The desktop is not dead dammit
pcmag.com
pcmag.com
The same is true of other outboard hardware - for example, I use a UAD-2 card for music production. Sure they have a FireWire version for laptop/iMac owners, but in place of another box with another power brick taking up another (often scarce) port, I got a tiny little PCI card that goes in the box and is never seen or heard from again.
I understand not everyone needs tons of storage, or dedicated audio/video hardware, but if you do, desktop can't be beat.
1) Much more ergonomical. I get neck pain when working on my Macbook for hours, looking down at the screen
2) I need two external screens. A Laptop Screen + an external Screen is again not ergonomical, pains my eyes to look from a decent 24" into the Macbook Display with its insane pixel density. I like same pixel density on both screens, and same size
3) Noise. For what i am doing the Macbook constantly screams at me through its fans (i7 quad version). My Desktop is silent when doing the same tasks
4) Glossy Screens, i totally hate them and today its almost impossible to get around them.
5) Laptop only is a compromise. A 15" is pretty huge and heavy. A decent Desktop for serious work + Macbook Air for on the go would be perfect.
6) Sync tools are so good nowadays (yay dropbox) that its pretty easy to have everything in sync across multiple machines.
1. Cost: you get more computing bang for the buck with desktops.
2. Anti-theft: Laptops are easy to conceal and walk out of a building with. I've heard about laptop thefts at places I've worked, but I never heard of a desktop PC theft.
That basically solves 1, 2, 4.
3 doesn't bother me because I have my headphones on most of the time. If I'm at my workstation, I use my speakers.
5 is subjective. I've been able to get around for the last year as an on-the-go freelancer without much problem with the size or weight.
This allows me the huge advantage of mobility (for working at difference offices, cafes, houses, travelling to other cities, or even different rooms in my apartment) and space savings (I can have my vertical laptop on my desk which takes up the same amount of space as a small lamp) to be coupled with the advantages of having a full-fledge desktop setup.
FWIW, I spend most of my time using graphics programs.
Have you taken a look at USB2 DisplayLink devices? I bought one for $75 2 years ago and it's been holding up like a champ for a dual-22" monitor setup at work (similar @home)... I don't even use my laptop screen (which could give me a 3rd screen)... all of this running on a USB hub with keyboard, mouse, etc with no hiccups.
It does fine unless you try HD video on it or playing games - it does great for coding, browsing and writing.
That, and the cost-efficiency of a powerful desktop, is what prevents me from going all-mobile.
The real question is whether you a) can or want to afford a laptop, which still tend to be relatively more expensive than desktops and b) whether you're actually mobile enough to bother. In my case, I have a great chair, a sweet desk, two large monitors, and a room of my own; this means I tend to do my best work there.
(Note: I also left this comment on pcmag.com).
Once you've attached an external monitor, external keyboard and mouse, and an external hard drive to a laptop, you're using the laptop exactly as you would a desktop tower: something you only need to touch if you want to insert a piece of removable media.
In that case, you might as well fork out a few more dollars and put a real desktop tower in that space. Sync everything and enjoy the extra speed.
As far as I'm concerned, this is what it really comes down to. At least for now, while you can in general find a laptop to meet just about any desktop as far as features or performance, there is always a non-trivial price premium.
Once there is not, desktops will vanish overnight (except for the diehards or those with special computing needs) because you can just plug a laptop in to the peripherals belonging to your old workstation.
As someone who enjoys tinkering with hardware, having access to the internals of a computer that desktops afford is just plain fun. I've never experienced the same with laptops, which typically require jumping through flaming hoops just to get the case open.
I wouldn't worry about it too much. Even if Dell were to shutter their doors tomorrow, there would still be plenty of hobbyists and those willing to supply them.
While I agree that the workstation is not dead, the reasons listed are neither compelling nor convincing. #1 Ergonomics, #6 Keyboard and #2 Screen Space all make sense, but I am typing this right now on a Macbook Pro connected to a 27" monitor with a bluetooth keyboard at my desk. Suggesting that these things aren't available to a laptop is a false dichotomy.
#3 Storage is similarly unconvincing. All my photos I host on SmugMug and music on Google Music. This not only removes storage requirements from my laptop, it also provides access from other devices.
#5 Dents and Dings is just ridiculous.
Laptops not only have almost all these things available to them, they also have the added advantage of portability.
If one were to make an argument against laptops, I would say the biggest drawback would be the security risk posed by portability, as others have mentioned. Secondary to that would be #5 Processing Power provided by heavy duty workstations for things such as video processing. For other applications, laptop processors are more than capable.
You can build an i5-2500k, 8gb ram, 1 tb hdd, gaming caliber video card machine for $600.
