Historical > 1980's to 2020 - Four Computing Options Come to Life
Historical > 1980's to 2020 - Four Computing Options Come to Life
My first computer was a dual floppy drive computer with no hard drive.
It was a 14" square monitor with two 3.5" slots for 1.44kb disks below the monitor itself. To be clear , it had no hard drive.
The total cost for that setup in 1988 was around $2200 . That price included a dot matrix printer of course! I was in the first class at Virginia Tech Engineering school 'required' to have my own PC. This was in contrast to the folks the year prior who were allowed to enter college with the expectation they could use the computer labs for all their work if they didn't want to care for their own PC.
Since that time, we've been waiting patiently for an "affordable" , "stable" and "user friendly" personal computer solution.
1) "Personal Computers" with "Microsoft Windows Operating Systems" (aka Windows) on them are the closest thing most can associate with "affordable" today with introductory price tags in the $500 range. Machines custom configured for gaming start at $1200 or so, and higher end machines for intensive work are in the $1500 to $2500 range. The pricing is low compared to Mac's because anyone who wants to build a computer and install the Microsoft Windows Operating system can do it. There is no intrinsic connection between computer manufacturer and the Operating system, thus there is some symbolence of market competition which keeps these machines "lower" priced. No matter if you think these are "affordable" or not, few would describe them as "stable" or user friendly.
2) Macs (aka a Personal Computer from Apple which was previously called Macintosh) has been the rising leader for two decades now in the "stability" and "user friendly" category. Much of that stability has come from the Unix based disk management system that underlies a Mac. That disk management system differs dramatically from the Windows DOS (Disk Operating System) which underlies Microsft Windows O/S. Die hard Mac users describe an almost Utopian experience with them, forgetting that what they call "intuitive" was actually learned over many years of use. Unfortunately, Mac's start around $1200 and climb to the $2500 range quickly making them "unaffordable" for many, especially those who have multiple work station needs. These prices can be held high like this because Apple/Mac doesn't allow anyone other than themselves to produce and sell computers with the Mac O/S installed.
3) If you've ever tried to look between the cracks of Microsoft Windows based PCs and Mac's running proprietary Max O/S, you've heard about personal computers which run on Unix based operating systems that would be similar but different from Macs. These operating systems go by the (odd) names of "Ubuntu", "Redhat", "Mint" and many, many others. These have been mostly community based, open source operating systems written in the same vein as Mac from a computer engineering perspective. The digital desktop and popup windows look a LOT like a Windows Operating system, although there are some Mac looking features to.
Q: What kind of market related issues could keep this stuff under wraps? GREAT QUESTION!!
It's not "monopoly" in the formal sense, but it is when taken in context. It's a situation in which two players act like opponents while they work diligently behind the scenes directly or indirectly to make sure no other groups rise to disrupt their joint market control.
The current two party political system in America is a comparable "controlled opposition" system. Click here for a little more info on controlled opposition systems in commerce and the relationship with government that makes our system a far cry from that which most have been "taught" it was (not)...
Q: What do these three options have in common?
A: The basic hardware that makes up a computer is the same in ALL OF THESE OPTIONS.
The beautiful part about this is that retail pricing for a Chromebook is in the $150 to $325 range. Sounds heavenly right!!! It is almost, BUT we're not quite there yet.
These Chromebooks, which are just personal computers like all others, but running Chrome O/S instead of Windows or Mac O/S, have been hamstrung in a small but extremely significant way.
Chromebooks do NOT allow a user to download and install software as can be done on all other current offerings.
BUT ask yourself a tricky question.
Q: What does this Chromebook Achilles Heal do from a social engineering perspective?
A: It "encourages" computer users who want "affordable", "stable" and "user friendly" experiences to look for cloud based software options to replace Microsoft's flagship products of MS Word , Excel and Power Point. And low and behold, who's standing there with open arms waiting for those fleeing the Microsoft Software and ecosystem death trap but GOOGLE.
That said, a Chromebook can make and exceptional device without for those who are not affected by its limitations. It can also make for awesome secondary work stations around the home or office and it makes for an awesome mobile device for work or play.
And the best part about this? There is NOTHING on the computer to be lost if and when it gest lost or breaks?!
The Chrome O/S is NOT limited to laptops. That's just how it was introduced.
The Chrome O/S can be installed on Desktops by your local computer store for around $100. Anyone making or building UNIX machines should just as easly be able to provide you with a Chrome O/S device.
And for those with a DIY approach to computing, or those seeking major cost savings at an individual or group level, most old laptops and desktops can be converted into a Chrome O/S device for FREE.
So, in summary, if you can make a paradigm shift towards cloud computing and away from as much downloadable software as you can, you can enjoy a different computing experience that does not currently exist elsewhere.
