The question came up the other day at work about buying a new computer. I told my colleague I would be looking for a replacement laptop. He indicated he will be looking for a replacement desktop. This question resurfaced today with another colleague who was talking about his old Pentium 4 desktop that he built years ago and he keeps it running still, though it has finally been maxed out for the architecture.
As we discussed the various reasons for what we were looking for when it comes to PC replacement, some well thought out justifications came forth regarding our respective opinions. I want a laptop because I want portability. Actually I want a smaller laptop because I want better portability.
Colleague #1 wants a desktop replacement because he wants a more powerful machine than he can get in a laptop. Colleague #2 doesn't want to upgrade just now because he has legacy hardware for audio and video recording that would be expensive to replace should he upgrade and not be able to use his older cards and interfaces.
All three of us are computing "old timers" now, having started our respective computing careers pre-Internet and colleague #2 started pre-PC. Each of us have spent innumerable hours scrounging for parts and cannibalizing old machines for everything from cards and drives, to cables and screws. We built our own machines from either scraps or now parts, but we knew everything that went into them.
"Back in the day", we each had our one copy of Windows 3,1 or 98 SE and we loaded it on every machine we made. It wasn't so much software piracy as it was recycling. We only ever had enough parts to make one or two working machines at any one time. So after we bought our first copy, we reused it on the hacked up boxes we put together.
But now, we tell of those stories and when it comes to PCs, we buy them pre-configured and pre-packaged. We paid our dues and no longer feel compelled to earn bragging rights by building our own rigs and spending countless hours searching for obscure drivers and fretting the impacts of every software update that came around.
So we don't build them anymore. We buy them. And once we build them, we run them until they die. Then we throw them out. No more scavenging for parts and hoarding old equipment.
This got me thinking. There are a lot of options out there now, the question is no longer "do I need a desktop or laptop PC?" But the question is really "what do I want to really do with a computer?"
Think about it. You could opt for a desktop with powerful CPU, excellent expansion, and the ability to load it down with lots of peripherals of nearly any variety. But it's sitting on a desk somewhere and pretty much doesn't move around very often. At least not without a lot of cabling changes.
Or you could opt for a laptop with a powerful CPU, but less powerful than a desktop, excellent mobility, and the ability to take it nearly anywhere and plug in a lot of peripherals through USB, eSATA, or some other expansion port. But it won't have that uber-awesome graphics card like the desktop so if you are needing 90 FPS while playing some MMO, you won't get it on a laptop, typically. And if you don't understand that comment, you don't need it anyway.
But now there are other options. For example, you could get a tablet device, or a netbook, or even a really awesome smartphone. Any of those would satisfy your mobility requirements and many of them are now sporting interfaces to allow peripheral connection like their larger laptop cousins.
And what if you don't need a laptop with all its cost and hardware, but you just need a little desktop to use as a headless server? Why buy an entire desktop? With the onset of very small computing devices like Raspberry Pi and Beaglebones, you can have a PC the nearly as small as the size of a deck of cards.
Once upon a time these choices were not available. For the most part you had to choose between a Windows desktop PC based on the x86 architecture or a Windows laptop PC based on the x86 architecture. Sure there were a number of PPC based Macintoshes out there and a smattering of Sun users on SPARC. But the vast majority of people bought Windows desktops and laptops. And no one cared.
But something happened on the way to the forum, so to speak. With the onslaught of mobile computing, those niche CPUs based on ARM architecture became more mainstream. Linux grew up right in front of everyone's noses and spawned a child called Android. And Apple of all companies, switched it's hardware base from PPC to x86 and built a little smartphone that changed the world.
So it begs the question. Do you really need a PC?
When that old desktop or laptop gives up its electronic ghost, do you just reach for another one? Is this a case of the poor downtrodden computer orphan going back to Microsoft saying "Please, sir, may I have more?" Why would it have to be that way?
It doesn't.
Think about it. There is no reason to get yet another helping of the same old hash on the same old plate. Or to use a more apt metaphor, are you just going to go back to the trough for more of the same slop?
When you come to the point where you need to replace your "PC", think more about your requirements for this new device. Use those requirements to help you decide what kind of device you really need. It may still be a Windows laptop or desktop. But don't let the mass of Windows PCs out there be your deciding factor. Another few metaphors come to mind.
That's the tail wagging the dog.
Don't put the cart before the horse.
Don't let the rut steer the chariot.
Now that Android and iOS are the second and third most prevalent operating systems on the planet, and there is no end of applications available for these platforms, these mobile devices are serious contenders for the computing space. When you also consider the form factor, power usage, and heat dissipation of smaller, mobile devices, they have a considerable advantage over their desktop PC cousins.
When I speak with "average Joe User", they usually talk of a set of requirements they have for a computing platform that absolutely does not demand a desktop or laptop Windows PC. Most average users look for 1) email/Facebook/Twitter, 2) Internet searches and browsing, 3) writing an occasional document with something like MS Word, and 4) casual games of the Facebook variety. These findings have been backed up by a few organizations conducting polls and surveys.
So if those are your own main requirements, consider that you don't need a PC in the traditional sense. Look at other things like portability, screen size, keyboard input, and do you need any interfaces for devices to plug in. You may find that a device based on Android running on an ARM CPU does everything you need at a lower cost, higher mobility, and moves your chariot out of the rut.
Many users have found that those Apple iPads are more than enough for their needs. And with the million or so apps available, they have a robust software ecosystem to do everything you need doing.
And when it comes to laptops and desktops, there are 4 viable options now: Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, and Android. All 4 of these operating systems are available on x86 and ARM devices. And where ARM was once only in the mobile realm, it has moved to the laptop space and is making inroads in the desktop space as well.
So do you need a PC? Or do you need Internet browsing, email access, Facebook, and some basic applications? If those are the things you need to do, you don't need a PC, you need a computing device. And there are a lot of alternatives to choose from.
Copyright 2013, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)
