Re:Are Desktop Computers Dying?
by iamwil on Friday December 21, 2007 @11:15PM
(#91897)
Well, the tasks that use to only be done by desktops are moving to other form factors.
The overall market for the desktop form factor is shrinking. As chips get smaller, we can put it in different form factors. Laptops take over for some balance between power and mobility. Mobile phones take over for the quick-whip-it-out kinda computing. Very specific computing tasks will end up in what we might call internet appliances, like an Ambient Orb or a Nabaztag. Even everyday tasks like emailing or web browsing might end up on Jack-PC thin clients.
That said, desktops have some advantages over other forms of computing--some off the top of my head are dual/triple screens, faster CPU/price. And if you want to do crazy hardware things like overclocking with some crazy cooling schemes, you'd probably do it with a desktop. Applications like photo-editing and coding seem more comfortable to me on a desktop.
If anything, I think desktop will remain as the computing hobbiest's choice of platform to tinker with, as they're cheap (power per price) and you can open them up and fiddle around with shit.
The overall market for the desktop form factor is shrinking. As chips get smaller, we can put it in different form factors. Laptops take over for some balance between power and mobility. Mobile phones take over for the quick-whip-it-out kinda computing. Very specific computing tasks will end up in what we might call internet appliances, like an Ambient Orb or a Nabaztag. Even everyday tasks like emailing or web browsing might end up on Jack-PC thin clients.
That said, desktops have some advantages over other forms of computing--some off the top of my head are dual/triple screens, faster CPU/price. And if you want to do crazy hardware things like overclocking with some crazy cooling schemes, you'd probably do it with a desktop. Applications like photo-editing and coding seem more comfortable to me on a desktop.
If anything, I think desktop will remain as the computing hobbiest's choice of platform to tinker with, as they're cheap (power per price) and you can open them up and fiddle around with shit.