So I've had a couple of I7 processors now for 7 years. Sure, it may have gone through some name changes.

Bloomfield
Lynnfield
Gulftown
Sandy Bridge
Sandy Bridge-E
Ivy Bridge
Haswell
Ivy Bridge-E
Haswell-E
Broadwell
Skylake

But it is the same shit, let us be honest.

http://www.maximumpc.com/bloomfield-takes-on-skylake/#page-2

The most modern I7s are usually faster than the first generation, but not always..... I mean let us be serious for a second here. A CPU that is 8 years old is beating the most modern INTEL I7 that has a 1000mhz advantage? Yes, yes it is.

Intel XEONs, which are nearly 100% I7's, go for many times the price of I7's, even if they are lower speeds..... simply because we can plug that Xeon into a multiple socket motherboard. Yes that feature makes it 3-10x more expensive than an I7 .

The future seems to be cloud computing, where we have thin clients that are basically screens into the real machine, terminals. They control every element of the data, the processing, etc. Zero privacy, zero piracy (ZP2). Pretty scary if you are a computer enthusiast and actually like running your own stuff.

Once they control the computing then things like Bitcoin, MicroCash, Bittorrent will not exist. Goodbye peer to peer.

 

No matter what direction we go with 'cloud computing' I doubt we will see absolute abandonment from P2P in our lifetimes. And I agree
on Intel's latest generations of overpriced cpu's.

 

It is in their interest to control the computing power. Every major shift in the last 5 years has been to getting rid of computers in favor of the "cloud". Such an innocent name for their end game. It doesn't even matter if they don't have some "agenda" to go towards this, the reality is that agenda will at some stage be sought because it makes them the most money. Capitalism 101.

 

Well I think company use of cloud services should be separated away from the home use. Desktop computers in the home are dying, in favor of tablets and smart phones. Some people who need to write often will probably have a laptop. Anyhow the main thing here isn't ease of use but the fact if you don't have real computers in your phone, tablet, laptop, or PC you can control everything someone does.These devices then become much cheaper to make and people who don't know any different simply buy the cheap crap with the always on connection to the cloud services.

The Xbox will be built into screens because all an "xbox" will be is a service you connect to and stream playable content. Your input will be sent to their servers, they send you back your video and audio stream. Your phone will be the equiv of a web browser that simulates some basic OS features. Your tablet the same. Your laptop the same. And there are advantages to having it this way, I can just imagine the marketing. But there is zero privacy and zero control. It's just a sad direction we are headed and there is nothing that will stop it.