This short story below introduces you to Acupuncturist Ric Valentine and the short walk we took together that lead us to our first Chromebook, our fourth Chromebook and our first DIY Chromebook too! It also introduces you to some "other things" we’ve done with some custom “software” built just for “you” that may upend some software and hardware industries lickety split. Wait till you get the fuller picture -- because it’s going to be a great one to behold!!
In 2014 I entered into a mutually beneficial work relationship with Ric Valentine.
Ric was a very talented Acupuncturist, Herbalist and Clinical Nutrition expert who had been selected as Monterey County Acupuncturist of the year in 2014. Ric was approximately 55 years old at the time I met him. He had been a practicing acupuncturist since 1991.
Ric had a degree in Economics from Stanford and he had worked as a Securities sales person and mortgage underwriter out of college. He had some experiences like me with some corporate types that pushed him in a different direction and for him Acupuncture it came to be
Ric paid his way through Acupuncture school as a Professional Bartender for the likes of Clint Eastwood and the Hog’s Breath and he supported his Acupuncture start up by Bartending full time around various Monterey Bay towns. In fact, when I met him he was still pouring drinks on the side to keep his Acupuncture Practice solvent.
Ric had a single office in a Prunedale California. Prunedale is a rural community located 10 miles north of Salinas , 20 miles north of Monterey, 20 miles south of Santa Cruz and 4 miles inland from Moss Landing and the great Pacific Ocean.
Ric’s office consisted of a front lobby that was approximately 15x15 that was very well decorated in an Asian Theme. He had 6 additional rooms that were all approximtely 10x10. Four of those rooms were setup for treatment, one for storage and one for a private office space. He also had a small gally kitchen, one handicap ready restroom and one 4x4 storage closet.
Ric’s small business problem wasn’t with getting patients. That was easy because he has a huge heart and he had decades of exposure in the community as a bartender and a very fun figure.
Ric’s small business problems were related to management, foundational small business understanding, and technology, of course.
Few who were born prior to 1970 got proper technology education and many after didn’t get it either. And heck, frankly it didn’t matter if you got it or not given the way the pirates and thieves took over the industry for a short time -- but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Suffice it to say, Ric’s technology situation had him looking like a 6’ pretzel with beautiul knots everywhere by someone elses design.
When we first met, Ric had no computers in his lobby where he should have been checking people out. He had a desktop PC in his office that was horribly slow, and he had a very expensive and small Mac that he used for social stuff that lived at home.
In his office, Ric was at the mercy of an office assitant to check people out with Quickbooks, and no one had ever gotten him setup properly with proper business tools so it was all really just a gigantic pile of slow and painful digital poo.
As I started to work with him I realized he could really benefit from 3 or 4 more computers around his office.
It would create far better work flow, and while it was going to take some training to get him up to speed, educating him wasn’t the biggest problem.
The biggest problem was all about the HARDWARE problem...
At that point in our timeline, Windows driven PC’s for anyone without full time IT support or a deep tech background were financially, emotionally, mentally and occupationally deadly...
Microsoft Corporation employees had grossly convolutated all aspects of their operating systems and business suite offerings starting after Windows XP AND they kept moving that cheese evrery few years after that such that no one could get and stay comfy.
Furthermore, their update process was often clunky and riddled with complex issues sure to foul up many.
And never mind the risk of viruses.
Either an absurd amount of money flowing into Microsoft had made all their designers and engineers bat shit crazy, or they had developed a strategic goal to make all their users bat shit crazy (and note -- these aren’t mutually exclusive!!).
Either way, the end result was the same.
There was a steady migration to far more expensive Macs going on year, over year over year... (is that a hint?).
With DOS based PC’s being a non-option, we had to consider the purchase of 3 or 4 Macs. And for $4500 to $7000 Ric could have computers everywhere we felt they’d benefit him?! And that thought lasted no more than 10 seconds at most!
I was aware of Unix based options other than Mac’s, which in fact is a Unix based option, but I had zero experience with them.
While I felt I could introduce machines with other Unix based options like Redhat, Linux or Mint for a low cost, I was very concered about support should I disappear, so I ruled those out.
Thus, the only thing left to consider was this “thing” i had heard about called a “Chromebook” -- which, as it turns out, is also a unix based option like Macs and the others I had ruled out.
Chrombooks run on Chrome Operating System (Chrome O/S) and that is published by Google. Don’t confuse Operating Systems and Browsers. An operating system is more granular than a browser. It makes the hardware work. The Browser is a bit of software that runs on top of an operating system and it gives you a looking glass into the internet.
YOU: So what’s the big difference between Chromebooks and their far more expensive laptop “competitors”?
ME: Great Question!!
Chromebooks were designed for one purpose only, and that was to browse the internet.
