Discard your desktop PC

HuffPo is almost as bad as Buzzfeed nowadays... I hate the state of the internet with these garbage sites.
 
lol, ya, well the majority wont need them, sure, but they can still be useful
 
The sad part is most people will or already have listened to this. Trying to unload a desktop these days to a non-enthusiast is like trying to sell birth control and day after pills to Catholics.
 
In the last few years we've been transitioning from analog to digital public TV broadcasting.

So a lot of gear was looked at for a set top box decoder. A lot of people were at a loss as to what to do with their VCR+Satellite+CRT combos.

I now go to a random place and it's usually an offline smart TV or something else with a little decoder box stabbed with a thumbdrive.
A laptop with wifi supplements the setups.

I talked to people, explained to them how it's not 2006 anymore.

I pointed at the little stupid box and said - how about I build you a box like that, just a little bigger (small enough to disappear in the equipment cabinet) that would let them receive digital TV, record it onto a hard drive, act as a cheap CCTV replacement, provide web access, allow gaming, even operate on separate displays via virtualisation. All seamlessly with one remote or wireless kb+mouse.

They all had Prescott Era Syndrome and zoned out enough to not notice AMD64 for years and then bought cheap laptops as a natural succesor of their Celerons (in their minds).

Yes, these were the ROHS bad chipset solder days so around 2011-2013 they all went poof.

I told them my concept would use hardly any power with a SSD and an i3, how 12mm/14mm fans allowed for silent operation. Pointed out that any other future changes to the TV feed would only require changing out the GPU.

I got zero yeses. One solid 'maybe' from a guy that genuinly saw the benefits but couldn't afford it - like most 20somethings here. I got the price down to about 400 USD (a typical monthly salary here).

They said they rather get tablets as the natural successor of their dead laptops.

So they went out and bought 200 dollar smartphone level crap. How lo' can you go?

You'll see someone walk around with 3G modems dangling about from their 7" facebook kiosks, gasping for at least EDGE or UMTS speeds...
 
michalrz said:
I talked to people, explained to them how it's not 2006 anymore.

I pointed at the little stupid box and said - how about I build you a box like that, just a little bigger (small enough to disappear in the equipment cabinet) that would let them receive digital TV, record it onto a hard drive, act as a cheap CCTV replacement, provide web access, allow gaming, even operate on separate displays via virtualisation. All seamlessly with one remote or wireless kb+mouse.

They all had Prescott Era Syndrome and zoned out enough to not notice AMD64 for years and then bought cheap laptops as a natural succesor of their Celerons (in their minds).

Yes, these were the ROHS bad chipset solder days so around 2011-2013 they all went poof.

I told them my concept would use hardly any power with a SSD and an i3, how 12mm/14mm fans allowed for silent operation. Pointed out that any other future changes to the TV feed would only require changing out the GPU.

I got zero yeses. One solid 'maybe' from a guy that genuinly saw the benefits but couldn't afford it - like most 20somethings here. I got the price down to about 400 USD (a typical monthly salary here).

They said they rather get tablets as the natural successor of their dead laptops.

So they went out and bought 200 dollar smartphone level crap. How lo' can you go?
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Case in point, low wages or not, I see a lot of the same thing here in my neck of the woods. Portability and price trumps everything else
 
Mr. Bluntman said:
Case in point, low wages or not, I see a lot of the same thing here in my neck of the woods. Portability and price trumps everything else
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Yes that's completely valid - portability is a great thing. But sadly they rarely used laptops actually in travel.

All portability it had seen was lugging it from the house to the office and back. Which would have been achieved by synchronisation of settings and documents via the interwebs and would have had provided some more value with no need to risk losing a laptop when a car gets stolen.

I guess I'm disappointed that people missed the blessings computing has achieved.
They missed small cases you can strap to the back of the monitor that accept full sized GPUs, they missed virtualisation-based backups, the huge rise in efficiency (price:performance:watts). They don't know about the plethora of devices they could use with their desktops, like frame grabbers, CCTV inputs (CCTV is getting more and more attention here), multiple screens, hardware-assisted cryptography...

When there were few PCs here (in 1997 I had two friends who had computers, one had dial up internet), and they were expensive, people seemed to have been more curious about the possibilities. Hundreds of businesses started because of ambitious individials that - without the internet or formal education - figured out ways to make serious cash with their Pentium 100s.

Now I don't even get much programming gigs because businesses abandoned their websites in favour of facebook.
 
That HuffPo piece is an overgeneralization, to be sure, but it has a point.

