LRwhat if ram buyout is part of a greater attack on personal computing
any other indicators?
the pattern would be: make personal computing expensive, complicated, and unnecessary while making cloud dependence cheap, simple, and required. whether coordinated or emergent, the trajectory is similar - computing power migrating from personal ownership to rental access.
possible indicators:
hardware consolidation:
* RAM concentrated in data centers, not consumer hands
* repair parts increasingly scarce or locked down (right-to-repair battles)
* custom silicon (M-series, Snapdragon X) that's harder to upgrade or swap
* soldered components becoming standard even in "pro" machines
software centralization:
* operating systems pushing cloud dependencies (win 11's ms account requirements, ChromeOS model)
* Adobe, Microsoft, AutoCAD all shifted to subscription models requiring internet validation
* local AI models possible but corporations pushing API-dependent solutions
* progressive web apps replacing locally-run software
knowledge degradation:
* fewer people learning to build PCs or understand their machines
* tech education shifting from "how computers work" to "how to use apps"
* repair culture dying as devices become unrepairable black boxes
* documentation and schematics increasingly proprietary
economic pressure:
* hobbyist computing priced out (current RAM situation)
* home servers becoming impractical vs cloud services
* development tools increasingly cloud-based (GitHub codespaces, cloud IDEs)
honestly, all fairly weak and circumnavigable indicators, but also possibly a death by a thousand cuts.
on the other hand, videogames. a lot more going on for PC. valve's healing influence. is cloud gaming a serious force by now? doubtful.
possible deliberate future attack vectors:
SSD controller chips - a "sudden shortage" would be catastrophic. if NAND controllers became scarce or prohibitively expensive, it would force cloud storage dependence overnight. people couldn't even backup locally anymore.
PSUs - capacitor or transformer supply "disruption" would halt all PC building.
BIOS/UEFI firmware - a "security crisis" requiring signed firmware. approved vendors only or nothing boots
CPU microcode "security patches" - a discovered "fundamental flaw" requiring always-online validation to boot. turns every processor into a subscription service. precedent already exists with Intel Management Engine and AMD PSP.
ethernet/network chips - if networking hardware became scarce or required licensing/authentication.
discrete GPU extinction - already happening organically, but accelerated scarcity would eliminate any serious computing, gaming, or AI work on personal machines.
the plot thickens
"Jeff Bezos said the quiet part out loud — hopes that you'll give up your PC to rent one from the cloud"
https://www.windowscentral.com/artificial-intelligence/jeff-bezos-says-the-quiet-part-out-loud-bezos-envisions-that-youll-give-up-your-pc-for-an-ai-cloud-version
the plot gains further viscosity
"Western Digital is already sold out of hard drives for all of 2026 — chief says some long-term agreements for 2027 and 2028 already in place"
it appears genai sloppers have understood that the only way to win is to destroy their greatest competitor: personal computing.
Keith Judge@lritter Yep, I had planned to hugely upgrade my gaming PC this year, but I think my old one now has a year or two more life in it.
The Seven Voyages Of Steve@KeefJudge @lritter Very much looking forward to component manufacturers grovelling back to their old customers and eating shit when their fly by night flashy customers go bankrupt
Mark Ripley@sinbad @KeefJudge @lritter Oh yes. When OpenAI suddenly pull those orders, and mfrs are sat with warehouses full of unsold stock, hopefully there will be a h/w discount bonanza :)
@sinbad @KeefJudge @lritter Even better, maybe we could coordinate a no-buy situation, so Crucial et al go bust themselves. That'll learn 'em. Power to the people!
@MarkRipley @sinbad @lritter A less optimistic way this could play out is we end up with what are basically terminals with minimal power/RAM, with all the compute power in "cloud" servers (whether LLM or otherwise).
@KeefJudge @MarkRipley @sinbad it's probably going to end up in a narratively dissatisfying split, with a majority living in "computational east germany", and two minorities enjoying full access: upper middle-class professionals and frugal harry tuttles.
@KeefJudge @sinbad @lritter ...which was Larry Ellison's plan all along, if you remember "thin clients" from 20 years ago.
@MarkRipley @KeefJudge @sinbad love it how when i look up this guy and he is immediately associated with another shitty thing i already know about (oracle).