this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2025
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Because the replacement comes from non-graybeards in FOSS, and their replacement from without-beards in FOSS, and they come from youths in FOSS, and they from teens geeking around with computers, and oops - teens are not geeking around with computers, they are watching reels and scrolling recommendations and doing other bullshit. If they have a PC, it's an unloved work tool for them, with crappy bloated Windows, crappy bloated software for work and studies, not always crappy, but bloated games, you get the idea.
Because there was a generation very fertile on geeks. It's going away. There are demographic pits and there are demographic, what they call them, hills? The point is, we are seeing the effects of the latter.
Sure, sure, old man. Everything was better when you were young.
There never was a majority of people who were into computers. It was always a minority. And I'd argue that nowadays there's more developers because there's simply more people with access to computers.
Some of them won't like them, some will be neutral and some will be "geeking around".
And having seen some code from people both older and younger, the younger ones are better (note that it's my anecdotal evidence). And you at least can train the younger ones, while the "experienced" will argue with you and take energy out of your day.
I'm so tired of the stupid "when I was young, everything was better". You know what else was exactly the same? The previous generation telling you how everything was better when they were young. Congrats, you're them now.
Normal, mainstream software expected users to run DOS commands and edit autoexec.bat/config.sys files, and installing new hardware often involved configuring motherboard DIP switches and trying to figure out what "IRQ" and "DMA" means. There is no equivalent to that today. Plug it in, turn it on, and you're done. 9 times out of 10 you don't even need to install a driver, your OS already has it. Where does the door to learning and discovery present itself? With plug and play systems and walled garden app stores, everywhere a user could possibly come across some more advanced concepts has been muted and decorated over with pretty conveniences. Computers are toasters now.
Eh, if you're into computers, you'll find your way. My first "programming" adventures were writing batch/vb scripts and putting them in the startup folder and watching the teacher lose their shit when when their computer turned off after five seconds. Or watching all of the classroom open and close the CD drives 50 times when we were the first to have an IT class that day.
That part is about IBM PC architecture more than it is about computers in general, including personal computers of that time.
EDIT: I wonder, why all the downvotes, this is just true, look at Macs of that time. I'm not saying interrupts themselves are or a concept of DMA itself is.