Another thing he failed to mention: expandability. I got so sick of all these different external hard drives, each with their own power brick and USB terminator (micro? mini? heck knows). Bought a Mac Pro and put them all on the internal drive bays - now everything lives in a single box and runs off a single power supply. I also put a blu-ray burner in the 2nd optical bay - another external box saved.
The same is true of other outboard hardware - for example, I use a UAD-2 card for music production. Sure they have a FireWire version for laptop/iMac owners, but in place of another box with another power brick taking up another (often scarce) port, I got a tiny little PCI card that goes in the box and is never seen or heard from again.
I understand not everyone needs tons of storage, or dedicated audio/video hardware, but if you do, desktop can't be beat.
I dont think i will ever convert to Laptops for fulltime work. They are fine for on the go and inbetween, but for serious work i want my desktop.
Why?
1) Much more ergonomical. I get neck pain when working on my Macbook for hours, looking down at the screen
2) I need two external screens. A Laptop Screen + an external Screen is again not ergonomical, pains my eyes to look from a decent 24" into the Macbook Display with its insane pixel density. I like same pixel density on both screens, and same size
3) Noise. For what i am doing the Macbook constantly screams at me through its fans (i7 quad version). My Desktop is silent when doing the same tasks
4) Glossy Screens, i totally hate them and today its almost impossible to get around them.
5) Laptop only is a compromise. A 15" is pretty huge and heavy. A decent Desktop for serious work + Macbook Air for on the go would be perfect.
6) Sync tools are so good nowadays (yay dropbox) that its pretty easy to have everything in sync across multiple machines.
For businesses, there are two other considerations:
1. Cost: you get more computing bang for the buck with desktops.
2. Anti-theft: Laptops are easy to conceal and walk out of a building with. I've heard about laptop thefts at places I've worked, but I never heard of a desktop PC theft.
I bought a Macbook vertical dock so that I close my laptop and connect it to two monitors, a keyboard, and a tablet and effectively use it like a desktop.
That basically solves 1, 2, 4.
3 doesn't bother me because I have my headphones on most of the time. If I'm at my workstation, I use my speakers.
5 is subjective. I've been able to get around for the last year as an on-the-go freelancer without much problem with the size or weight.
This allows me the huge advantage of mobility (for working at difference offices, cafes, houses, travelling to other cities, or even different rooms in my apartment) and space savings (I can have my vertical laptop on my desk which takes up the same amount of space as a small lamp) to be coupled with the advantages of having a full-fledge desktop setup.
FWIW, I spend most of my time using graphics programs.
Which one did you get that allows you to hook it up to two external monitors? The hengedock only does one as far as I can tell. I would love to have two external monitors and not have to plug everything in every time I get back from work.
> 2) I need two external screens. A Laptop Screen + an external Screen is again not ergonomical, pains my eyes to look from a decent 24" into the Macbook Display with its insane pixel density. I like same pixel density on both screens, and same size
Have you taken a look at USB2 DisplayLink devices? I bought one for $75 2 years ago and it's been holding up like a champ for a dual-22" monitor setup at work (similar @home)... I don't even use my laptop screen (which could give me a 3rd screen)... all of this running on a USB hub with keyboard, mouse, etc with no hiccups.
It does fine unless you try HD video on it or playing games - it does great for coding, browsing and writing.
Yeah i have, but these are limited by USB2 and therefor its too laggy for me. Will also stress the CPU even more because of constant image compression going on. Also i work with 3D apps, so i need the real deal.
But i have high hopes for Thunderbolt to solve this or the recently announced Thunderbolt viDock that is basically a Desktop-grade GPU in an external box connected through thunderbolt.
Have you looked at any of the ThinkPads? It's pretty easy to get one with a matte screen (in fact, I'm typing on one right now!), and from my experience they're fairly quiet. Not the most beautiful machines, though.
15" and 17" MBPs have matte screen options. Or you could spend no more than $10 and buy the screen protector (it's more like $2 if you buy it online though).
I second the noise point. If you do "GPU-intensive tasks" (i.e., gaming...) and you actually have a laptop with sufficiently powerful graphics card do run them, dissipating that power will mean running the tiny fans at full speed, and that's loud. To quietly get rid of that power, you need large-area flow, and that means a desktop.
That, and the cost-efficiency of a powerful desktop, is what prevents me from going all-mobile.
