Anti Cloud

[anticloud]

At least half of my friends no longer use a desktop computer for more than web browsing, if they even have a computer. They do most things on their phones. The only friends who do more than that at home are techies, school teachers, or PC gamers.

I know several people who do everything on their phones. They can't afford internet and their PCs were PWNed by malware or just broken years ago and can't afford to have them fixed, nor have the smarts to do so themselves. I also have high income friends who don't use computers because they just don't have a need for them outside of work, so they use their phones for everything.

But that doesn’t mean that there are a very few PC users. There are a lot of them. Especially when PC gaming is considered. Now many play PC games on Linux, specially Ubuntu supported by Valve. Also smartphones too are mostly local computing devices. Apps and games are installed in them and used locally as well as through the internet.

[uRock]

But that doesn’t mean that there are a very few PC users. There are a lot of them. Especially when PC gaming is considered. Now many play PC games on Linux, specially Ubuntu supported by Valve. Also smartphones too are mostly local computing devices. Apps and games are installed in them and used locally as well as through the internet.

Most of the people I know of who play games on their phone are playing cloud based games. They're using cloud services for their music. They use cloud based email, obviously. They create/edit documents in Google Docs, which they store on Google Drive. Most of my friends use game consoles for gaming. I have few friends who do PC gaming. Most of my friends are too busy "adulting" to have time for games. Most of them just stream music and use Facebook to stay in touch.

My wife and daughter both have gaming computers, yet the wife spends most of her time on her phone and the kid on her Chromebook using cloud based softwares for writing and publishing short stories. I hate doing anything on my phone, so I am the only one in the household who spends a lot of time on the computer. Aside from firing up the PS2 to play GTA 3 once in a very blue moon, I don't game. I spend most of my time job hunting, doing techie stuff, and brewing wine. Gaming is just a waste of time in my eyes.

[TheFu]

Guess I don't know any "normal" people.

I don't know anyone without a computer. Most of my friends have multiple computers and run Linux. About 30% also run internet-facing webapps. Odd to me is the 1 friend who I see almost every week, who runs multiple Linux computers, but doesn't use ssh because he doesn't see any need for it. He doesn't use ssh!!! That freaks me out.

Ah ... one of my sisters uses a tablet for all her personal stuff, but her husband uses a PC for gaming.

[poorguy]

I'm not a gamer although I run Microsoft Flight Simulator X on an old computer running Windows XP which I built exclusively for Microsoft Fight Simulator X.

I don't see how anyone uses a smart phone for anything other than making phone calls or texting the phone format sucks imo.

I'm can't say I'm anti cloud although I don't use cloud storage I have used some cloud based apps and have no complaints with them.

I guess everything will goto cloud based eventually and it seems as everyone or everything we use or do online is already collecting our personal user information and has been for years imo.

Guess we wait and see what happens and choose what we do at that time.

[uRock]

Guess I don't know any "normal" people.

I don't know anyone without a computer. Most of my friends have multiple computers and run Linux. About 30% also run internet-facing webapps. Odd to me is the 1 friend who I see almost every week, who runs multiple Linux computers, but doesn't use ssh because he doesn't see any need for it. He doesn't use ssh!!! That freaks me out.

Ah ... one of my sisters uses a tablet for all her personal stuff, but her husband uses a PC for gaming.

I thought I had more friends who used computers until I started seeing the posts on FB about "How do I get all of these pictures off of my phone because I'm out of space." After talking them through how to move the images to their Google Drive or iCloud, then end up replying with "OMG, they were already uploaded there." Then there's the complaints that their cloud service is saying they are running out of space. In both scenarios I get replies that their computers died ages ago or they've got a virus or that they never bought a computer after moving away from living with their parents and they couldn't afford and/or had no interest in using a computer.

My wife used to be the president of a non-profit and it was amazing how many members complained of having no computer to open the MS docs with and/or no way of printing documents. We even had two members who complained about notifications not being mailed as they don't even have cell phones.

I also base some of my thoughts on people who called for support when I worked for one of the the few international shipping companies and people were trying to make changes to their shipments that couldn't be made from the mobile apps, nor the mobile website and had no home computer to log in on. I worked with a few customers a day who ran into those problems and I was baffled. Some of the callers would go on to say "Who in this age needs a computer when everything can be done on the phone?" and I'd be like, "Well, you can't do this."

TheFu, about that friend who doesn't use SSH, are they using telnet? That is scary. I have very few friends who even know what Linux is, much less use it. They think I'm some sort of IT super hero when I start talking about Linux or how I configure my own servers to use cameras as part of my home security plan. Every single one of my friends who has security cameras have the ones from cheap sources that are often making the news for being very insecure.

[1fallen]

I don't see how anyone uses a smart phone for anything other than making phone calls or texting the phone format sucks imo.

+1 I have a handful of various types of puter's,Servers, Desktops, Media, Back-ups, Testing.
No way a phone would work for me.
I'm not sure I'm a Cloud Fan either.

[ajgreeny]

+1 I have a handful of various types of puter's,Servers, Desktops, Media, Back-ups, Testing.
No way a phone would work for me.
I'm not sure I'm a Cloud Fan either.

Nor me, and with the poor G4 and non existent G5 mobile coverage in my locality, cloud based services are almost a non starter.

How do mobile phone users manage in the cloud if the mobile network disappears?
No network - no cloud!

[1fallen]

How do mobile phone users manage in the cloud if the mobile network disappears?
No network - no cloud!

Excellent Point!

[Skaperen]

i do agree local and personal computing needs to continue to be available. but we need to take an even wider view. almost everyone knows that the majority of smartphones run Android, which is a Linux distribution with a modified kernel. do you know that millions of other devices run some form of Linux, too. whether it is Linux, or Windows, or something else (there are a few proprietary embedded OS choices out there), the world is moving in the direction of computing devices in all kinds devices we use or are affected by, or not.

so how will this affect us? this will be a positive force while also removing a lot of motivation from many people to have a computing device they fully control (can load any workable OS onto). the positive will be development kits existing. this will be, for as long as people can independently create any product we wish to. the negative will be the markets and finances. will we have the cash to develop a device that is all open computing for what will likely be a diminishing market.

"granpa, you mean, real people actually steered where the car goes, in real time?"

"granpa, you mean, real people actually wrote processor software without the logic integrator?"

the future is us.

[1fallen]

Yes I agree, but I would of thought that we as Linux user's already have a motivation to scratch. (Good Choices and a wider view)
When those devices accomplish what I do now, Then I'll be on-board, till then I watch cautiously.