Desktop computers becoming a "thing of the past"

Zip · 24 Apr 2007 at 13:14

Laptops give me a sore neck back fingers and eyes.

I hate laptops

dirtydog · 24 Apr 2007 at 13:19

Laptops have crap keyboards, small monitors and slow hard disks... so I certainly won't be replacing my main PC with one.

growse · 24 Apr 2007 at 13:20

Visage said:
Not really - even in office environemnts with high speed networks it never caught on.

Even if you've got a top spec BB connection you've only got maybe a 16Mbit connection.

Compare streaming an application from your HD (sata runs at about 1.5Gbps) with one streamed over your braodband connection that runs 100 times slower.

Another example - the Office directory on my desktop machine is about 500MB in size. Streaming that over the network would take 4 minutes at least. Who wants to wait 4 minutes to open Word?

But thin client computing isn't necessarily about putting the CPU/Memory on your desktop and having the disk somewhere else? To me, thin client is all about running the entire application somewhere centrally and using any sort of remote desktop protocall to view it. Sun have already shown this is very possible and workable with the Sunray. I'm not saying that this automatically means that there'll definately be a comeback. In fact, the presence of fab products like the Sunray on the marketplace and the lack of takeup on these means it'll probably never happen.

Yas786 · 24 Apr 2007 at 13:30

dirtydog said:
Laptops have crap keyboards, small monitors and slow hard disks... so I certainly won't be replacing my main PC with one.

Think you will be surprised at how far tech has come in terms of laptops...you can now get laptops with 17" or 19" screens and some of them will out perform a desktop pc with similar specs quite easily

.

Yas786 · 24 Apr 2007 at 13:32

Zip said:
Laptops give me a sore neck back fingers and eyes.

I hate laptops

Fix your posture then, dont blame the laptop for giving you all those problems...ive never suffered from any of those probs and ive been using my laptop consistently for 3 yrs now....in fact i use it more than the desktop i have in the office...

Indy500 · 24 Apr 2007 at 13:33

Spawn said:
Think you will be surprised at how far tech has come in terms of laptops...you can now get laptops with 17" or 19" screens and some of them will out perform a desktop pc with similar specs quite easily.

7200rpm 2.5' drives reduce battery life considerably (not that high-end laptops have much anyway).

Yas786 · 24 Apr 2007 at 13:35

sr4470 said:
7200rpm 2.5' drives reduce battery life considerably (not that high-end laptops have much anyway).

Of course they do, never said they didnt...most people i know have their laptops permanently on ac power anyways...

SiD the Turtle · 24 Apr 2007 at 13:36

daz said:
I think thin clients are going to make a comeback.

Thin clients are all well and good until your network falls over or you reach capacity. Don't get me wrong, they are taking off a lot more than previously, however in a true thin client almost everything you do need to go off to the server to get a response on what to do. Its too slow and too unreliable. You don't want to be working on a document for half an hour only for your connection to drop, or more likely, you go off for lunch and your session time out.

Hawk Tuah · 24 Apr 2007 at 13:37

Visage said:
Not really - even in office environemnts with high speed networks it never caught on.

Even if you've got a top spec BB connection you've only got maybe a 16Mbit connection.

Compare streaming an application from your HD (sata runs at about 1.5Gbps) with one streamed over your braodband connection that runs 100 times slower.

You obviously havent ever used a thin client machines then. We have an 80 / 20 ratio of thin client terminals to PC's. We have around 600 users locally, and that again for each county around the country. Most of our WAN links are 2mb connections. For your average user, thin client's are far faster than PC's.

Visage said:
Another example - the Office directory on my desktop machine is about 500MB in size. Streaming that over the network would take 4 minutes at least. Who wants to wait 4 minutes to open Word?

See, this is where you're going wrong. You are actually completely wrong. If you run a PC on a network, then when you open a 1 gb file, all that data needs to go across the network.

If you are running a thin client, then all of the opening of the file is done on the server, and all that gets sent to the thin client is the picture of the screen. The amount of bandwidth required to do that is very small. In fact the biggest problem on our networks are the PC users. When a PC user logs on it has a detrimental effect on all the thin client terminals in the local office.

Things like video or animation are pretty useless through a thin client, but for your average office environment, its perfectly acceptable. Plus of course you also have the data integrity. If a thin client terminal dies, you just chuck it in the bin, stick a new one on the desk. Job done, no data lost, no messing around.

Indy500 · 24 Apr 2007 at 13:38

Spawn said:
Of course they do, never said they didnt...most people i know have their laptops permanently on ac power anyways...

Which brings me on to my next point: does that not make the laptop's mobility completely redundant?

