BBC: Does the PC have a future?

[twistedheat15]

1: This isn't gaming related. It's not talking about the future of PC Gaming.

2: It's not PCs in general. It's the desktop. That's what's being talked about.

3: I agree. With everything going portable, and laptops becoming more and more powerful, desktop PCs are becoming less and less practical, in terms of not-gaming related things. Ironically, PC Gaming is probably the biggest thing keeping people on desktops as opposed to laptops and tablets.

4: I look forward to hoards of PC Gamers coming in, foaming at the mouth and getting their raging responses ready, trying to defend ze glorious Master Race to come storming in with knee-jerk responses without actually reading the article, thinking "desktop" and "PC" are synonymous and cannot tell the difference.

The way everyone started listing what systems they owned, and their thoughts on gaming with it, I thought I was the only one who noticed that the report wasn't nothing about PC gaming and it's future among consoles and smart phones.

As far as the article, aside from gaming, and strong video editing/graphic design ect, ya can pretty much use a laptop to do everything most normal ppl would need it for, so I can see desktops taking a major drop as laptops, smart phones and tablets get stronger and stronger over the years.

 

[Gamblerjoe]

The PC will always be there for intelligent people who want a quality gaming machine that will last. The reason I like my PC over all other gaming mediums is that I got a lot of bang for the buck building it myself, and with a huge Coolermaster case, it runs at a nice low temp. Its just simple thermodynamics that when you cram your components into a smaller space, your CPU will run much hotter. The cooler it runs, the less wear and tear it takes.

Also, consoles can not produce the same visual quality and fidelity that a decent gaming PC can. I understand why people would prefer a gaming laptop to a PC, but to me portability is not a good enough reason to pay a premium for a machine that gets hotter than hell.

 

[Risingblade]

Yup at least until laptops get better batteries and stop becoming raging infernos! Man those things love to overheat :/

 

[Gamblerjoe]

"Given that consoles are less technologically sophisticated than PCs they will be programmed for the lowest common denominator which, from a commercial point of view, makes sense," he said. "However, it means they are not pushing modern PC hardware."

Then I stopped reading.
Battlefield 3? Anyone?

Honestly, of course it does. That shouldn't even be a question. Just because you can play Fruit Ninja on a tablet doesn't mean the PC is useless.
[sub]these analysts are fucking stupid >.>"[/sub]

Yeah, I pretty much just skimmed it after that point. A lot of their logic is flawed. First of all, the industry has not stopped pushing hardware. Thats ridiculous. If they stopped pushing hardware, my graphics card would have cost so much more, but it was only $120 since newer models keep coming out every year. Also, hardware is way ahead of software right now. We are actually at a bottleneck where across the board software cant even make full use of the insanely sophisticated hardware that exists. If you want to talk about the death of the PC, hardware is by far the wrong topic.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Becuse everyone knows that PC are only used to make games... AND NOTHING ELSE!

Desktops aren't going to die out. So long as their are companies that hire people to make software there will be desktops in some form. You might have a neato like tablet but it sure as hell is not going to do the kind of number crunching necessary for scientific computing or the rending necessary for modern CGI.

 

[CAPTCHA]

Ages of Computing

1st age: The Age of the Valve Switch - Old number crunchers like the Collosus and Enigma machines are invented.

2nd age: The Age of the Transistor Switch - Mainframe computing where large centeral machines were hooked up to multiple access terminals.

3rd age: The Age of the Intergrate Circuit (silicon chip) - self contained machines built into cabinates.

4th age: The Age of the Microprocessor - Desktop PC and the beginings of ubiquitous computing.

5th age: The Age of Mobile Computing - Sophisticated communication networks allow for devices to act as a whole while remaining seperate entities.

6th age: The (theoretical) Age of Calm Computing - computes fade into the background preforming the task we desire without the need to interact whith them.

 

[ckam]

I think the PC would find a place for the serious people who want to get the most state-of-the-art materials that would be too big, at that time, for laptops and tablets to use.

 

[nyysjan]

Yup at least until laptops get better batteries and stop becoming raging infernos! Man those things love to overheat :/

I think the PC would find a place for the serious people who want to get the most state-of-the-art materials that would be too big, at that time, for laptops and tablets to use.

Laptops are PC's.

 

[samuraiweasel]

I want to argue against this, but I'm really struggling to think of anything I do on my PC that I couldn't do with something else. Play a specific few games maybe, that's about it.

