Does the war on PCs sadden you?

Hotale.com

Just saw an ad on telly where a guy bought a new laptop so he could now throw away his PC, but it was really suggesting that this PC was a "piece of junk". I love my PC, enjoy working on it way more than my laptop. It'll be a sad day when PCs become obsolete

(Sorry about the over dramatic thread title :P)

unkel

I can't see tablets / laptops replace PCs myself

Slutmonkey57b

Microsoft have been conducting a one-company war on pc's for the past decade. It's no surprise really.

Gadgetman496

Article on it here:

Are PCs Dying? Of Course Not, Here’s Why

riclad

MOST people i know ,apart from gamers ,switched to laptops,netbooks ,years ago.

THE public always go for ease of use,
sitting at a table with a pc on it seems odd,
when you can use a tablet anywhere.
There,s probably kids growing up,now who are just used to tablets, mobile phones ,
only use pcs at school.

in a few years every tv, will have apps, web browser,wifi built in.

OF COURSE if you want to do real,work, play real 3d games,
you still need a pc.
its not either or,
have both if you want.
my tablet takes 4 hours to charge,
i dont have to charge my pc to use it.

i,d be more worried about consoles fading away,
and you,ll just get everything from one box,
games ,tv, books, like the new amazon box.
ie everything will be a digital download.
or an app.

i like to buy a game on disc and play it,
without having to login to some server.

Hotman

Hotale.com wrote: »

Just saw an ad on telly where a guy bought a new laptop so he could now throw away his PC, but it was really suggesting that this PC was a "piece of junk". I love my PC, enjoy working on it way more than my laptop. It'll be a sad day when PCs become obsolete

(Sorry about the over dramatic thread title :P)

There's no way laptops can replace PC's EVER. No matter HOW good a laptop is. it will always suffer from overheating. thats the problem. heat heat heat.
and the smaller components in most things like cars, iphone, ipads, and all nano technology usually works well. But in a laptop it doesnt. I mean in manufacturers could make CPUs and GFX card's with the same power for a laptop as a PC without having to have the HUGE boards and Colossal Coolers, then the PC market would only reside in office technology.

Bigger components offer more air circulation, equalling less heat, equalling more room for bigger cooling systems etc. I mean, imagine the radiator in your car being nonoizeds so it could fit into glovebox to make the car more compact.. the car would burst into flames lol.
Look at Turbo's and turbo intercoolers? they're big systems, and they can't develop a tiny compacy system like that as A: it won't have NEARLY enough airflow to operate the turbo at the levels a proper car would output, and B: it will have such small amounts of airflow that you will end up bruning it or a hose out.

Its the one think they can never fix, unless they cane make a CPU in future that doesn't use electric open/close style for computation. that is where the heat comes from. the heat in harddrives comes from A: the electricity needed to spin the disc at such high speeds, and B: the disc reader arm heating the disc up, and im sure the velocity of the disc running at like 7200 to 10k rpm would also generate more frictional heat.

PC's are here to stay. what would make PC's the PERFECT machines for any household would be PURE wireless. No wires AT ALL. just a bunch of receivers at the back that can somehow receive power from a plug on the wall with a similar system that can transmit power wirelessly using radiowaves or something. so just a box, a wireless monitor, and a wireless keyboard and mouse. The monitor also would need a wireless connection of some sort

but be sure Laptops ain't gonna EVER replace PC's.
I mean. my PC is a G620 intel cpu (it's sh*t). asus mainboard, WD HDD an old one, an old GTX480 gfx card and 6gb of ram in 2 different branded sticks. Yes it drastically outperforms my newer laptop which is a win7 64bit pentium i5 "performance" laptop with a GTX GO gpu and 1gb of GDDR. like i tried to run the witcher on low settings on it and it choked. Yet it runs pretty ok, maybe a little stuttering on my vastly lower spec pc.

Scaglietti

No sure whats the point in a big brute of a thing when you can get a handy ipad cheaper

Hotman

Scaglietti wrote: »

No sure whats the point in a big brute of a thing when you can get a handy ipad cheaper

try play even a 4 or 5 year old game like Skyrim on an iPad?

Scaglietti

Ow well In that case get a PC, problem solved everyone's happy.

Charlie19

Tablets are great but I would prefer a Laptop.

Laptops are fantastic but I would much rather a Desktop.

Tablet, laptop, Desktop and Smartphone = Sorted

theteal

There was a similar ad on a while ago (possibly for pc world) where a lady had a desktop that was running a bit slow. They built a shop in her living room where she could browse a very nice selection of laptops. It completely confounded me, she effectively scrapped a 2010 avensis for a 2014 aygo. . .without get any trade in value for the old car!

