Hacker News Reader

Comment by api | Hacker News Reader

The wheel of reincarnation is so called because it turns, and it will probably turn again. The new buzzword "edge computing" refers to the use of computers close to the user to do what was once done in "the cloud." Peer to peer is on the rise too, linking "edge" devices directly together. Voila, PC revolution 2.0 but with new terms. Soon we will reinvent the BBS, shareware, etc.

View on HN

> Soon we will reinvent the BBS, shareware, etc.

What I want back are the duck-strangling noises that the dial-up modem makes when connecting.

With edge computing, though, the computing is done under the control of whoever controls the mainframe even though it's physically close to the user, so it's quite different from personal computing.

For now, but edge computing diminishes the role of the mainframe. This makes it easier to replace the mainframe. Eventually someone will do that.

Previous PCs came from chips and designs that were originally built to power terminals for mainframes like the Intel 4004/8008, the 6502, and the Z80. Today's handheld dumb terminals for mainframes are built with ARM64 chips that are approaching "desktop" performance levels just like those old dumb term chips started to approach useful performance levels before someone realized you didn't need the mainframe anymore.

... and so the wheel turns.

I think the biggest current barrier to de-cloudification of mobile devices is the heavily and cryptographically locked down OS. That's a software thing, not a hardware thing.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com