Are the days of the desktop numbered?

[offgridguy]

My short view: They try to abuse computers to sell them as entertainment devices.
We will be more and more entertained, more dumb in sum, the huge amount of information we get is more and more without quality. They try to move us buy the newest nonsense. A good keyword to start: Obsolescence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsolescence It's business.

Never ever can a small device like a mobile phone or even netbook, smartphone, etc be an alternative to my Desktop PC. They are just another toys, for a huge amount of money, to be thrown away in 3 years.

Thank you; you are obviously better able to articulate this subject than i.

[KiwiNZ]

My short view: They try to abuse computers to sell them as entertainment devices.
We will be more and more entertained, more dumb in sum, the huge amount of information we get is more and more without quality. They try to move us buy the newest nonsense. A good keyword to start: Obsolescence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsolescence It's business.

Never ever can a small device like a mobile phone or even netbook, smartphone, etc be an alternative to my Desktop PC. They are just another toys, for a huge amount of money, to be thrown away in 3 years.

Watch this bulb, already 110 years old, works.
http://www.centennialbulb.org/photos.htm#anchor1234
but then, they decided to limit lifetime to 1000 hours. So don't hink they want innovation!!

We once had horse and cart, wrote with feathers, and cooked on fires should we go back to that ?

[offgridguy]

https://plus.google.com/u/0/10319437...ts/HPgnv5gBEyY

Very interesting site, it never ceases to amaze me how the ubuntu community keeps coming up with these resources. Thank you.

[KBD47]

Yes, I think the days of both the laptop and desktop are numbered. Tablets cost less and work better as time goes on. The Ubuntu dock with a phone seems a good fit for power users. Chrome books are a temporary in-between device, as are net books and small laptops. Right now I use my ten inch android tablet for about 85% of everything I need a computer for. The rest, mostly word processing, I use a Linux net book for. Tablets and smart phones are the future, and miniscule OS's that plug into big screen TVs.

[Sableyes]

A land line internet is not an option where i live, so i cannot answer that.

How are you posting on this forum?

[Sableyes]

Most of my PCs in the past that have run the latest and greatest software have needed upgrading every 3 years. Do they have built in obsolescence because software development moves too quick?

With regards too the remarks about contracts as hidden costs,

A. Do they physically not tell you how much it costs up front? If they do, how is it a hidden cost?

B. do you have no "pay as you go"type thing where you have no ongoing contract costs?

C. can you not buy any tablets or smart phones not tied too a phone company? What about the tablets that only have Wi Fi? Do they have a contract too?

Have come too the conclusion there's just a lot if people on this forum that hate new technology and refuse too even give it a chance. Which is odd for a software forum as software develops at a high speed as well as hardware & technology.

[whatthefunk]

Have come too the conclusion there's just a lot if people on this forum that hate new technology and refuse too even give it a chance. Which is odd for a software forum as software develops at a high speed as well as hardware & technology.

Its not just people on this forum. A lot of people in "real life" feel the same way. Probably because this new mobile technology is viewed by many as being unncessary. Everybody I know that has a smartphone or tablet repeatedly tells me how much time they are saving, but at the same time they spend hours upon hours every day "consuming" pointless media via their devices. Its a massive waste of time. Also, as has been pointed out in this thread, a lot of people can not conduct their real work on a mobile device. So why would I want to buy something for hundreds of hard earned dollars that will waste my precious time and not allow me to get anything done? Its ridiculous.

[malspa]

Have come too the conclusion there's just a lot if people on this forum that hate new technology and refuse too even give it a chance.

I think smartphones and tablets are great; I just don't need one. I do need my desktop pc.

I don't hate new technology, but I'm not gonna spend my money trying to keep up with the latest technology, buying stuff I don't need.

[Grenage]

Are the days numbered? No.
Will/has the usage dropped in favour of more portable devices? Of course.

Most home users want a PC to browse Facebook, or view a good lasagne recipe; few people even use computers for programs such as MSN messenger. When you can do such trivial phones on phones/laptops/tablets in front of the TV, why the hell would you want a bulky desktop?

'Power' PC users obviously are not going to abandon the desktop. I'm not going to trade in my massive screen, full size mouse/kb and decent processing power - not for playing games, encoding, or monster browsing sessions.

I have a laptop and phone, but I find both frustratingly inefficient for more than a few tasks. Not that I'd be without my phone, it's a decent enough replacement for a filofax - and I can call people on it.

[Erik1984]

Desktop starts at £200 in UK with everything. You can get tablets for sub £100.

What cost in buying and operating them? And why get rid of a tablet while its still working? (obsolescence?)

Especially those cheap tablets don't seem very durable and they are certainly less 'maintainable' than a desktop. The desktop costs more but any desktop purchased today should easily last 5 years. Let's see how many people still have their el cheapo tablets 5 years from now.