PropJoe10

I much, much prefer sitting at a computer desk in front of my PC than using a laptop, that will never change. I cant see PCs dying out, offices will still need them and also gamers. Laptops are handy but they are no substitute for my PC!

ted1

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

Microsoft have been conducting a one-company war on pc's for the past decade. It's no surprise really.

Well they don't have an OS for a PC. They seem to think that one designed for tablets will do

riclad

Nothing is better for gaming than a pc, loads of games on steam.
And many games like portal, halflife have mods ,extra levels,
And you can add extra ram, hardrives if needed.
SOME people will always need a pc ,for work, gaming ,
ITS not like vcrs, which became obsolete ,
replaced by digital recorders.
Pc,s will always be needed by some people.

briany

The uptake of your traditional PC (desktop/laptop) seems to following a bit of a parabola curve, based on mainstream need. Most people don't need a powerful computer to most of their everyday tasks now, and that's fine. PCs are going back to where they were in the early to mid 90s where only the more hardcore computer users were actively involved in the scene, only now the technology has matured and the parts are cheaper.

I have a little theory about what's going on right now, and Cory Doctorow talks about it here. General computing machines are bad for business, because they give the user too much choice and too much power. Too much independence. If you pitched the idea of a modern tower PC today, if it didn't already exist, it would be laughed out of the boardroom. Tablets and smartphones seem to be on something of an artificial trajectory of progress with features being omitted, introduced, withheld, removed, reintroduced. You can get that 16 GB phone/tablet for XXX euros OR you can get the 32 GB version for 100 more. Is it value? I think not, but people will pay because they're hungry for these little progressions. A PC owner can go out, and in one fell swoop, buy more storage than they'd ever need.

riclad

my tablet, has an sdcard, i bought a 32gig card for 10 euro in aldi.
I,m Sure dell was happy when they could sell a pc with 1 gig ram, for 1000 euro.
PC has the good enough problem,
you can buy a pc on adverts ie, 100 euro,
2gig ram, cpu dual core, good enough to do most of things people need, like webrowsing ,youtube,music.
NOT much point in buying a new pc, unless you are a hard core gamer, or using one for business
use.
I Will not buy a phone,or tablet unless it has an SD card slot.

Overheal

Frankly this semster I've mostly worked on a ****ty laptop.

Mainly because I am dorming in a shared space so I don't have the freedom of facility to deploy the desktop and use it to it's full potential. Also because I have been forced into running older versions of edu software that don't play nice with anything newer than windows vista/7, and in the case of this laptop I had to lug it into IT for them to wizard it on. Would they share the fix they made? NO. So I can't recreate the steps on the Desktop. In the Fall they're finally updating to 2014 versions of their packages though up from the 2012s.

Its not terrible but frankly I miss the multi-display setup I had going. Multitasking was so much simpler.

I have the benefit I suppose of PC, Laptop-hybrid, PC Tablet, Tablet, and Smartphone. Because of space and other constraints the laptop seems the least confrontational plus the phone. Not even allowed to use the Surface Pro in the classes I need it most. Nevermind I keep all my math notes on the bloody thing, and write them as I go, but oh, heaven forbid I should get on Facetwit or something and not pay attention in class! /rant

I have a desktop (self-built), a laptop (Toshiba Satellite P50t) and a tablet (Acer Iconia W3). Out of the three of them, I'd use the laptop the most. Primarily because I can be lazy and sit on the sofa with it, but I do like the feel of using a dedicated keyboard and mouse too.

I think if I could get my space set up properly then I'd use the desktop a lot more and just use the tablet for light stuff, in which case I'd wonder if I'd need the laptop at all?

Overheal

Thats the thing, when I was at my last place the Desktop and Tablet combination was used far more frequently than the laptop, which could collect dust for weeks.

smileyj1987

I only have a laptop now . I got rid of my PC a year ago and bought a gaming laptop to replace it . I can honestly say I don't miss my PC at all . My laptop does what I need it to and that's all that matters to me .
Most people will hold this view in my opinion . If I can get something smaller that can do what I need it to do then that's what I will use .

Red Nissan

riclad wrote: »

OF COURSE if you want to do real,work, play real 3d games,.

All you really need is a fast internet account and a game's subscription, a WiFi Heads Up display and a iPhone or tablet as conduit.

Red Nissan

You know, yes, it does. I still like and actually still own CRT monitors and the 21" monsters are still awesome, but mine are under the desk having initially being reluctantly replaced by a flat panel of some sort.