Yes that is true, but the question is which would you rather do it on...

 

[Vivi22]

Perosnal Computing is here to stay. However with Laptop's now being capable of what they are, plus other gadgets like my smartphone and with what the Xbox 360 and PS3 are capable of I don't see a future for the desktop. Hell with the extra space I've added a small snooker table to my house.

Honestly, while other options (laptops and tablets) may be more suited to your casual PC user, I don't see desktops going anywhere anytime soon. Particularly in professions such as game development where you need a lot of power under the hood, and where using a laptop would be fairly ridiculous if only because battery life would be non-existent, and you could just about buy two desktops for the price of some of those high end laptops. You could possibly argue that cloud computing could replace it, but we certainly aren't there yet.

In the future, as things like battery life and the actual hardware itself improves we may be able to move completely away from desktops, but the PC will not be going anywhere any time soon.

The one thing my system has had upgraded several times (lemme count...on it's 5th) is the graphics card, and thats only because i buy midranged cards so i don't go spending £200+ on a card.

PC's will always be around and for one simple reason, a desktop has a hell lot more horsepower than a laptop or smartphone. That and a desktop doesn't go an overheat every few hours unlike alot of laptops i've owned.

You know, and this may be getting slightly off topic but, I understand the reasoning behind buying mid-ranged cards and just upgrading every few years, though I'm not sure it really saves a lot in the long run. Until last week I was using a GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB card that I got four and a half years ago or so. It was basically top of the line at the time, bought for about $250 Canadian and was still running just about everything not named Metro 2033 on high settings. I think that's pretty good for a card that was that long in the tooth, though it's certainly not cheap each time you replace your cards, but you can get a bit more mileage out of them if you go fairly high-end. Mind you, I would probably never go as batshit crazy as getting two (or more of the highest end cards) and running them in SLI or something. That's a bit silly to be honest.

And I have to agree with you on laptops overheating. While I've never had one actually totally overheat and shut down, they do get a lot hotter simply from the smaller case and worse air flow. They also have a nasty tendency to clog with dust and hair, especially if you have pets which makes things worse. My sisters aluminum Macbook will actually get so hot you can't hold it in your lap if it's on too long.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Yes this makes total sense, everyone is going to do their work, CAD, Office, programming, video/photo-Editing and so on on mobile phones and tablets in the future

I feel my eyes starting to strain just thinking of trying to set up a full 3D scene for rendering on some pissy tiny screened portable device.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

In the future, as things like battery life and the actual hardware itself improves we may be able to move completely away from desktops

Well, no, not going to happen.

Fact is that no matter how good you make the hardware for portable devices the hardware for stationary computers will always be better. Miniaturisation always has it's costs, usually in capabilities, thermal retention and power supply...

oh yeah, there's also the fact you can just cram more hardware into a desktop sized case.

 

[Dexiro]

PC's might phase out a little but it's unlikely that they'll ever completely disappear. At the moment they're more reliable, more flexible (easy to upgrade) and having a keyboard and mouse that you can move around a desk will always be unbeaten.

If PC's are to disappear then laptops would be the alternative, but they've got a long way to go to match up. And they'd have to effectively turn into a PC once you place it on a desk.

 

[Vivi22]

Well, no, not going to happen. Fact is that no matter how good you make the hardware for portable devices the hardware for stationary computers will always be better. Miniaturisation always has it's costs, usually in capabilities, thermal retention and power supply.

This is certainly true, but I'm hesitant to say it will never happen when it comes to technology. It's always somewhat hard to predict where things will go, or where the next quantum leap in technology will be, and we may find ourselves reaching a point where the most powerful hardware on the market can be easily portable and power efficient enough to make sense in a laptop form or something similar, or we'll have cloud computing to such a point where it doesn't make sense to use the actual machine sitting on your desk as anything more than an access terminal while the actual number crunching is done in a server farm somewhere else.

Fact is, the machine we actually interact with directly may change a lot in the future. But in the immediate future, as in the next 10-20 years, I don't see the modern conception of a desktop PC disappearing.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

As much as it pains me to say it I agree with most of that article. The industry is changing and the Desktop is being rapidly replaced by the laptop and other devices. Most PC users use their home PCs to surf the web, e-mail, maybe watch a few shows on Netflix et al, and play the odd game. These tasks can all be done on a current generation Tablet, Netbook, or smartphone. Face it a PC is a big thing, and it is almost a piece of furniture (including the screen, keyboard, desk, etc).

