> As the PC continues to play a more central role in our lives than ever before
Does Microsoft really think this? I'm finding it's pretty common to meet people who don't own a PC at all. They just use their phone and possibly a tablet.
Does Microsoft really think this? I'm finding it's pretty common to meet people who don't own a PC at all. They just use their phone and possibly a tablet.
This feels true more and more.
This is quite odd considering they've acquired Swiftkey, which is among the first 3 apps I install on a fresh Android.
And Gnome apps often overflow the screen when they were not specifically designed for phones.
The strategies behind ChromeOS and iPadOS made a lot more sense after realizing this. Those operating systems aren't made to appeal to the people who have been using desktop PCs their whole lives. Rather, they're designed to appeal to those whose computing experience is pretty much ChromeOS, iPadOS and similar mobile platforms.
Even most devs would be perfectly fine with the processing performance of a modern phone if they could install the software they needed.
Interfaces and functionality keep being dumbed and locked down like they are on tablets and phones. Microsoft and Apple are watering at the mouth for the day when the true personal computer is gone and every computing device is a walled garden where every user uses their pre-approved apps doing only the pre-approved tasks, preferably as thin clients into their controlled cloud.
Nerds mewling about "general purpose computing" do not understand the market, and do not want to.
Part of Just Working, in this day and age, involves Just Updating Automatically and Just Protecting You From Malware, the latter of which involves tight restrictions on what can be run, and what it can access when it does run.
Companies want to sell appliances because appliances are more useful to the average person and therefore make more money. We're all going to have to reckon with the Gramscian heartbreak that most of the proletariat don't really want a revolution -- just less hassle in their lives.
Except that automatic (or forced) updating totally breaks the "Just working" mantra. I've learned to dread every update that comes down the pike. It's quite a change from the old days when updates were something that you generally looked forward to (and could ignore if the particular update made your experience worse in some important way).
Hell, I am a programmer, and those are the only reasons I have anything other than phones & tablets. Computers are for computer-focused nerd stuff, phones and tablets are much better for interacting with the real world thanks to their form factors and attached sensors & gadgets (home projects, hiking, gardening, learning, playing music, communicating, navigating, budgeting & bills, and so on).
Take my dad for example - not a tech guru, but works in Excel all the time, does renovation planning in Sketchup, etc.
Imagine trying to use Excel on your phone to actually do something beyond passively viewing a document. Imagine trying to manipulate a model with any degree of precision. In my experience, anyone who needs to do significant authorship prefers real keyboards and larger screens.
Phones and tablets are passive consumption and quick communication devices only, the exact opposite of what we should be encouraging in many ways.
They are really far from being "passive consumption and quick communication devices only". They're outstanding tools & aids for all kinds of things, most of which desktops and laptops are much worse for. What's with HN and labelling phones and tablets a "consumption devices"? It's wildly incorrect, to the point that it doesn't stand up to a moment's scrutiny.
Research on wikipedia when i'm not sure about a name or something? Its consumption, but active consumption.
All my other uses are passive or are about communication, and takes 80% of my time on the phone.
Please xplain to me other uses? I guess i could use it for photography, but i don't really care.
- Art (sketching/"painting"/et c)
- Music (tuner, recording, accompaniment, sheet-music display, composition, synth, metronome)
- A vast array of essentially secretarial functions (especially for phones) that aid all kinds of activities (reminders, lists, taking dictation, voice-recording, calendar stuff, organizing information)
- Construction, home projects, crafting of various sorts, and car repair (my phone is a: level, tape measure, notebook, calculator, flashlight, and reference manual)
- Tablets are pretty good for writing, with a wireless keyboard. Arguably better than a laptop per se (because you can position the screen separately from the keyboard for better ergonomics), but worse than a desktop or docked laptop with a large screen.
— Hiking, walking, outings in the city—navigation, wildlife & plant identification, ride hailing.
I'm far from a phone/tablet power-user and I use them for all kinds of stuff. If I had to live with only one personal computing device—well, it'd have to be a phone, because they're indispensable for all kinds of interactions with third parties that assume you have a cell phone, but if I had two the other would be an iPad Pro, no question whatsoever. I'd feel crippled with only a laptop or desktop, for almost every task except tinkering with computers, which I care about doing outside of work less with each passing year.
Most of the actual benefits of computing, in my personal life, as in, what makes my life easier, or helps me accomplish things, are better-available or only available on phones and tablets, and much of the rest is good-enough on those that I'd have trouble justifying a desktop or laptop just for those tasks. The main exception is fiddling with computers. Laptops and desktops are good for fiddling with computers (and not only that, to be clear—3D modeling and such remain much better there, too, for example—but that's really all I use them for, as far as productive use).
