Companies pivoting to rent seeking is an awful trend.
The fine print is worse. If you cancel, you owe a fee equal to the rental price for the remainder of the year.
so at this point just buy the damn computer is what i’m taking from this
Bleak.
7.HP AI Companion requires 32GB RAM for local processing.
WHAT THE FUCK
What is surprising about this? LLMs are giant memory consumers.
yea, i’m surprised, 32GB is goddamn ridiculous for anything, let alone for a shitty hp branded autocorrect
fuck AI, fuck HP, and fuck “laptop subscription”
the saddest thing is, people will sign up, if for no other reason than they have no other option
yea, i’m surprised, 32GB is goddamn ridiculous for anything, let alone for a shitty hp branded autocorrect
32GB is actually considered the bare minimum for most of the common locally run LLM models. Most folks don’t run a locally run LLM. They use a cloud service, so they don’t need a huge pile of RAM locally. However, more privacy focused or heavy users with cost concerns might choose to run an LLM locally so they’re not paying per token. With regards to locally run LLMs, this would be comparable to renting car when you need it vs buying one outright. If you only need a car once a year, renting is clearly the better choice. If you’re driving to work everyday then clearly buying the car yourself is a better deal overall.
You are perfectly fine not liking AI, but you’re also out-of-touch if you think 32GB is too big for anything. Lots of other use cases need 32GB or more and have nothing to do with AI.
I agree with your frustration with subscription laptops. I hope people don’t use it.
well hp is aware that laptops are quickly becoming out of reach money-wise for a larger and larger chunk of consumers, they just had to figure out some way to exploit that.
$420 a year for a laptop doesn’t sound like robbery at first, until you consider it’s just money out the window, and they’re 100% harvesting every 1 and every 0 input and output from that laptop that they still own/control. i haven’t even looked at the fine print, which i’m willing to bet makes the whole thing exponentially worse
That’s not really true. You can download lightweight models to run with LM Studio just as easily.
The Epstein class of billionaires demand that all serfs enter subscription for living, if you do not comply your taxes will find someone willing to enforce it. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.
$85 a month for a mediocre laptop that I’m probably not allowed to modify in any way? Yeah, nah.
This sounds like leasing renamed. Not unusual in the enterprise space.
I really wonder who would (basically) rent a laptop. You can get used ones so cheap.
*This does not seem aimed at business.
People who want new but can’t afford the capital expense.
My employer leases our computers for 3-5 years. I get a new model when my lease runs out. I don’t really mind the guaranteed refresh except having to move all my stuff over. I would be way more pissed if they moved to BYOD.
These also come with a 5G subscription. Not saying it justifies the price, and I don’t know what that would cost separately. But some of these prices are less than the cost of an ISP plan.