I, for one, am slightly saddened, but also excited. We are experiencing a sea change in the way people use computers. Almost a revolution. I am pumped to see where this goes. Widespread Mobile computing is going to change a lot of things.

As for PC games... well if a new generation of consoles comes out that may spur developers and push PC tech again. Perhaps.

The PC isn't dead. It's regenerating into something new.

<url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/2911-PC-Gaming-Is-Dead-Long-Live-PC-Gaming>Moviebob said it really well.

 

[Joccaren]

The industry needs high end PCs. It does. Not every industry, but some industries, especially the gaming industry and industries involving video editing, require at least a reasonable Desktop, Laptops and Netbooks and such just can't cope with what is needed. Hell, I've got some relatively low end video editing software and its pretty system intensive, even on new hardware.

On top of that, gaming needs PCs. Not for development, but for the pinnacle play experience. If gaming moved purely to consoles, it would lose a fair portion of its market, myself included. And as long as we keep getting games like BF3, even if only occasionally, we will have people that will strive to get the best out of them, and will sink hundreds of dollars into a system capable of doing so.

No, PCs aren't going anywhere. As I believe has been stated they are merely becoming specialised. Portable PCs such as netbooks and such for mobility, Desktop PCs for capability, and Laptops for a cross between. All are types of PC, they are just specialised forms of it.

 

[Creator002]

I've a Xbox 360, PS3, original Xbox, Gameboy Color and an iPhone and I still use my PC a lot more during the day than all of those combined. I use my iPhone for browsing the web, but only when not on my PC, which is rare or at night (also rare, sort of).
I use my PC to make games, to program, video-edit, instant message and play games. I only play my Xbox 360 a few times a week and that's when my friend bugs me. I'm thinking of selling the entire system because I use my PC more. I also never use the PS3, but it's my sister's.

Basically, what I'm saying is the PC will always have a place somewhere. It will never die out, unless another contraption that does all the functions a PC can and more as well as being called something else, though I think PCs have pretty much everything covered unless the new machine gives out free pie or sex.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Well, no, not going to happen. Fact is that no matter how good you make the hardware for portable devices the hardware for stationary computers will always be better. Miniaturisation always has it's costs, usually in capabilities, thermal retention and power supply.

This is certainly true, but I'm hesitant to say it will never happen when it comes to technology. It's always somewhat hard to predict where things will go, or where the next quantum leap in technology will be,

Quantum computing. There are already quantum computers commercially available if you have a spare $10mil or so to burn. What you'd do with one if you aren't in a field that relies heavily on quantum calculations is beyond me, though.

and we may find ourselves reaching a point where the most powerful hardware on the market can be easily portable and power efficient enough to make sense in a laptop form or something similar, or we'll have cloud computing to such a point where it doesn't make sense to use the actual machine sitting on your desk as anything more than an access terminal while the actual number crunching is done in a server farm somewhere else.

I think the traditional laptop will go long before the desktop does. Smart gadgets and slate/tablet computers will see to that. High portability plus growing power (their technological improvement is outpacing pretty much anything else at the moment) is definitely a threat to their market except as Desktop Replacements (laptops that never move from the desk).

As for computing clouds... I remain unconvinced. The biggest problem is the aging telecommunications infrastructure and it's inherent limitations. The bandwidth just isn't there for everyone to move to cloud and, taking into consideration the growth of processing capabilities, will always struggle to meet demand. Just have a look at the problems that the increasing popularity of wireless internet access is starting to cause - it's beginning to choke the cell networks in areas of high user density.

The other problem I personally have with an overuse of cloud computing is that it takes away control of the technology we use from us.

However, there is one idea I've seen kicked around now and then that I think does have merit - 'home' hub based computing... where a central unit acts as the primary processing and storage centre for everyone's gadgets (that have their own limited secondary processing and storage for when on the go). Basically a small supercomputer in the home (or office or whereever) that can handle the bulk of processing requests from all the devices in it's network... sort of like a Home Theatre PC meets small server farm. Hell, apart from gadgets that can switch from local/independent mode to network/terminal mode, all the tech to do it exists... it's just a bit bulky and expensive for most people at the moment.

I would totally get one now if I had the money to build it... and yes, it would hold pride of place on my desk (although I might need to buy a bigger desk or even have it built into a desk, that would be awesome).