These are more or less the same reasons I pointed out in a post from three years ago about desktops versus laptops: http://jseliger.com/2008/12/26/computer-post-desktop-or-lapt... , and, as people observed then, some of them can be overcome: external peripherals for ergonomics, larger screens, and extra storage.
The real question is whether you a) can or want to afford a laptop, which still tend to be relatively more expensive than desktops and b) whether you're actually mobile enough to bother. In my case, I have a great chair, a sweet desk, two large monitors, and a room of my own; this means I tend to do my best work there.
> some of them can be overcome: external peripherals for ergonomics, larger screens, and extra storage.
Once you've attached an external monitor, external keyboard and mouse, and an external hard drive to a laptop, you're using the laptop exactly as you would a desktop tower: something you only need to touch if you want to insert a piece of removable media.
In that case, you might as well fork out a few more dollars and put a real desktop tower in that space. Sync everything and enjoy the extra speed.
The real question is whether you a) can or want to afford a laptop, which still tend to be relatively more expensive than desktops
As far as I'm concerned, this is what it really comes down to. At least for now, while you can in general find a laptop to meet just about any desktop as far as features or performance, there is always a non-trivial price premium.
Once there is not, desktops will vanish overnight (except for the diehards or those with special computing needs) because you can just plug a laptop in to the peripherals belonging to your old workstation.
As someone who enjoys tinkering with hardware, having access to the internals of a computer that desktops afford is just plain fun. I've never experienced the same with laptops, which typically require jumping through flaming hoops just to get the case open.
I don't think such things will go away. HAM radio and radio operators are still plentiful, even though they are technically unnecessary for 99.9% of the population.
I wouldn't worry about it too much. Even if Dell were to shutter their doors tomorrow, there would still be plenty of hobbyists and those willing to supply them.
This reads more as an argument against netbooks than an argument for workstations. I don't think anyone really needs convincing that netbooks are dying, but it's not desktops that are killing them.
While I agree that the workstation is not dead, the reasons listed are neither compelling nor convincing. #1 Ergonomics, #6 Keyboard and #2 Screen Space all make sense, but I am typing this right now on a Macbook Pro connected to a 27" monitor with a bluetooth keyboard at my desk. Suggesting that these things aren't available to a laptop is a false dichotomy.
#3 Storage is similarly unconvincing. All my photos I host on SmugMug and music on Google Music. This not only removes storage requirements from my laptop, it also provides access from other devices.
#5 Dents and Dings is just ridiculous.
Laptops not only have almost all these things available to them, they also have the added advantage of portability.
If one were to make an argument against laptops, I would say the biggest drawback would be the security risk posed by portability, as others have mentioned. Secondary to that would be #5 Processing Power provided by heavy duty workstations for things such as video processing. For other applications, laptop processors are more than capable.
Now consider what the average users buy: for every 20 laptops sold at the big retail store where my friend works, only 1 desktop is sold. It's pretty obvious that people prefer portable all-in-one computers. They also hate cables (me too). Intel WiDi (wireless display connection) is what everyone is talking about these days.
I don't see any future for desktops among general public only professional niche groups which need a lot of cheap computational power.
Again gaming makes much more sense on tablets and gaming consoles, IMO.
Ultimately the economics of a desktop just work better.
You can build an i5-2500k, 8gb ram, 1 tb hdd, gaming caliber video card machine for $600.
Rather than buying a $2500 macbook pro, you can get a gaming desktop with a 30" display, and a macbook air/ultraportable and really come out way on top.
Of course there's the question of juggling 2 environments if you have complex needs, but most people would be fine with a simple dropbox setup or something.
I use a desktop at home and a small laptop on the go, and everything I need is always on both computers. Files, bookmarks, browsing history, you name it. I can just log into either computer and keep working. The advent of cloud-based synchronization tools makes it very easy for people to juggle 2 or more computers. So instead of fighting over the "Desktop of laptop?" question, one can get both and not suffer any inconvenience.
After all, what would the average North American middle-class family do if they needed a vehicle that was both large enough for the kids' hockey games and fuel-efficient enough for the dad's long commute? They wouldn't settle for one mid-sized car; they'd buy a minivan and a Prius.
The proportion of people who are "always on the go" is rather small.
2) HDTVs suck as displays when you are doing anything other than presenting content.