Red and White · 24 Apr 2007 at 13:39

i wouldnt even consider buying a desktop these days. take up way to much room for my liking and in the days of wireless a laptop is so much nicer.

sitting in garden and using it for example

Hawk Tuah · 24 Apr 2007 at 13:43

SiD the Turtle said:
Thin clients are all well and good until your network falls over or you reach capacity. Don't get me wrong, they are taking off a lot more than previously, however in a true thin client almost everything you do need to go off to the server to get a response on what to do. Its too slow and too unreliable. You don't want to be working on a document for half an hour only for your connection to drop, or more likely, you go off for lunch and your session time out.

Thats right. You'd be surprised at the distinct lack of 'lag'. There is a local text echo, so typing on a screen you can't tell you're using a thin terminal.

Connection drop outs are a problem though. However its not really that much different to a thick client network. You have a power cut locally, and people loose their work. Auto save works just as well through a thin client environment.

Yas786 · 24 Apr 2007 at 13:48

sr4470 said:
Which brings me on to my next point: does that not make the laptop's mobility completely redundant?

Depends really on how big the laptop, the one im using at the mo is a 15" Dell laptop and its quite heavy...in fact tbh i dont like lugging it around...one of the main reasons why i decided to buy the Dell XPS1210 laptop which is a 12" jobbie with the top end specs. At least that way i wont be so burdened with carrying it around...ultimately ill be ditching the desktop pc that i have in my office and just using the new laptop for all my work and leisure needs.

Mind you i cant see many people wanting to lug around a 17" laptop as it is, most of them tend to be quite heavy. I know my bros xps1710 that he bought last yr is a killer of a beast to carry around...but hten thats a pure desktop replacement laptop.

CF93 · 24 Apr 2007 at 14:05

Why shouldn't desktops be made redundant?

At work we use laptops which we have to take home each night, so if there's an emergency overnight we still have our machines available the next day, for use at the backup site. At home I have a desktop which has been in bits for months waiting on some upgrades I've never got round to doing, so I'm only using my laptop. Plus I can surf, email, use office apps etc from my phone (if I really wanted or had to!)

The only thing I really need the desktop for these days is gaming, which I'm not doing too much of just now.

I could easily ditch the desktop (and get a PS3/XBox or whatever if I fancied upping the gaming again) and not notice the lack of a desktop.

I'm sure I'm not the only one in this boat either.

Sukh · 24 Apr 2007 at 14:08

Spawn said:
Depends really on how big the laptop, the one im using at the mo is a 15" Dell laptop and its quite heavy...i decided to buy the Dell XPS1210 laptop which is a 12" jobbie with the top end specs.

I think the point being made was its all well and good having that power in a small laptop, but if you permanently have to carry around AC power (due to batteries being a bit crap and lots of power sucking hardware) and find somewhere to plug it in, its not really mobile.

Zefan · 24 Apr 2007 at 14:15

@ link in the first post - good luck finding a barebones laptop in the UK.

I've been searching for somewhere that has them in stock for a good 3 days and there simply is nothing.

Confused · 24 Apr 2007 at 14:17

Before I started work 4 years ago, I was really into my desktop machines, and gaming/processors/etc.

As soon as I started work, I got a laptop. I started taking it home, and I'd end up sitting in front of the TV with the laptop. After a few months, I barely touched my desktop PC.

It died 2-3 years ago, and I replaced it with a Shuttle. All it does now is Media Centre duties - TV, movies and music. Everything else I use the laptop for.

My GF's dad replaced their desktop system with 4 laptops - everyone has their own, plus a networked printer. It's quite funny some times at weekends, when all 5 of us are sitting in the living room on our laptops!

I can definitely see that laptops are becoming more and more popular - many people no longer want to sit at a desk in the corner of a room to use the internet, especially with the rise in wireless networking - they would much prefer to sit on the sofa in front of the TV with a laptop!

Raymond Lin · 24 Apr 2007 at 14:26

ConfusedTA said:
I can definitely see that laptops are becoming more and more popular - many people no longer want to sit at a desk in the corner of a room to use the internet, especially with the rise in wireless networking - they would much prefer to sit on the sofa in front of the TV with a laptop!

I do that with websurfing, its perfect for that. However I will still like a desktop for photoshop work. You can't beat using a mouse on a large 20" WS TFT with over 500G of HD space.

benjo plz. · 24 Apr 2007 at 14:35

Zefan said:
@ link in the first post - good luck finding a barebones laptop in the UK.

I've been searching for somewhere that has them in stock for a good 3 days and there simply is nothing.

There was an article in PC Shopper (or something) recently that gave all the info on how to do it, personally I find an Acer's a pretty good alternative.

SiD the Turtle · 24 Apr 2007 at 23:00

Perhaps then the future will be semi-thin-client-ish whereby machines with power comparable and portable as laptops (say docked laptops at desks for proper mouse, screen) are used day to day, but the powerhouse computer that runs media centre, the TV, gives the ooomph for Photoshop, games and the like sits under the stairs or wherever.