Death of PC

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Atip
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Joined: 5. Jun 2011, 04:27

Death of PC

Post by Atip »

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... -microsoft

Will you still continue with new versions?
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mimosa
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Re: Death of PC

Post by mimosa »

I believe you can run Ubuntu on one of those toys :)
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knome
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Re: Death of PC

Post by knome »

Santa will be bringing my daughter a Nook on Xmas day. I guess I'll be finding out all about this new-fangled padness when I set it up. I wonder if this was the reason for Gnome 3?
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Grasshopper
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Re: Death of PC

Post by Grasshopper »

Well, I dunno.

To my mind, tablets are for casual or web apps. They generally have Atom processors (because these are low-powered enough not to need cooling fans), and they generally have solid-state drives on the order of 10 to 100 GB. Screens are generally smaller than netbooks, though there's some overlap.

Therefore: No full-on AutoCad. No video compositing, and probably no multi-track audio editing. Hi-res graphic editing would be kind of clunky, just because of the screen size. Gamers commonly use very fast machines with powerful graphics cards; those kinds of games are probably impossible for tablets.

Tablets can replace some of what a laptop or desktop does, alright. Especially if one uses a detachable keyboard for text entry. But most apps are scaled way down compared to desktop applications, just because of the relatively low-performance processors.

So tablets will continue to sell very well indeed, and they'll replace laptops for portable web surfing platforms, web games, email, and lightweight document and spreadsheet work. But PCs aren't going away. They're needed for big-application purposes.

I'm sure tablet processors will get faster, and the hard drives bigger. But the heat-and-weight issue is difficult -- in larger form factors processing power has gone up through the use of multiple-core CPUs, more transistors per chip, and faster cycles, but all these things usually mean more heat is generated. And once you need a fan for the CPU, you have to have a bulkier case, you have noise, you have more power usage which means bigger batteries and/or shorter time between recharges. That's where tablet breaks over into netbook, and then into laptop and desktop PC.

Just a few thoughts.
jcoleman
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Joined: 9. Feb 2011, 21:54
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Re: Death of PC

Post by jcoleman »

Maybe for the general consumer. After all what do they want/need - surf the web, social media, quick notes, email, simple text, etc. - I can see where a tablet/smartphone could be handy.
Guess it's my age (62+) - give me a screen I can see, keyboard I can type on and some disc space for all the digital pictures I hang on to (someday going to sort through and delete half of them - :roll: ). What about the people who get/need 1TB ++ drives - gonna stick that in a tablet? Personally don't trust the cloud to keep my important things (it's not the technology - just paranoid at times)
AutoCad was mentioned; how about big spreadsheets, writing a book, etc - needs a desktop or at least I would think so. But then these are things that the general consumer doesn't do. Most probably don't need a desktop and would be better off without one. I worked in IT for a number of years and the bulk of it spent fixing "hosed" Windows computers from viruses, malware, etc. If tablets could be made really secure (ie: idiot proof) then that would be progress, I think.

I recently purchased a small lappie (11.6" screen (29.5 cm?) Intel Celeron, 4 GB Ram, 500 GB HD, Intel graphics, HDMI, USB ports, OK keyboard, etc for about half the price of an iPad. It dual boots Windows 7Pro / Salix 14.1beta (for now :D ),good battery life (5-6 hrs) and runs standard software and it's OK - yes I know there's some quite capable tablets/convertibles out, but what can I say - my needs and budget don't really justify that and if I need to do some work I'd much rather be in front of the desktop.

Of course this is all probably a moot point since most of you, if not all and I use Linux; my wife's laptop runs Linux, and my spare (experimental/testing) machines run Linux. Windows XP runs in Virtualbox for a Canon scanner that has no Linux drivers, period and I can't see trashing a good scanner. Windows 7 runs in a VB so I can help friends with support problems/questions but I don't really know it nor do I plan to.
Enough for now - starting to ramble - if you got this far thank for reading and good night.
tenxuts
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Re: Death of PC

Post by tenxuts »

Not so much tablets but laptops are replacing PCs. Tablets are just smartphones on steroids, surf the web and show people pictures, big whoop. Tablets are also good for keeping kids out of their parents' hair on long trips, etc. AFAIAC, I'll keep my PC, I enjoy building them and being able to upgrade (PCs are far more modular than laptops). I love the shear raw power of a PC, laptops are condensed, whimpy PCs. A high-end laptop can cost double for the same performance custom build PC as well. Laptops and tablets can be targets of thieves (somebody has to break in to your home to steal your PC, and your identity along with it, less chance of ID theft than with laptops and tablets). Us PC enthusiasts are still out there, we are dying off but the PC is not dead yet. Laptop makers keep dropping features, like optical drives for example, you have to go up-market to get one included.
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