Imagine a situation in which your PC or Mac only had a single icon on the desktop, and that icon was for a Chrome Web Browser.
If you can imagine that, you can imagine the interface and complete functionality will find with a Chromebook.
YOU: That sounds interesting I guess. The cost savings sounds nice, but it certainly is not earth shattering…
ME: Hang tight, that part is coming!!
Around 2015 we purchased the Ric’s first Chromebook for around $325.
For Ric to benefit the most from these low cost hardware devices he needed to be able to add a second monitor, which Chrome O/S supports easily!!
In addition, for Ric to benefit the most from these low cost hardware devices, we had to find an alternative for Quickbooks desktop solution along with a few other software solutions.
So I started to play with it and all things Google Drive and Google platform related. I discovered a few cool things and one thing lead to another…
So what are two creative guys on very tight budgets, limited time frames and a desire for privacy to do?
We built a full blown double entry accounting solution in Google Sheets so Ric would never have to pay Intuit for that type of software again!!
That also came with the added benefit of getting his data out of Intuit data silos which may have been used to suppress and manipulate small business people around the world for decades, no less.
Of course, we only did this AFTER building Ric a custom Point of Sale System in Google sheets that gives him power and flexibility in check out that doesn’t exist in other brick and mortar oriented systems. And of course, that’s more private than any system he could subscribe to and it too is free to him for life.
YOU: Wait, so you’re telling me that it was this need for LOWER COST HARDWARE that lead you and Ric to the development of Google Sheets based software templates that you’re going to be giving away to people for free to replace Quickbooks and fee based Point of Sale Systems for ever and ever?
ME: Now you’re getting the picture!! And the “software” solutions you mentioned are but the tip of the iceburg!!
In fact, we have built a fully modular “software systems” with Google Sheets files that allows anyone to create modules for themselves or others in a very individual and personal way that stands to upend industry after industry after industry -- all in the name of PROGRESS for the small business person. If you are familiar with the terms ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and CRM (Customer Requirements Management) systems, these can be used to build those for small businesses in amazingly cool ways.
And aren’t we all really small business people in on our own commercial plays anyway!?
So the market is BIG and the potential for global cost savings for the little people are FANTASTICALLY HUGE!!
Short term, there will be winners and losers for sure.
Long term, we all become the winners we were destined to become.
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!!!!!?? ATTENTION -- DANGER -- PROCEED W. CAUTION !!??
The DARK SIDE has seen the light, and they are trying to create a very confusing FIGHT ?!!!!
Do NOT run out and buy a Chromebook right now without more education or you might get TRICKED!!
In late 2019, Ric and I went to buy his fourth Chromebook at Amazon.com when we noticed something odd.
All the manufacturers were advertising “eMMC” drives as opposed to “solid state drives”.
As near as we can tell, eMMC drives are basically small memory chips, maybe 2”x2” square. The images make them look kind of like the larger memory chips that were found in some of the original digital cameras.
Unsure of he difference, we purchased one and OMG, what a transparent trick these Pirates tried to pull!?!
A typical load of 5 or so tabs in a tabset at 1 time took about 30 seconds on his original chromebook
With this new one, it took 2.5 minutes, which was exactly 5 times longer
And when doing research we found specs indicating these chips would be about 5x slower than a solid state drive…
So, while many would not have expecdted Chromebooks to have used the hard drive as part of loading a web browser, turns out, they do for sure and these machines are now tinier dogs in a much larger fight!
These eMMC chips are 5 times slower than solid state drives they replaced AND the manafacturers not only held the same pricing for this dramatic loss in performance, the prices for these bogus machines are skyrocketing in retail stores like Best Buy where they are asking absurd amounts like $600 for a watered down chromebook?!
AND they are trying to make google look like idiots by offering their Pixel Chromebook for $900?!
By George, it’s as if these hardware vendors are lining up to start some kind of crazy commercial war or something?
Why would HP, Lenovo, Dell, Acer, Asus and several others GUT their chromebook offerings at this time?
Could it have been done to coincicide with the Windows 7 End of Life date of January 14, 2020?!
That’s the time time people might be most apt to try to make a switch?
No rocket scientists required to see through this, me thinks not...
And it was THAT very manipulative move, outside of the realization of the End of Life Date that prompted us to ask the simple question…
Can we just load Chrome O/S on an old Windows 7 machine and get on with life?
And the resound answer came back when another new Chromebook Convert took his old Windows 7 machine to a beach side computer store on the other coast where some very kind Technologists did a Chrome O/S install on his old Windows 7 machine for $79.
If HP, Lenovo, Dell, Acer, Asus and others were trying to make a short term gouge to gain profits during a stressful end of life situation, me thinks that move just backfired in a rather profound way.
Good luck to all as it sure looks like this commercial game is about to blow !!