often when you need software for a new task, you need it now and can't wait the potential years for the free version to get good enough.

Yup, loads of stuff could be better if someone were willing to pay for it.

This is true. However, as a minimalist, I wish they'd stop it with adding all of this stuff.

--scott

Its Apple. It doesn't have a mouse It doesn't have a keyboard It doesn't understand many video protocols Its s*it

I wonder why you label it "s*it". There is the world and his wife in there. From:-

Dave

Again you have shown yourself to be a wise man! I completely agree! I won an iPad once at a company event. After trying to use it for one month I came to the conclusion that I could do everything it could do with my computer, and my computer could do more and had longer battery life, and was generally more useful. So why should I carry two things?

I sold it for about 200 EUR or so.

Very wise. My sister has one. It cant to vorbis/Vp8, She chats on whats app and watches apple TV.

The ipad is intended for "content consumers" and preferably for those who are "just fine" with remaining within Daddy Jobs' "walled garden".

So long as you stay within the protected boundary Apple has set out for you, it will appear to do everything you want it to do. But you musn't stray from the path Daddy Jobs has decreed for you to remain upon.

But to be fair, my wife has an iPad and has never had an issue with watching YouTube videos... ... are there YouTTube videos you can't watch on an iPad?

Dave

There are more videos than you tube

If you use something like yt-dlp, you can get a list of the formats available. At one time, there were some 4K titles which resulted in rather large files (1GB per video). If your equipment has a decoding limitation, you should be able to adjust what you receive. One way or another.

The useragent of the device, should help Youtube select a format that works. Within the total range of CODECs that Youtube uses. For example, you would not expect the video to be Cinepak.

This is an out-of-date example (as the tool now might be yt-dlp). Normally, you don't have to select a format, as it uses "BEST" by default. And the pickings are slim in this example. Nothing of any real quality. BEST means selecting the best audio stream and the best video stream and muxing them together with FFMPEG.

youtube-dl --list-formats

Paul

But how can she stand typing on that thing? It is not a pleasant experience!

I don't type on mine, I't is used to store sheet music saving me inches worth of shelf space and much easier to carry about rathe than 3+ lever arch files.

I suppose it would be relevant to car makers who give their product away for free ... except nobody does.

So you think a dozen or so counterexamples is enough to establish your point? That’s a drop in the bucket as far as Free Software is concerned. The vast majority don’t enjoy that level of support at all.

Exhibit A: OpenSSL

You don’t have to use it. That’s why the Linux build system has all those menu options.