Most people don't really need a desktop. They're not running tasks so intensive that a desktop processor and graphics would make a difference; they're not storing so much that they need a desktop hard drive. They'd get more value out of moving to the living room or coffee shop than using a larger display.

This is actually part of why the Windows PC market has been declining in recent years. There are a lot of companies and individuals who've realized that they don't need two PCs, and are consolidating on laptops. And even then, a lot of laptop owners are deferring upgrades because they realize that their smartphone or tablet is good enough when they just want to check email or Facebook. Those that genuinely need desktops to get things done are in a smaller number -- they tend to be gamers, creative pros or IT managers.
 
michalrz said:
Now I don't even get much programming gigs because businesses abandoned their websites in favour of facebook.
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Is that true? That is sad. As if Facebook is a true replacement for a good web presence. It just makes a business owner look lazy.
 
the_servicer said:
Is that true? That is sad. As if Facebook is a true replacement for a good web presence. It just makes a business owner look lazy.
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There is nothing new there. Even before facebook, most small businesses viewed web presence as a neccessary evil, but at the same time they were furious because they didn't get new customers with their newspaper ad. So most wanted to build a webpage that wouldn't cost more than a classified in the local paper. So they always hired the guy offering to do it for the least. But now, all they think they need is a facebook page, and they just ask some kid in the family to set it up.

I for one don't even consider doing business with a company that has no webpage, only a placeholder facebook page.
 
Aurelius said:
Those that genuinely need desktops to get things done are in a smaller number -- they tend to be gamers, creative pros or IT managers.
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I think you will find most kids/teens are gamers so it is not a small number. Gaming is now bigger business than the movie industry and gaming on a smartphone/tablet just won't cut it for most so the desktop PC is not going anywhere anytime soon. Huffington Post are idiots.
 
I use two desktop-caliber mITX htpc's as "DenTops" ... HTPC's are the only thing that can bridge live TV and streaming content in a coherent and usable way and this is what I use them for. HDHR + Mediacenter for live TV and netflix etc for streaming. I use an air mouse to control it all.

My *completely* non-technical wife can actually use this better than the crap Comcast gives us.
 
Saw the thread title and laughed - I haven't owned a desktop PC in almost a decade now, been nothing but laptops (business class Dell Latitudes always). Haven't found a single tablet I'd be willing to sink my money into but the Surface Pro 3 is one damned fine piece of hardware overall, just not worth the full asking price IMO but close. If Microsoft does put out a Surface Pro 4 here in the next few weeks or at least announces one, hopefully that'll cause prices for the SP3 to come down a bit and I might actually get one finally.

My Latitude E6420 and my Droid MAXX have me covered on almost all the fronts that matter.
 
rezerekted said:
I think you will find most kids/teens are gamers so it is not a small number. Gaming is now bigger business than the movie industry and gaming on a smartphone/tablet just won't cut it for most so the desktop PC is not going anywhere anytime soon. Huffington Post are idiots.
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Actually, the average age of a gamer is 31. And that's bad logic, regardless: even if most gamers were teens (they're not), that doesn't mean that there are so many teens playing games that they make up a large part of the PC industry.

Also, you're confusing software revenue across the entire gaming industry with PC hardware revenue. Yes, the latest Call of Duty will rake in billions of dollars within days, but most of that goes to console version sales, and that certainly doesn't mean that gamers are spending billions of dollars on PCs at the same time.

Considering that worldwide laptop sales have outpaced desktop sales for a while (according to research data), and that only some of those desktop buyers are gamers... yeah, HuffPo is more accurate than you'd like to admit.
 
I didn't start using the web on a phone until last year. I was surprised how shitty it all was. I'm still surprised how shitty camera phones are (the blotchy/blocky contrast is the giveaway). Using forums on phones suck most of all. Phones are good for people who small talk and take selfies and pics of their lunch to post on tumblr. Phone web brought a lot of things down to a cyber-tribal level.
 
rezerekted said:
I think you will find most kids/teens are gamers so it is not a small number. Gaming is now bigger business than the movie industry and gaming on a smartphone/tablet just won't cut it for most so the desktop PC is not going anywhere anytime soon. Huffington Post are idiots.
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yes i will buy gamming pc for dota 2 and lots of games like veterans day and i have total collection of new games
 
roma said:
I didn't start using the web on a phone until last year. I was surprised how shitty it all was. I'm still surprised how shitty camera phones are (the blotchy/blocky contrast is the giveaway). Using forums on phones suck most of all. Phones are good for people who small talk and take selfies and pics of their lunch to post on tumblr. Phone web brought a lot of things down to a cyber-tribal level.
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depends on the phone. The smaller apple phones and cheaper smaller android devices do indeed often suck for web use and have poor quality cameras but some top end models such as my samsung galaxy note 4 is friggin sweet in all regards and i use it almost exclusively for all my computing/internet needs. Desktop still rules for gaming and a few other things but its amazing what phones can do these days. Its got an awesome camera and most forums have apps or semi decent mobile versions which make it easier to use/read on a phone, sometimes even better to use than the desktop website version. Some mobile websites lack features desktop sites have but they are improving over time and you can always use the desktop version on a phone as well and just zoom in/scroll sideways to read stuff. Swype and/or speech to text input makes it quick and easy to make long posts like you would with a full keyboard.
 