Now we see we don't even need a monitor even? I don't like the idea, but I did not like giving up my CRTs either, well maybe the smaller ones were pants and a small flat panel was much better, but I got used to them.

I even liked the cream cases but my PC today are silver and black.

I've eventually moved [this year only] completely to wireless mouse and keyboard ~ having always moved back to a wired version but I've no problems now so I don't see me going back.

I love tablets and was ahead of the posse with my TC4400 Tablet/Laptop. It's great, I still use it as it has full PC capabilities and once the clouds gets practical and one can 'instantly' upload a movie from 'anywhere' and use heads up holographic displays ~ well I guess I won't be too far behind in using that lot ~ with a tablet and the PC alongside my CRT under the bench?

For the time being, I love my PC's and will be reluctant to change ~ IMO, the tablet was a little slow in arriving, the iPhone and the like stole the show, and with the Holographic Display potential, I feel the tablet will have a surprisingly SHORT lifespan.

beauf

If I wasn't stuck for space I'd only use a PC. Better screen, keyboard etc. More powerful. More bang for buck. When something breaks you can replace the part yourself.

endacl

A yoke for doing stuff is replaced by another, smaller, more convenient yoke for doing the same stuff?

What's the problem?

Devia

PropJoe10 wrote: »

I much, much prefer sitting at a computer desk in front of my PC than using a laptop, that will never change. I cant see PCs dying out, offices will still need them and also gamers. Laptops are handy but they are no substitute for my PC!

I have a laptop in work. It connects up to a hub at my desk and works exactly like a PC. I use separate monitor, mouse and keyboard ect. The only difference is I can pick up the laptop and bring it home with me at the end of the day if need be.

For general use laptops are now far far superior. It's totally underatandable that they are overtaking the home PC. The PC market only really applies to top end users these days.

beauf

A laptop maybe more convenient. But its not superior except for portability.

Overheal

Red Nissan wrote: »

with the Holographic Display potential, I feel the tablet will have a surprisingly SHORT lifespan.

Holo is so very long off though. Google glass and it's kin will be in development for the next decade or longer before it comes close to anything you've seen in the movies.

Meanwhile the tablet is getting into it's Phase 2: the market is now saturated, which was kind of the point. Now, the industry is switching gears in 2 directions: getting them even cheaper, and making them do more stuff. Apple has a 64-bit SoC on it's latest iPad, which means it could only be a matter of time before it does the same thing Microsoft is doing - blend the PC and Tablet world.

And then look at Xbox Smartglass, Teamviewer, and Logmein.

What I'm saying, in a very Steve-Jobs fashion, is all the ingredients are there to turn tablets into multi-functional terminals that through better internet and local networking are going to be able to call on a Desktop or Server's computing power to get heavier tasks done. At the very least, cloud technology has already unified the platforms. So it really doesn't matter to me which screen I'm looking at - PC, Laptop, Tablet - as long as I can get them all to launch the same software (and I can) then I have them all configured through OneDrive such that I have the same account, files, and settings across all. I can write code on my laptop and boot Bertha up in the evening and continue slugging away. Theoretically if I was into heavier duty coding, I could code on the laptop and send it to my PC to compile.

For general use laptops are now far far superior. It's totally underatandable that they are overtaking the home PC. The PC market only really applies to top end users these days.

As opposed to a workstation-hub for a laptop, this method is more resilient as well to loss and offers better performance.

Also years of retail work causes me to dispute your claim. Plenty of low end users prefer the Desktop to the laptop, even on the cheap side, because they are a lot more durable. When all you want to do is email, the same PC will last much longer on average than the laptop of same price. You also aren't going to beat the PC for storage, which lots of people like to do with photos and movies and music, not at least without incorporating a LAN Hard Drive.

riclad

I know theres loads of different devices ,tablets, on android,
but i dont know why google doesn,t make an api,
and apps to make joysticks work on tablets.
developers could make games with touch and dual controls for joysticks.
JUST put a standard joystick app in android,
like windows has directx in every os.
I do not know why a programmer would want to program, on a tablet ,
when he could use a laptop.
OR why write a novel on a tablet. I know people who just buy laptops,or tablets,
the idea of sitting down at a desk to use email,the web ,seems old fashioned.
TAKE the battery out of a laptop, if its well built it,ll last 7 years .

Theres no war on pcs, its market forces.
better tech comes along,
easy to use,
at a reasonable price.
I know a family ,they have 2 laptops,1 tablet.
NO one uses the pc in the corner , anymore.

beauf

That because they're all on faceache posting pictures of their cat while trout pouting.

