Read / Allocate Cores

[mnrvovrfc]

OK well, thanks.  Most people will be on single core CPU's?

Some people keep computers around only to run Windows98 or WindowsXP because they hate that much M$'s changes starting with Vista and even more what has happened with Windows10 in particular. Heck, I'd do it too but unfortunately the hard disk died and the monitor became damaged beyond repair, of an 18-year-old so far Toshiba Satellite M45 with the excellent Intel Celeron-M CPU and upgraded to 1.5GiB RAM. Those people have favorite 32-bit software and don't trust the later versions of Windows to handle it for them. Moreover, some people have those computers to be able to run 16-bit software at all because Windows10 won't do it. Either that or they install a Linux distro with DOSBOX to run 16-bit programs.

Otherwise a lot of people (like me) find computers too freakin' expensive which have four cores and 16GB RAM. Even laptops are commanding prices which are significant after the inflation caused by COVID-19 and other world events. A computer is not acceptable which was used for a short time by somebody else, because it's not known what was done wiht it and to it, unless the price is marked down by 50% or more of what it was sold to that person. Having a CPU with four cores is a commodity, and even that's not enough for some of the most demanding projects such as compiling the Linux kernel in less than a few hours.

Now with rumors that M$ wants to put a chip into computers so that only Windows would run on them, to guard against whoever tries to replace it with Linux, it's even more unacceptable how expensive so-called budget portable computers are getting.

There are plenty of people over 50 years old who only want the thing to work, no matter what is the equipment they employ. One might have a 20-year-old computer with a single-core CPU because it's what he/she could afford. There are a lot of such people in Africa and Asia, maybe I'm sounding ignorant here. They're not going to care about the latest technology if they cannot reach it and if they cannot buy it. If the computer can run QBasic then that's what the user will stick with. If the computer could use QB64 with one core of the CPU and a limited amount of RAM, he/she would take it. That's why some people are thrilled with the additional advantages with performance that QB64 gives that 16-bit QuickBASIC and QBasic couldn't, and then they have to deal with consequences such as having to log out of a multiuser system to regain control of the computer.

We have a handful of Macintosh users around here. They could be as demanding as the course of ApCo's history. Equipment gets ancient faster in the Macintosh world than in the Windows world, only because that company completely controls it in the best way they think would generate more profits for them. And people are willing to pay for it, which is the saddest thing. However they are leaving even more people behind who want to stick around a bit longer. It seems to be a race for the most toys, to always have the latest, fastest and baddest to impress the friends and neighbors.