alxbelu wrote:...I have on multiple occasions clearly stated that I understand that this is not something that should be prioritized short-term, but should be implemented long-term to enable the massive potential of currently unsuited laptops and mobile devices. You can argue all you want that these devices should "just get better cooling solutions" and that there's "nothing wrong" with FAH (which is plainly the sentiment conveyed by many here), but it won't change the fact that slim/ultraportable devices with inferior cooling but snappy responsiveness in bursts sells more than draggable heavy laptops with appropriate cooling for long-term loads...
Regarding the interface for V7, it can definitely be improved and made better. You may not be aware of this but V7 was the first F@H client that had a proper GUI to encourage new Donors. v6 and previous versions were mostly CLI based and a lot more "tricky" to use when compared to V7. Given that, V7 was definitely a huge step from a mostly, CLI interface one. Decisions that were made 7 years ago (viewtopic.php?f=88&t=23750) was based on the hardware and software available. Would you have thought that a desktop PC would end up with 32 CPUs like they are nowadays in 2013, highly unlikely. There has been significant changes in hardware/software in the last 7 years. Of course, the interface is a bit dated. Given the resource limitations, the planned way forward is to have components that are open source with the hope that more developers can join the project and build something that the F@H community uses and love while allowing the F@H Team to focus on what they do best, do science and optimize FahCores while looking at new hardware to fold on. Allowing the F@H Team to move from a "reactive approach" to a "proactive approach" would do miracles for the F@H community.
Let's take a different forum, Adobe. I got the expense subscription to Adobe CC and install it on my laptop. I find out that the interface is lagging, performance of Premiere Pro is terrible. Lightroom take ages to edit pictures. Photoshop is slow to make modification. I go to the Forum and say that the software is causing my laptop to overheat. Guess what, everyone states that the laptop is at fault (
https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussions ... erheating/). About issues in Ligthroom, I am pointed to this article about how to optimize it for best performance (
https://helpx.adobe.com/nz/lightroom-cl ... troom.html). The point is that in an Adobe Forum, all my "Adobe Software Issues" become either a hardware limitation or my lack of understanding of how to work with Adobe products. How is that any different to F@H Forum where we state how to reduce the CPU temperatures either by hardware changes (better cooling) or software tweaks (reduce CPU threads)? Of course, F@H lacks the multi-billion dollar value of Adobe's R&R and the fancy website but their software encounters the same problem that F@H does too... the only thing common is the hardware. Unfortunately, some marketing campaigns are not in the best interest of the user or the users don't know/change their use-case so we understand that and we support those Donors by working with them. Most posts that I read (I can't say that I read every single but but I do make an effort when time/life permits) guides the Donor to optimize their contribution to a level that they are comfortable with or help them make informed decisions when it comes to hardware purchases, etc.
Regarding capturing the portable market, there was the Google Chrome App (
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... idihobnofo) and it was pretty successful. I ran on on my work system (with the director's permission) 24/7 and it never over-heated the system or caused any slowness. It was great but unfortunately, it came to an end as Google decided to stop supporting aspects of it which were required by F@H to run.
The point is that without context/history, it will be a bit baffling for new Donors to understand why some things are the way they are but if you give it a bit of time, you will notice that things are moving slowly and steadily since some decisions made now, might have a big impact 3 years down the road with little/no leeway. Thus, rushing into making decisions isn't what F@H is known for... instead it is known for the scientific advancements and peer-approved papers that it publishes. After all, most of us are in this for helping scientists figure out diseases and help them find a cure/solution/treatment