I think I also have a fundamental problem with classification of things into "consumption" or "creation", because it seems like successful and good and actually useable by and useful to normal people applications of computing tend to end up in the former, even if it's in service of tasks that aren't "consumption", like, "oh, navigation is just consumption" or "payment reminders are just consumption" or "AR sensors automatically measuring things for you is just consumption". Isn't the point that computers do what we need without our having to write a program from scratch every time? Shit, I thought computers doing stuff for us with, ideally, no commands or effort required, was the whole point of what we all do (I mean, that and selling ads, obviously).
For that matter, many of the benefits that a computer gives me over pencil and paper, for writing software, is "consumption"—that is, the output from tools I didn't write and often didn't even deliberately invoke, like code navigation, documentation look-up, hints, autocompletion, warnings, auto-formatting, et c. But those things are still tools aiding in creation. I don't like dismissing phones and tablets as "consumption devices" because they're not great for programming, when they are outstanding tools, far superior to a laptop or a desktop, for all kinds of other activities.
She has a Mac, but it might as well be a $1,100 thin client for Google Docs, as that is the only productive thing she does on it. I have no doubt she'd get by fine with an iPad or Chromebook (although I wouldn't recommend either at this point).
Passive consumption and quick communication is exactly what a lot of end users use PCs for. A tablet would be very viable for these users.
If it weren't for me being a programmer, and iPadOS file management sucking, I really don't see what would be in the way of me using an iPad full time.
I am not a programmer. I own a personal desktop and a personal laptop as well as a smartphone.
I do use it for gaming and media (though, honestly, streaming unlicensed video is something I only do on an ancient laptop tucked away behind the TV. The desktop only holds my actual collection of music/movie rips).
I also use my desktop to edit photos, videos, and music. I use my laptop to DJ for fun sometimes, or to take with me when I am away from home for an extended period. I like to experiment with digital art, 3d graphics, and interactive projection/light stuff.
During the last year+ I used my personal desktop over my work-issued laptop to do live conferences with composited graphics and "real" green screen chromakey, as well as a vocal mic and other sources connected via USB interface. It was powerful and flexible enough that I could run all of the browser-based stuff, office applications, and the live streaming software without breaking a sweat on a single box.
I could go on, but I imagine it's moot. I am perfectly aware that many, many people have no need for any of this stuff. But I personally like having a powerful and extendable computer that can be used for multiple tasks, often simultaneously. I can't imagine trying to do these things on an iPad or my phone (certainly not lots of them at once, or as effectively).
The phone apps for my banks and credit cards are better than their sites. I'd want my reminders on there, anyway. If a "hey pay this bill" reminder comes in, I can take care of it as soon as I have a spare 20 seconds. I can check my balances in seconds, (almost) no matter where I am. Venmo's very handy and I don't think I've ever used it anywhere but my phone. Hell, I even do some (very, very much hobby-tier) trading on my phone. Basically all my actually-important personal stuff happens mobile-preferred or mobile-only. I'm not sitting down making spreadsheets on my phone, though, that's true—I do still like a desktop/laptop or an iPad + keyboard & mouse for office-productivity sorts of programs.
> Every single one of the activities in parens is far better accomplished on a desktop with a real keyboard and a large monitor IMO
... which other ones? How?!
"home projects, hiking, gardening, learning [...] communicating, navigating" phone wins at all of these, for most people, in some cases simply for the "it's easy to carry around" factor, but that's still a real issue. I'm not going to take a laptop hiking or use it to figure out how to get somewhere in an unfamiliar city. I'm not taking it out in the garden, I'm not taking it to the driveway to work on my car, I'm not dragging it under the sink while I fix a pipe, it can't measure things for me, it can't act as a level, or a flashlight, I'm not going to use it to take a picture of the label on the box of screws I need to buy more of when I run to the store later, or of the arrangement of something I'm about to disassemble, et c. I'm not going to sketch ideas on it (paper or iPad, for that, and if it's paper and it matters I'll capture the result with a phone camera).
As for playing music, composing, that sort of thing: iPads fit great on a music stand, they're easy to carry around, the battery lasts a really long time so they're not fussy, they can attach to MIDI devices for all sorts of purposes, and iOS has excellent software available to use in that context. Phones and tablets can replace a metronome and electric tuners. They can play accompaniment or give you a beat. For some music-related tasks, yeah, you probably want a laptop or desktop, but the things an iPad's good at, it's really good at, and it can usually at least do OK at the rest.
home projects: I'm not entirely sure what this means in terms of computers, but for me it conjures images of designing things in CAD. I'm not even sure if that's possible on a phone
hiking: Looking up trail information and maps is 1000x better on a 27" 4k monitor than a tiny phone screen. Actually out on the trail, the only electronics you're likely to find with me are a PLB and a Kindle.
gardening: Likewise to hiking, looking things up and reading/learning are better done on a proper screen. I don't need a computer of any kind in the garden.
It seems like where this is going is that I feel the need to have a computing device/internet access readily at hand far less than you do.