atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Computers & Programming Computers, Software, Accessories Google: Desktop PCs to be "irrelevant" in 3 years

I don't know about you, but I hope this is a bunch a hooey.

I have zero interest in surfing the web, reading emails, watching video attachments, etc on a screen the size of a phone.

Dave -

There are two parts to this story. First:

In the '80s and '90s the smart money was on "Thin Clients" - Dumb terminals without disk drives that connected to a host on a network.

I remember the first Unix box that I put in. It was an ACD that connected to the PBX and it ran on a 386, 20mhz clone with a 40mb hard drive. I had a half-a-dozen dumb terminals and printers hanging off it, all connected with line drivers (2 pairs replacing a serial connection). It was awesome.

I remember telling Fran that this was what our next computer was going to look like. A server in the basement running Wordperfect, Lotus 1-2-3, dBase (all available then in Unix versions) and who knows what else with dumb terminals and printers scattered throughout the house.

The concept of a "thin client" was good then and it's still good, but will it catch on now? Especially as well as wireless works?

Second:

Tablet computers were another great idea that never really caught on. Now there are Kindles and Nooks and next month - the iPad. I don't think a smart phone will ever really replace computers, like you say - the screen is just too small. But how about something bigger - like an iPad or a Kindle?

Maybe.

It'll be interesting to see.


Sam

Oh God, they are coming with this again. How many times has the "death of the PC" been predicted? It was more that ten years ago that Microsoft and their cadre of pundits told us in no uncertain terms that PC's with software on them were going to be gone tomorrow, replaced by "web based computing." They insisted that nobody would buy software anymore, instead just renting it as needed over the internet. And then they told us that we wouldn't need to store our own data anymore, because they would house it for us in "The Cloud." And then they told us.....

;begin SoapBox

The real problem here is the corporate marketing types and the armies of suckups and toadies who do their bidding. This entire industry has been taken over by these clowns, and it is time for us to take up pitchforks and torches and storm the castle. The news media is the biggest part of the problem, because they dutifully print what they are given and simply don't have the technical knowlege required to detect BS. Face it, most members of the news media believe that computers and electronic communications were invented in 2002 by tech savvy middle-school students. If you tried to tell them about Bell Labs and how most of the electronics that make all this crap possible was invented in the 1960's, they would probably think you were lying to them.

;end SoapBox

Jim
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Ranting from a secure undisclosed location.

;begin SoapBox (with tongue planted firmly in cheek)

Sam, I think you made all that up. The 1980's? Are you kidding us? This reminds me of the elaborate hoax that was dreamed up to invent a fictitious company called "DEC." I have actually seen forged documents that were purported to be have been printed up by something called the "Digital Equipment Company" decades ago, and it is obvious that they are a hoax, because they often contain references to new technologies that were only just invented this year! (The lady on the teevee said so...)

;end hoax debunking

Jim
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Stacking up multiple soapboxes from a secure undisclosed location.

Jim -

Sometimes I sit back and fondly remember "BM".

No - that's not what you're thinking.

It's Before Microsoft.

I had a Commodore computer and then I had Xenix and Unix and OS/2 and.......

And then I look at the Media and all that's there is Windows.

Recently I've started to see some Apple stuff, but mostly if they mention them at all it's all about those iPod people...

Sam

Computers have been great on making this a paperless society.