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Comment by vore | Hacker News Reader

This is a ridiculous out of touch take. Of course young people know what desktop computing is like: they use it at school for class and use it at home for gaming. Have you considered that people might prefer mobile is preferable because it’s, well, mobile and you don’t have to lug a big ol’ machine around?

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I'm skeptical of your claim that young people are actually using desktops in those situations. As far as I've seen, young people are primarily gaming on consoles and are using stripped down devices like Chromebooks at school. It's also been noted that computer skills have gotten markedly worse among young people in recent years, which suggests they are not in fact being exposed to desktops regularly.

And I definitely think you're off base about mobile devices being popular because they're mobile. People will sit at home and use a phone that is an incredibly worse experience than using an actual computer, and think it's an adequate substitute. They don't need the mobility in that situation, but they really think there's nothing wrong with the user experience.

Yeah, 90% of the time when I’m using my phone (e.g. right now), I’m at home, on my couch. I could be using my laptop or desktop which are both close within reach, but I like being able to read HN while my partner plays Zelda.

I’m not exactly the demographic of “only uses mobile” - I am very much a “pre-mobile internet user” (coding, games, music all required me to pick up some desktop skills) but can attest to the fact that I don’t hate the experience in a way that’s commensurate with how much I’d hate having a hot laptop on my stomach or sitting in some other room typing this out.

Most schools use tablets or Chromebooks, especially in the early years. Neither gives access to a system which has desktop level capabilities. Both are locked down consumption platforms.

I did not get my own laptop until I started at my university. I am now doing a Ph.D. in informatics (European meaning of the term). I had access to my dad's workstation at home, but just to play around on and I certainly did not have root or the ability to install my own software. There were computers in my computer lab at high school, but I rarely used them. They were locked down as much as any smartphone I have ever had.

At what age does someone need root access to become interested in a career in CS/IT/web dev/whatever?

Or, if not root access, like what kind of "desktop level capabilities" should I have had that I did not have, given that I did not have a desktop as a teenager or younger?

I am Gen X. I can think of exactly 0 friends who had their own desktops as teenagers. (Their own, as in were not really their parents' work computer, did not have to share with the family, could do whatever they wanted with, etc.)

I'm at the lower end of the millennial range and have personally experienced people who were a couple of years younger than me having to have folder hierarchies explained to them because they haven't encountered them before. This was in an introductory R course at the beginning of a master's degree at university.

https://www.theverge.com/22684730/students-file-folder-direc...

You do not need root access necessarily, but you do need to get familiarity with the platforms you will actually be using when working, ie. Windows and maybe macOS.

For Gen X and most of millennials, that platform was the only platform that existed. Using computers necessitated becoming familiar with "real" computers. That is no longer the case which is why gen Z are digital natives that have the digital literacy on a similar level to baby boomers.

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