On Sat, Sep 9, 2023 at 10:20 AM Evan Leibovitch via talk <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Sat, Sep 9, 2023 at 9:56 AM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> >> Notebooks are almost supplanting "regular" PCs. > > > IMO we're well beyond the "almost" in that statement. > COVID led to work-from-home which necessitated laptops for employees in the > services sector. > Even though the COVID threat has reduced, WFH is never going away. > For typical business use there is no compelling reason for a desktop.
Dunno - - - I would say that I see no compelling reason for a laptop. Power headaches, tiny monitor space (I have a seriously multi-monitor system (think 8620 x 3000 pixels almost all of it visible)) unable to use an ergo keyboard - - - - I wonder why anyone would want to use a laptop (lol)? > > But also, for the purpose of this thread, even "regular" PCs are increasingly > coming with wifi as an alternative to wired networking. Ditto printing, where > only premium units have Ethernet but most have wifi. This makes sense as most > homes are well wired for RJ11 POTS service, but few are wired for RJ45. So > the usual solution I have seen lately is to blanket even large houses with > mesh wifi like the TP-Link Deco line. This seems good enough for most people > as even 4K televisions are fine with wifi. If one is into privacy and security - - - wifi - - - not so hot - - - sorry! (radio waves are very indiscriminate!) > > I was fortunate enough to buy a house from a developer when all that existed > at the time of purchase was a sales office and a hectare or two of dirt. So I > was able to do custom wiring. Requesting almost every room wired with RJ45 > was so unusual it took me almost a full afternoon to explain it to the > contractor. Then they brought in a commercial team that tried to sell me > massively overpriced Ethernet switches. But I ended up happy with the result, > though I have no idea if it will affect the house's resale value. Gret for you but did they use cat 5 or 5e wiring. Today you might need cat 8 (6 and 7 seems to have been obsoleted - - - dunno). I would have dragged in conduit then you would be very future proof - - - with just cable runs you will have to redo every 20 odd years. > > I have three USB-to-Ethernet devices. One was supplied by Asus with the > laptop. Another is a TP-Link UE300C That is used with other laptops. But the > one I use the most is a $21 hub I bought on Aliexpress that also includes an > HDMI port, an SD card reader, and some additional USB-A ports. All have > worked well under both Windows and Linux (KDE Neon), though I haven't exactly > stress-tested them. The hub is fussy about the order of plugging things in > but it works. > I may have found a unicorn. Label says its a Tripp-Lite (model U209-006-RJ-45-X) usb to RJ-45 cable made by Eaton. FreeBSD also gives that baby passing marks - - - -its the one one there that gets that. Wasn't cheap though (it was a newegg purchase and shipping was quick). Might be worth a look if you need such - - - I did/do because buying used commercial computers it seems that a second RJ-45 is considered irrelevant although there might be 4 or 5 USB 3.x ports. Big business doesn't think long term - - - its for use in the period of the lease (at most 3 years possibly 4) then the systems are replaced. M$ loves this and I like getting cheap reasonably high speced small form factor systems (they help keep my power costs down and space considerations lower as well). HTH --- Post to this mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
