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Comment by Yeul | Hacker News Reader

The desktop computer is dying. The only reason why I still have one is because I play videogames. Serious stuff is done on my phone.

If we want to talk about disaster it's that Microsoft lost the smartphone battle. The real future of computing.

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The phone/tablet as most common 'personal computer' is what I see that will be a constant bleed on the audience for the desktop PC. At least for the home audience the price trends over the past decade seems like a big deterrence, and the old model of having a desktop for home use and an enthusiast upgrading/modernizing it involves more. I do a fair amount of gaming on my 8-9 year old PC, and it's hard to justify an upgrade (which at this point is a whole new build) for more recent games versus getting a PS5 for 400 bucks or so (or a used one for 200-300) which is less than a reasonably capable/modern GPU by itself.

I guess my concern is where are the gradual on-ramps for getting people into that desktop PC (windows or otherwise) environment so they can explore and discover what it enables for them? There's no trouble if you already know you're an enthusiast, you can make an informed decision if the bill of parts is worth it, and I don't see professional-workstations going away as a tool.

If we want to revive interest in the desktop or laptop computer, and cost is a concern, then we should be steering more folks towards pre-built NUCs and SBCs with an efficient OS on top (like a friendlier Linux Desktop). The problem is that so much of the internet is so bloated and heavy that, with the way the average person uses a computer, the specs quickly become anemic.

So I guess I’m banging my efficiency and optimization drum again, is what I’m saying.

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