On 11/27/2011 8:58 AM, phaeton wrote:
> I still like to think that USENET will persist, as well as IRC (which
> is very alive, thankfully). Like notbob (or not like bob?) I'm also
> in the "desktop computers are not going away" camp. The people who
> are getting that excited over tablets to say this apparently don't use
> their computer for much.

My view of this is that the desktop was mostly an unfortunate accident.
A diversion of a couple of decades brought about by the needs of
backwards compatibility to the original 8088 microprocessor, the
availability of dirt cheap RAM, and the economics of planned
obsolescence. We're left with big monsters that have to be loaded up
with gigantic OSes when we turn them on, requiring careful maintenance
and replacement with faster and better hardware/software, robust power
supplies of at least 400W or so, huge amounts of RAM and hard drive
space and a good amount of floor/desktop space.

The new computers will be lightweight and portable and will be a useful,
easy-to-use, multipurpose tool. It will turn on and off quickly, we'll
use simple, cheap, quick loading, programs and it will connect us with
everybody on this planet. It's the dream of the personal computer realized.

In the future, the desktop will be viewed in the same way that the cars
of the 70s we a really bad time in it's history.