Is the PC "Dying"?

Just got my new PC. It has Win 7 on it. Most of the machines I had an option to buy could be loaded with 7 or 8. I will use the old machine for Linux.

I hope the PC ain't dying, I've just back the wrong horse.

Quote: TheCesspit

I hope the PC ain't dying, I've just back the wrong horse.

I'll tell you the same thing I told my parents in the early 90s, when they refused to buy a turntable even though they had well over 150 records in the house: what you have still works even if it's passe.

BTW, I didn't do much exploration of Linux in Vegas. I was there to relax, after all. I did manage to write two articles and part of one story. And I did see enough of Mint and Zorin, and I'd already seen some of Xubuntu, to get a notion of which way I'm going to go. For now it's Mint. But I also stashed away an article on how to mod Ubuntu (no X) into a Win 7 look-a-like. So...

We'll see what happens, assuming I can even coax the old PC to boot from the CD drive. It's supposed to do so, but then it's also supposed to save a file when I press "ENTER," but it does that about 1/3 of the time only. If not I'll try it on the laptop.

If Linux fails, I'll get an (ugh!!!) Win8 desktop PC and modify it to actually be usable. Why not a Win7 PC? Because 1) it would be more expensive, 2) it would mean an older amchine (more so by mid-Fall), and should MS regain its senses, I'd be better positioned when they issue Win8.We're-very-sorry-and-we'll-never-do-this-again version (which I estimate as slightly less unlilely than winning the lottery; slightly).

On more important matters, Windows 8 must be destroyed.

Things are about to get a lot worse.

Yesterday I read a very belligerent article demanding the demise of the mouse. To be replaced with what, one wonders? With "touch, gestures, motion-capture gestures, and voice commands."

Think for a minute how much you can do with a plain mouse. I mean one without even a scroll wheel (or for that matter with a touch pad). Add a scroll wheel and one or two side buttons, and think again. And all that over a very small patch of desk space. Fact is the mouse is a marvel of economy and productivity. Best of all, it keeps your hands close to the keyboard at all times.

Sure, for tablets and phones and other trendy gadgets a mouse would be worse than useless when used on the go (it might be useful when used on a desk). But so what? That doesn't change the fact that touch and other trendy alternative ways to manipulate a comptuer. Consider having to reach all the way to the screen and ho far that removes your hands fomr the keyboard. If that wsan't bad enough, now you're expected to amke gestures on air, like a magiican does, and further be distracted from any actual work.

If it were just one article I'd dismiss it. But Microsoft is looking at it for either Windows 9 or the ongoing development of Windows 8.

I got my first tablet 2 months ago and am amazed
by it. This small flat thing does almost everything
my PC does, except store memory. I watch Netflix
movies on it every night in bed. It has apps that
instantly connect me to the things I go to most.

The PC isn't dead, just looking a lot like the Buffalo
did about 1860 or so..

Quote:

The PC isn't dead, just looking a lot like the Buffalo
did about 1860 or so..

For you, maybe. For mass home users, possibly. But you can't develop those neat Apps you love on a tablet.

According to the latest figures, PC shipments worldwide are down 10.4% in the second quarter of 2013 compared to the same quarter in 2012.

But in the US, they're down only 1.4% or thereabouts.

That difference says a lot. PCs are more expensive then tablets or phones. I'd love to see the numbers for Western Europe, Japan, Australia and South Korea, too.

Having made the intimate acquaintance of a tablet in the past week, I can say it cannot and will never replace a PC. Not for any kind of serious or intensive work, and not for other things as well.

I opted for a 7" tablet, which may be too small for proper web browsing, though I've managed casual web browsing just fine. For online shopping, it depends on what you're looking for and how. For example, the Audible store through the app is perfectly self-sufficient. But not the e-book store through the Kindle app (but then I read more reviews for fiction than for non-fiction). When shopping for clothes, I preffer the big PC monitor as well. On other things I've been experimenting a little as time allows.

I've been trying out Office suite replacements as well. Many are good enough for viewing Word and Excel files (I hardly ever deal with others), but nowhere near good enough for working with those files. Not with the tablet alone. I suppose adding a mouse and keyboard would help a great deal, but then the 7" screen would be positioned too far away to be easily legible. Things would work better on a 10" screen, naturally, but even then I'd think the size is still too small. For that I'd prefer a 17" laptop or a 20+" PC monitor.

I'm happy to have the tablet, but at best it's a complement to the PC and at worst it's a reasonable portable substitute. About the latter, one trades off capability for portability. That works for me, but I understand it as a trade-off. It's very useful in places where WiFi is either uncommon or expensive (like Vegas). It might even be useful for places where free WiFi is easily available. For instance, lugging around the Nexus 7 is easier than carrying a laptop to, say, a restaurant or even a hotel (the tablet would be easier to secure as well).

So for the foreseeable future, I'll be keeping my PC at home and my laptop for when I need to work while travelling.

Quote: TheCesspit

I know people using Chrome OS based word processors to write dissertations on (even if the final format and print work is down on their home/work machines).

Google only supports running Chrome OS on Chromebooks, but I have read that you can put Chrome OS on a USB drive and boot it on any computer, just as you’d run a Linux distribution from a USB drive.

I have attempted to follow instructions on how to do this from http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/ , but I can't get it to work. Has anyone else tried, or would be willing to try?

A backup operating system that give you access to the internet seems useful. If you are borrowing a computer and you want to assure someone that you won't interfere with their setup. Another use would be to backup Windows XP machines that could get buggy any day now.