why not central home computing?

[TheFu]

Please don't blame me for any rpi use as a desktop. rpi hw is pretty expensive for what we actually get. Check out odroid and pine64 options for much more powerful systems at similar prices. If you are in the US, Ameridroid has many of the systems. Tell them I said hello.

Did you ever try x2go? How's that working?

[DuckHook]

Please don't blame me for any rpi use as a desktop. rpi hw is pretty expensive for what we actually get. Check out odroid and pine64 options for much more powerful systems at similar prices. If you are in the US, Ameridroid has many of the systems. Tell them I said hello.

Did you ever try x2go? How's that working?

Now my interest is piqued in these other platforms. You will be the ruin of me yet.

x2go works quite nicely. There's still lag, but less of it than with pure ssh -X. I don't have a choice on the WIFI front. The RPi must be situated in a place that has no ethernet cabling. I'm actually okay with this for my use case. I'm used to the pure CLI environment these days, so the GUI access was more for curiosity than for anything else.

I'm finding that the main advantage of RPi is the huge community that is behind it. If I'm overpaying a bit for the HW vs competitive HW like odroid or pine64, the community resources more than make up for it. But now that you've got me interested in tinkering with these things again, I doubt I'll be able to resist either odroid or pine64. Goodness knows I have enough time on my hands these days.

[Shibblet]

I've yet to see any grandchildren, but I am over seventy and have been using online banking for years.

The extent of ageism in forums like these is pretty disturbing.

Clearly this is just a generalization.

[1clue]

You basically just described ChromeOS. Only with local storage and possibly local processing.

One typical vendor of hardware that does this (apps, not chrome specifically) would be Synology. They market NAS, but those systems can add apps as well, so it's pretty point-and-click to setup your local services. Another vendor is Antsle.

If you like you can configure a VPN on your router so you can get to your app server from outside your home wifi. Be careful about security!

Seriously though, you should add up all the power your old devices use and consider getting a well-chosen newer system or systems. The sort of services needed in a home don't need a monster CPU, but often benefit more from a bunch of really small cores. Antsle uses Intel Atom, their antsle 1 is a c2750 I think, which is 8 cores and it's based on Gentoo Linux. I have pretty close to the same hardware, I like it a lot. The Antsle box is fanless so it's silent. My build has fans but they're pretty quiet, and very low power consumption.

[Tadaen_Sylvermane]

I've yet to see any grandchildren, but I am over seventy and have been using online banking for years.

The extent of ageism in forums like these is pretty disturbing.

I agree it can be. However I also know from personal experience that you are in the minority in regards to "older ones" being comfortable, daresay knowledgeable about tech of any kind from my perspective. My grandparents for example can't figure out why the internet dies on their laptop every few days. So I trot over there and press the airplane mode button on the laptop. They think I'm a genius. For the record, I have explained this concept to them many times. Another older lady I helped out has had several tablets all "break, they're junk". Problem was she was downloading everything she could find and didn't comprehend that these things have limited storage space. She was also going to throw her computer away that I had put Xubuntu on because it was "trash and broken". She had logged out of Xubuntu and changed from her user to the Other user option, therefore anything she tried didn't work. Maybe that was my fault not to setting an automatic foolproof login. This happened a couple times. I have many other incidents like these involving quite a number of people in my area.

Point being, yes people do automatically assume older ones don't know or want to know stuff like this. Sad part is that is my reality. The only person I know > 60 who doesn't seem to be afraid of anything electronic, does like to tinker and try random stuff where his computer and devices are concerned is my father. And he has been doing everything online for awhile now as well. Maybe he passed that tinkering thing to me and here I am.

[TheFu]

Perhaps comfort w/ technology is related to education and vocation more than age? Almost everyone in my extended family uses computers for their jobs and most are in technology fields. A few are quite savvy about multiple OSes and others just use computers as tools. Most of them have a home server, usually linux. 4 of us run servers on the internet.

I’ve come across so many college students, in EE and CS majors who were pretty clueless about computers. They have the misconception that being a user makes them some expert. it does not. it is a case where a little perceived knowledge is a dangerous thing.

[QIII]

And now a word from the "management":

Much of what people are saying here about people having trouble with things tech applies to both young computer users and old. I run into just as many youngsters who can't figure things out or don't understand the most basic of concepts -- teenagers included.

We Boomers were around for the advent of the personal computer and have been using them since. We're producing grandchildren. My Dad, well into his 80s and a great-grandfather multiple times over before he died, was a computer whiz.

If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say that the average age of the Staff on the forums is in the range of 50 and the Admins are in the range of 60.

Even as a figure of speech, when it comes to tech a phrase like "... your grandparents ..." is inaccurate and ageist. Let's just remove any such concepts (and sexism, for that matter) from what we write here on the Ubuntu Forums. OK?

Back to the original discussion, please.

You may now return to your normally scheduled programming.

[Shibblet]

Even as a figure of speech, when it comes to tech a phrase like "... your grandparents ..." is inaccurate and ageist. Let's just remove any such concepts (and sexism, for that matter) from what we write here on the Ubuntu Forums. OK?

Back to the original discussion, please.

I mean, it's easy for you to say... you're not the one being blamed for "ageist" comments.

I personally would call this a "cherry picked" argument, and that someone intentionally wanted to be offended. They didn't look at the part that said "over 40." How old would that make my Grandparents?
Secondly, I did say "your grandparents," and ironically the person that responded was in his 70's. How old would "your grandparents" be, if you are 70? Did they ever use online banking?

Personally, I don't appreciate the "ageist" comments.

[Irihapeti]

This thread has run its course. Closed.