dmd platform support - poll

[John Reimer]

Hello Nick,

>> no one forcing you to buy a new PC and DMD will continue to support
>> 32bit for a long time, I presume. but you cannot force people who did
>> buy a new PC in the last few *years* to be limited to your old
>> ancient hardware.
>> 
> A *few* years is not nearly a long as most people in the tech sector
> would like to believe (And one hell of a far cry from "ancient").
> Something that's only a few years old is still very useful, as well it
> *should* be. If you feel like you have to replace a machine every
> couple of years, you're wasting your money. (I'm using the general
> "you" here, not *you* specifically.) It's just an example of this
> society's rampant over-consumerism (ie, the so-called "consumer
> whore") and ever-decreasing pragmatism.
> 


Although your manner tends toward aggressive here, you have some very good 
points. :)

Our society is indeed caught up in over-consumerisim.   A 64-bit port will 
appear eventually because of demand.  For a few people the need will be a 
valid one; but for most, the port will only satisfy the ever-growing /perception/ 
of the need, rather than the need itself.  For consumers, this has been how 
the computer industry has operated for awhile.

Incidentally, I'm still using my Compaq Presario X1000 laptop (Pentium M 
1.4 GHz) which is probably close to 6 years old now.  I've updated certain 
aspects of it and fixed it a couple of times.  Amazingly it keeps running... 
and performs quite well for my needs.  But... I do recall the days when I 
used to throw money at computer upgrade after computer upgrade... probably 
every year.  For me, that was a huge waste of money, and I look back in horror 
at my spending practice.  For businesses, I imagine annual upgrades might 
be a necessity, however.

-JJR