Category: Computers

Steam hardware survey

The past week Steam asked whether it could upload my hardware specs for the hardware survey. Afterwards you can check out the results on the hardware survey page.

So it seems the ‘average’ PC has 6 cores, a 3060 and runs Windows 10. The cpus vary quite a bit but it seems that there are a lot of people running games / steam on a relatively older PC. That is probably why they’re still running Windows 10. I don’t see why else you would still run Windows 10, since 11 works for me pretty well on several PCs.

It is however easy to get caught in a bubble, where you regularly frequent hardware forums and or reddit where people run the latest hardware to think that most people do that. It seems the average person just buys a PC every 5 years or so and keeps that running, maybe upgrading the video card and that’s it.

About 1/3 vs 2/3 amd vs intel, which is nice. I am glad Intel doesn’t have a monopoly here.

I also would have expected more people running 1440p, but it’s only 14%. Most people still game at 1080p as you can see below.

All in all an interesting page to look at.

Windows 7

Windows 7 RC1 will be released on MSDN on april 30th. There is a very nice review/ preview on the windows supersite. From my experience so far (from the public beta):  it’s very slick and snappy. The ui is a lot better too, especially the task bar. It stacks the programs in a much nicer way, and you can easily switch between windows etc.. But read the extensive review below for (much) more info .

But Windows 7, in release candidate guise, is already a towering achievement that casts Windows Vista immediately in its shadow.

Microsoft’s Windows 7 Site

Windows 7 RC1 Review

Ubuntu 8.10

So far the reviews and first impressions of the release candidate have been very good. It seems 8.10 will be even more smooth and snappier than the previous 8.04 release. Not going to bother with the RC, but will wait a few days for 8.10. Hope the upgrade process will be smooth !

Launchy

The lifehacker has a very nice post on how to get more out of Launchy. In case you don’t know what Launchy is:

Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager.

Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!

Lifehacker.com: Take Launchy beyond application launching
Launchy : http://www.launchy.net/

Building a PC

Nice post on putting together a PC on codinghorror.

I have always put together PCs from parts, since you can at least pick what parts go into it. And it used to be cheaper, but that argument isnt valid anymore. Once you’ve put one together, you start the endless upgrading cycle. Bigger harddrives, new videocard, and eventually a new motherboard + CPU and maybe a new powersupply that can power all your devices.

Downside of this is, while upgrading you end up with all these spare parts, enough to put together a new PC. So you use that as a home server. Ok fine, oh more parts: you end up with a Multimedia PC hooked up to the TV. So far that’s all functional, but you also get these pcs that are ‘meant for testing OS [insert an OS here]’ and get booted maybe once a month ;).

Why not sell those spare parts on Ebay then ? I have done that in the past, but these days, they are hardly worth anything anymore. You cant sell a 40/80Gb drive or an Nvidia FX5700 (for which you paid E150) for a reasonable amount, that makes it worth the packaging and all the hassle that goes along with it.

Did I mention I also got a stack of leftover old scsi server stuff ? 😉

Apple Safari on Windows

My verdict: back to the drawing board for Apple 😉 . If I released a turd like this, I think I’d be invited into my director’s office for a little chat. Below you can see how this site gets rendered. Basically every Header text is simply omitted. They’re just not there. At least the javascript seems to work.

Furthermore, I think it’s a little bit crazy to simple take an Apple program and port that directly to the Windows Environment, same interface, same font rendering etc.. For example it’s pretty tough to resize the browser window, you need to place the mouse pointer exactly at the little bottom triangle thingy in the right bottom. Also some dialogues have the OK and CANCEL reversed from what you’d expect in windows. And the look just stands out like a sore thumb compared to the other programs I have opened.

And to call this a Beta release is beyond a joke, it’s way too buggy and incomplete for that. I don’t see why apple is using up resources to release a browser for windows in the first place, but why they hurt their own reputation by releasing this piece of crap is beyond me… BTW I never use Safari in my Mac Mini, never liked it. Camino is so much better…

More links:
Wired Review
Scott Hanselman’s review
joel on software
Channel 9 Thread