The PC Is Not Dead

Belle writes "Bill Gates has an op-ed in this morning's BW Online, in which he responds to the magazine's question Is the PC dead? with a resounding "No!" and argues that the most revolutionary years for personal computing are yet to come." From the article: "The result is that the personal computer has become far more than a cog in the machine of corporate computing -- it's an essential tool for every individual in the organization. Take the personal out of computing, and most companies would grind to a halt."

Just One More Vulnerability

[Foofoobar]

Every PC used by a computer illiterate (or at least average office employee), is just another excuse to get viruses, trojans, worms, spyware, etc.

These people couldn't give a shit about your responsibility to maintain security; they want the latest mouse cursors and to answer that email from Zimbabwe.

Remove there ability to affect the rest of the network. Remove their PC and give them a thin clien/dumb terminal.

Re:Maybe next year, eh?

[oGMo]

Business users may choose to go thin-client, but in my opinion, the user who is technically-minded will never be satisfied with any of the so-called replacements for the personal computer

I would. Definitely. But maybe we're not talking about the same thing; I want modularization. I'd take the following over current offerings in a heartbeat:

• Thin client "terminal" with a focus on graphics capabilities and human interface components (hardware)
• Server backend (which I own the hardware for and have on-site) with massive computational abilities, easy to upgrade and add more capacity, and cluster.
• High bandwidth, low-latency network for streaming media---both ways, so I can push 28-channel audio from my studio gear back to the server.

That would be nice. I could add more terminals where I needed them for a reasonable price (say $100 for a low-end model) and have the benefit of backend processing.

Of course, I guess you could pretty much do this today with some imacs and a server or something. Not for cheap though.

How long have we been hearing this drivel?

[DesScorp]

"The PC is dying; it'll be replaced by single-purpose Internet enabled devices".

Not only is the PC not dying, it's uses are being expanded more every day. And the onslaught of gaming consoles certainly hasn't hurt the PC, or PC gaming. If there was ever an "Internet enabled PC killer", that should've done it. Keep in mind that many of the people predicting the PC's demise are manufacturers of these competing devices. It's in their interest to tell you not to buy a PC, but to buy their gadget instead.

Re:Im cynical.

[Trolling4Columbine]

You must be referring to somebody else, because Bill Gates never said that [wired.com].

Bill's right [this time]

[krray]

Bill may be right ... this time. No, the PC is not dead. It's just getting started IMHO. For the last decade X10 has controlled the lighting in both home and office for myself. Along with other misc functions such motion detected lit hallways, stairs, etc. not to mention the HVAC unit. MINIMAL hardware expense, nonexistent licensing costs (Linux based, of course :). All of which has easily paid for the cost of hardware in temperature control alone -- with light savings as an added bonus.

Of course the down side is the wife always complaining when we go somewhere that their bathroom doesn't light itself. :)

The iMac has slid in comfortably as a entertainment device -- almost beating out TiVO. For sound nothing beats another device - the SliMP3 player which happens to tap the iMac for its source of music. Of course ... have iPod, will travel. :)

There's only one thing missing in everything I've mentioned: MICROSOFT

That's a pretty big problem.

[mosel-saar-ruwer]

Only problem is when the main servers go down you're killing not just one user but a whole organization.

Uh, that's a pretty big problem.

But then again, a single point of failure usually is.

Re:PC Economics according to Microsoft:

[ShieldWolf]

Why don't you try checking out Microsoft's own webpage for XP Professional pricing [microsoft.com].

Businesses can't use XP Home because you can't log into a domain server with it etc.

I was of course being a little facetious in that some businesses can get volume discounts for licenses either directly from MS, or more likely, through their hardware provider e.g. Dell.

My main point is valid though in that Windows XP Professional is priced obscenely high when compared to the hardware it runs on. Compare the current situation to the one 17 years ago when an average PC cost $2000+ and MS-DOS was ~$80 dollars.

Yes Windows XP does a lot more than DOS did, but the hardware does a a hell of a lot more too (orders of magnitude), and for LESS money.

Re:Maybe next year, eh?

[n0tWorthy]

Get out your sniffer and compare X to ICA on a local LAN and over a international WAN. The ICA protocol is leaner and faster than X in every way, especially if you don't have a local window manager built into your X terminal. ICA also beats the snot out of VNC and pcAnywhere over the LAN and WAN. In fact the further the distance and the smaller the bandwidth the better the ICA protocol is compared to anything else.

Also, IMHO, X still looks a lot like Windows 3.1 graphics. Kind of clunky. The KDE stuff on my Linux box has gotten a bit better with the last couple of releases but I still get some strange artifacts sometimes.

Re:It's pretty sad...

[rob_squared]

...when you have to explain a joke.

What he's saying is that Gates being negative about PCs would be like fishermen saying that eating fish was bad for your health. Get it?!

Take the "Personal" out of Business

[The Angry Mick]

Take the personal out of computing, and most companies would grind to a halt

I seriously doubt this.

One of the problems with "Business computing" is that it's become far too personal. While a business user may want the latest, greatest version of Webshots/RealAudio/Screen Saver of the Month, they don't actually need any of the "personalised" touches to perform their basic job.

System administration is hard enough with just operating system(1) and hardware variables(2) mucking things up. Adding personalization privileges to a few hundred end users, while nice and sweet on an emotional level, quite frankly causes more problems than a business should have to deal with.

It is completely uneccesssary for a user to be able to spend hours online looking for the perfect wallpaper. Equally unecessary for things like Solitaire or Minesweeper. While I laud Microsoft for introducing millions of people to computers (thus creating my field), I really hate the fact that the touchy-feely approach to user hand holding is the largest contributing factor to a slew of problems like viruses, spyware and spam. I used to love my job, but now, it's become just that: a job. A job where a significant portion of my day is spent explaining to users things like, "Just because the flash games website demands ShockwaveX, doesn't mean I'll be making a 30 mile trip to upgrade the version you currently have installed."

1) Whichever f*cker thought it'd be a bright idea to have Windows do a scheduled task scan of the entire network EVERY TIME Windows Explorer launches should be shot . . . multiple times.

2) Two words: "DLL Hell".