Overheal

It's funny to me that people bought tablets as word processors but it happens. By the time you walk out the door with all the accessories you spent more than you would have on a better laptop, but the consumer wants new and different (which is puzzling, because a couple changes in Windows 8 and they lose their god damn minds, but they don't seem to correlate that to FireOS, iOS, or Droid)

but i dont know why google doesn,t make an api,
and apps to make joysticks work on tablets.

Bubble burst: joysticks do work on tablets. How well depends on your tablet. Sony's Tablet of course works flawlessly with wireless Playstation Dualshock, while you need to fanangle it with others. If you have a Tablet that affords you a USB connection though, it works good with that too. Wouldn't be the first time I purposed a tablet as a carry-around retro gaming console. You can fit every SNES, GB, NES, MegaDrive game onto a 32gb mSD card after all

Kenny Logins

For a casual user, a laptop or tablet is a much better option, but personally I prefer a desktop PC.

Meirleach

Kenny Logins wrote: »

For a casual user, a laptop or tablet is a much better option, but personally I prefer a desktop PC.

I'm not sure this is strictly true, I see a lot of laptops around the 3 year mark which should be perfectly usable but the battery has died, or the hinges fail. Or the BGA on the CPU has gone dodgy.

The repair costs on a laptop for anything like this pretty much turns them into a throwaway item. I hate seeing the waste from all that! :P

riclad

Yes joysticks work, on tablets,
but if google made an api,official apps for android, ,developers would make games that have support for joysticks,
like most pc fps games support the 360 gamepad.

i see apps for joysticks, and it says,tablet must be rooted to use this.

You can still use a laptop,when the battery is dead.
or buy a new battery.

J_E

What I would really love to see is a laptop 'shell' that is basically the desktop display with mouse/keyboard controls, so there is that flexibility while keeping the power of a desktop.

The divide between laptops and desktops in terms of power is much narrower than before I think - you can do most tasks on a decent laptop, get a HD screen, the works etc. I just don't like being confined to a single chair at a desk.

Steviemoyne

At the minute you're always going to get equal or better performance out of building (and in some cases buying) a pc over a laptop and 9/10 it's going to be cheaper. Also if something goes wrong with a pc you just find the faulty part, take it out, buy a new one and put it in...problem solved.

Try doing that with a laptop part and you have to keep track of where all the screws are, be careful when plugging out parts and its generally a nightmare to track down the faulty part depending on what it is. Also the battery life degrades over the years just like phones do.

In short they both have their ups and downs. Laptops have their portability yet PC's in my mind have more reliability and are easier to maintain. I am 100% certain they will never become obsolete,

riclad

i think steve jobs said a pc is like a truck, a tablet is like a car.
Most people don.t need a truck.
FOR most people a tablet or laptop is enough to do what they need,and portable.
For real work ,design, programming ,video editing, a pc is better.
And more flexible, add ram, storage, graphics card as you wish for more power.
AS long as people need computers pc,s will exist ,
they, wont disappear like the vcr did.

STEINBERG

riclad wrote: »

i think steve jobs said a pc is like a truck, a tablet is like a car.
Most people don.t need a truck.
FOR most people a tablet or laptop is enough to do what they need,and portable.
For real work ,design, programming ,video editing, a pc is better.
And more flexible, add ram, storage, graphics card as you wish for more power.
AS long as people need computers pc,s will exist ,
they, wont disappear like the vcr did.

very true words

STEINBERG

Meirleach wrote: »

I'm not sure this is strictly true, I see a lot of laptops around the 3 year mark which should be perfectly usable but the battery has died, or the hinges fail. Or the BGA on the CPU has gone dodgy.

The repair costs on a laptop for anything like this pretty much turns them into a throwaway item. I hate seeing the waste from all that! :P

It is horrible, i have had friends ask me to recommend them a computer,,, of course i have suggested solid desktop systems to them. But of course noo there way too much money , only for most of them to be on there third or fourth laptop right now with an overall cost of 3 times the desktop.

My suggestions get a desktop for all the important stuff, photos, music and movies and all that jazz,,,,,,,, get a cheap laptop for taking some of that jazz with you if you want to... ive seen so many expensive laptops ruined at parties because said owner thinks they look cool with it...

The one thing ive learned.... people dont give a rats ass about the hardware its the data! ie there pics, music, vids, and everything else is what realy matters

Dude111

Hotale.com wrote:

I love my PC, enjoy working on it way more than my laptop.

I love my PC also........ I dont have a laptop and dont want one! (Too small,not easy to read,etc)