Rather than buying a $2500 macbook pro, you can get a gaming desktop with a 30" display, and a macbook air/ultraportable and really come out way on top.
Of course there's the question of juggling 2 environments if you have complex needs, but most people would be fine with a simple dropbox setup or something.
I use a desktop at home and a small laptop on the go, and everything I need is always on both computers. Files, bookmarks, browsing history, you name it. I can just log into either computer and keep working. The advent of cloud-based synchronization tools makes it very easy for people to juggle 2 or more computers. So instead of fighting over the "Desktop of laptop?" question, one can get both and not suffer any inconvenience.
After all, what would the average North American middle-class family do if they needed a vehicle that was both large enough for the kids' hockey games and fuel-efficient enough for the dad's long commute? They wouldn't settle for one mid-sized car; they'd buy a minivan and a Prius.
The proportion of people who are "always on the go" is rather small.
2) HDTVs suck as displays when you are doing anything other than presenting content.
3) External Hard Drives take up about as much space as internal hard drives, but you have the option of where you would like to put them. How is a desktop with 2 big drives more convenient than a laptop with an SSD and an external drive?
4) Apple's laptop lineup is purely sandy bridge now, and those processors scream.
5) My Desktop is thrashed. Tons of dings and dents from my chair bumping into it on the floor. Also, whenever I need to get to the cabling at the back, I pull the tower forward, and then push it back when I'm done. Sometimes it catches on my desk and I get a huge scrape across the side.
6) My Macbook Air has the exact same keyboard as my iMac. Both work great. I don't do data entry so the numpad isn't necessary.
Overall.. this article is a shot from the hip attempt to attract attention ("dammit"). It lacks substance though.
It has much more substance than your response, which consists mostly "oh yeah? well for my use case...". Kinda a dumb way to respond to an article that argues "hey, these have got their fair share of uses cases that they'll be sticking around".
I use an hdtv as my primary monitor all the time, I know plenty of people who do the same. It all depends on the particular display if it will look decent or not.
External drives are kind of a pain in the ass. Except for the drive I move between devices all the time, its just more to get in the way.
Ah, so one line of laptops has good hardware. That does not mean the pc moving ahead, portables eventually catching up cycle is dead, or that software's ballooning requirements are ever going to stop ballooning.
You treat your tower like shit and are surprised it's beat to hell?
Yes, the itty bitty mac keyboards are neat on a desktop, but they're infuriatingly slow for a lot of things you apparently don't need to do. I have numbers to calculate and programs to write, consequently I have an apple bluetooth keyboard-shaped dent in my wall.
Thinkpad keyboards have always been the best... but mine is currently in a docking station, which combined with the height of my desk makes typing an invitation to injury, so I use an external keyboard. Oh, hey, PC Magazine, I can plug a desktop keyboard into my laptop! You should write an article about it, since it's apparently a new concept to your writers.
The arguments regarding cost and horsepower are more compelling, and even though the gap is closing, I doubt that a laptop will ever outperform a desktop of comparable costs. It's just cheaper to manufacture components that are bigger and less heat-sensitive.
Most of the points that the author illustrates the importance of desktops with will matter less and less in the next 5 years as storage and CPU power become cheaper. But most importantly, as hardware innovations make tablets convenient to use for typing (1) and easy to use with large displays (2), the desktop will become a niche power-user market.
(1) http://wingstand.com/ (2) http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/breakthrough-device-of-ces-201...
My ideal setup, which I've only recently implemented, is a powerful desktop workstation with a thin-but-fast mobile laptop. My custom desktop build and the Air fit this perfectly.
This fall, I'm studying abroad in London and I'm only taking my Air with me... very interested to see if I get frustrated with its limitations or not.
I'm actually surprised he didn't mention gaming as a big driver for desktops as an area which need the big fans or graphics cards that you don't get in laptops (though gaming laptops have come a long way in the last 5 years)
My Thinkpad doesn't get a whole lot of use these days, I've gone with a desktop to suit my needs and I keep the laptop around for those odd times where I travel.
a family of four will also probably have more than one computer. you can pick up a 2TB NAS for about $150, that should be plenty of room for all their home movies and photos and it is accessible from all their computers.
Monitors, keyboards, and mice aren't going anywhere. But it won't be very many years before a desktop machine becomes a niche item for those who even today can't get enough power (3D artists, etc), while the rest of use are using one variety or another of portable core device with multiple IO options. (Though it isn't tomorrow, either. This stuff actually exists now, but it's bleeding, bleeding edge, as in the "cut yourself" type of bleeding edge. But still, that will fix itself.)
Did anyone claim it was?
The only thing that makes the claim different this time is it's IBM saying it, not some journalist hack. See here:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/081011-ibm-pc.html?pag...