You are correct, most average computer users would rather buy a laptop over a desktop these days.

Mr. Bluntman said:
The sad part is most people will or already have listened to this. Trying to unload a desktop these days to a non-enthusiast is like trying to sell birth control and day after pills to Catholics.
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the_servicer said:
Is that true? That is sad. As if Facebook is a true replacement for a good web presence. It just makes a business owner look lazy.
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Facebook really is though, sadly. As a business you are way more likely to get found via Facebook then some random google search, the rating system is a nice gesture too. I run a business and although I won't be getting rid of my Website anytime soon, Facebook receives way more hits.
 
Pfft not going to happen for a while, at least if you a re a power user
 
People use a phone or tablet and are used to SSD speeds instead of a harddrive. But then SSD gouging in a Dell, etc. is ridiculous and there's bloatware.

If they have to buy a monitor then they look at the tablet price again and do the math. The cheapest crap mouse and worn out pad might be clunkier than touch.
 
Not everyone needs a guitar, but there's a market and not just cheap flimsy ones.

There's a jewelry market, CNN wouldn't start that article with stereotypes billions in little baubles that are no longer admired by the owner and might be low quality. The TV shopping channels have that insane financing.

Full cable bills, like $180 each month. And then wireless. Food waste, a family might waste enough for a little overclocked Pentium and 750 Ti machine.
 
Paima said:
You are correct, most average computer users would rather buy a laptop over a desktop these days.






Facebook really is though, sadly. As a business you are way more likely to get found via Facebook then some random google search, the rating system is a nice gesture too. I run a business and although I won't be getting rid of my Website anytime soon, Facebook receives way more hits.
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That is more than a little saddening.
 
I hate Facebook. I also hope desktops don't become obsolete. I will always be a power user.
 
Are they insane !! and floppy disk ?? what rock have they been sleeping under..
 
Soon some people would be calling HDDs obsolete. Why needs a Hard Drive today, when we have SSDs?.
 
Lmao, no comments on the actual photo?

CRT w/ speakers....probably single button ball mouse, floppy drive...and not to mention that teeny tiny Macintosh sticker under the PC speaker holes....

I remember when my PC speaker played sound.... back in the early 90's

So yes, if you have a Desktop like the one in the photo....toss that shit.
 
Aurelius said:
Considering that worldwide laptop sales have outpaced desktop sales for a while (according to research data), and that only some of those desktop buyers are gamers... yeah, HuffPo is more accurate than you'd like to admit.
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It will be a cold day in hell when I throw away my desktop PCs. Laptops and Tablets are for peasants...or, er, people that need portability. Yes, I have owned 2 tablets and 1 laptop and they have their uses but are just too limited for me. I used the laptop as a music server and security cam and the tablets for web browsing, not much else.
 
~ "o"

Stop driving your sports car, buy a hybrid. Enthusiasts don't exist. Stop being niche.
 
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Oh yes, our yearly "The PC is knocking on deaths door" article.

As you were.
 
People are always going to want a bigger screen and something more comfortable to type on. I've seen a lot of people using stuff with their laptops that's more or less equivalent to the Surface Dock. They just slide the same computer into their little workstation at home and at work, and once in a while have to "rough it" by actually using the built in display and keyboard. But even then, they usually pack a USB travel mouse. People don't seem to go for touchpads when they're going to be sitting in front of the computer for a few hours.

I really think that stuff like the Intel NUC and these All-in-one type things might be the future. Desktop computers are just going to shrink down to the point that they can be mounted to the back of a monitor or even built into one. Just because they won't be giant towers like the one in that picture doesn't mean they won't exist. Kind of a reach if you ask me.

The main reason I have a desktop is so I can stuff a Sound Blaster and a GeForce into my system, and also because I don't like working on laptops if I need to do something like replace the hard drive, fan or optical drive. Upgradability is no longer a major selling point, because they change chipsets too often. The biggest one is actually ease of repair/replacement of parts that fail. That may not be the case in the future when there aren't enough OEMs churning out desktop parts, though.
 
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