Comment by grive | Hacker News Reader

Comment by grive | Hacker News Reader

I consider the main issue to be the first point: that they are purely consumption-oriented platforms. This might evolve for the better though with a little imagination(°).

However I disagree with the second point. Smartphones were optimized for power consumption, while PC were optimized for stability and functionality (depending on your operational flavor, the platform can be quite flexible, allowing such seemingly contradictory directions).

This "optimization for (reducing) power-consumption" is the only times it seems to have happened, and it is actually a good contribution to network design. We should actually embrace this process in general, not only mobility-based computers.

°: A future where your smartphone will be your transportable workstation, only docking on controls changing depending on your activity (screen + keyboard + mouse in general, screen / speakers for media consumption, joysticks for gaming). You'd arrive to work and dock your phone, start working, take it with you and being able to work from another office, another location, remotely (at home), etc.

I've never understood the "they're only consumption devices" gripe. It's such a narrow perspective, and very programmer-centric. I use mine,

1) as a tool to build real-world stuff (a level, camera to get reference pictures, measurement notes for when I go to the hardware store, measurement converter)

2) to regularly take better pictures of my kids than we get from "real" photographers with fancy, expensive cameras & lenses—and I barely even know WTF I'm doing, plus I'm like 2 generations behind on my iPhone,

3) to cook—measurement conversion, recipe book which I guess is consumption but I also use it to track results and take notes for the next time I cook something

4) I write messages to people. If that's consumption then so's letter writing which... can't be right.

5) Note-taking device for various personal projects, most of them having nothing to do with programming (thank God).

Further, if you asked me to film & edit a movie with a single device, you bet your ass I'd take a "consumption-only" iPad or (even) iPhone over a laptop or desktop. And so on for a bunch of other non-consumption stuff, for which the devices are anywhere from good-enough to much-better when compared with a laptop.

They're not great for programming, sure. Phones are awkward for long-form writing, though tablets are fine with an external keyboard. They're pretty good—even great—for tons of other creative work. Programming is not the only thing computers are for. In fact we program only to make the computer let us do other stuff with it. From a certain perspective, programming's the worst creative thing you can use a computer for.

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