3) External Hard Drives take up about as much space as internal hard drives, but you have the option of where you would like to put them. How is a desktop with 2 big drives more convenient than a laptop with an SSD and an external drive?
4) Apple's laptop lineup is purely sandy bridge now, and those processors scream.
5) My Desktop is thrashed. Tons of dings and dents from my chair bumping into it on the floor. Also, whenever I need to get to the cabling at the back, I pull the tower forward, and then push it back when I'm done. Sometimes it catches on my desk and I get a huge scrape across the side.
6) My Macbook Air has the exact same keyboard as my iMac. Both work great. I don't do data entry so the numpad isn't necessary.
Overall.. this article is a shot from the hip attempt to attract attention ("dammit"). It lacks substance though.
It has much more substance than your response, which consists mostly "oh yeah? well for my use case...". Kinda a dumb way to respond to an article that argues "hey, these have got their fair share of uses cases that they'll be sticking around".
I use an hdtv as my primary monitor all the time, I know plenty of people who do the same. It all depends on the particular display if it will look decent or not.
External drives are kind of a pain in the ass. Except for the drive I move between devices all the time, its just more to get in the way.
Ah, so one line of laptops has good hardware. That does not mean the pc moving ahead, portables eventually catching up cycle is dead, or that software's ballooning requirements are ever going to stop ballooning.
You treat your tower like shit and are surprised it's beat to hell?
Yes, the itty bitty mac keyboards are neat on a desktop, but they're infuriatingly slow for a lot of things you apparently don't need to do. I have numbers to calculate and programs to write, consequently I have an apple bluetooth keyboard-shaped dent in my wall.
I won't deny that it's an attention-grabbing piece with a lot of missed points (I can hook up a monitor to my laptop too!). However, your point #6 is because Apple has started shipping laptop keyboards with their desktops, not because they've started putting good keyboards in their laptops! :)
Thinkpad keyboards have always been the best... but mine is currently in a docking station, which combined with the height of my desk makes typing an invitation to injury, so I use an external keyboard. Oh, hey, PC Magazine, I can plug a desktop keyboard into my laptop! You should write an article about it, since it's apparently a new concept to your writers.
The arguments regarding desktop computing environment (display, ergonomic keyboard, mouse) are irrelevant. Any one of those things that is a necessary expense for a desktop could just as easily be used to transform your laptop's computing experience to a more traditional 'desktop' one.
The arguments regarding cost and horsepower are more compelling, and even though the gap is closing, I doubt that a laptop will ever outperform a desktop of comparable costs. It's just cheaper to manufacture components that are bigger and less heat-sensitive.
This is a good argument saying the desktop is still alive, but it is a bad argument saying that it isn't dying.
Most of the points that the author illustrates the importance of desktops with will matter less and less in the next 5 years as storage and CPU power become cheaper. But most importantly, as hardware innovations make tablets convenient to use for typing (1) and easy to use with large displays (2), the desktop will become a niche power-user market.
My new Macbook Air is fantastic for on-the-go work, but I don't think I'll ever give up my desktop. I've used my Air exclusively over my two week vacation (and I've gotten lots of work done on this little guy), but I still find myself missing my 24" monitor, full keyboard, and mouse.
My ideal setup, which I've only recently implemented, is a powerful desktop workstation with a thin-but-fast mobile laptop. My custom desktop build and the Air fit this perfectly.
This fall, I'm studying abroad in London and I'm only taking my Air with me... very interested to see if I get frustrated with its limitations or not.
What he misses is that you can generally have the desktop experience by hooking up a nice big second monitor, comfortable keyboard & mouse and an external hard drive. That usually means having a dedicated space in your office/home but with a laptop you're not tied to that space.
I'm actually surprised he didn't mention gaming as a big driver for desktops as an area which need the big fans or graphics cards that you don't get in laptops (though gaming laptops have come a long way in the last 5 years)
The only time that I've ever really needed a laptop was at college. I was constantly on the go, always in a collaborative environment with others, working on projects or assignments, etc. But when I got home and needed to really hunker down and get something done, then in went the VGA cable and USB peripherals.
My Thinkpad doesn't get a whole lot of use these days, I've gone with a desktop to suit my needs and I keep the laptop around for those odd times where I travel.
The screen real estate argument as well as the separate keyboard/trackpad argument never made sense to me for a MacBook Air. Can't you hook it up to a Cinema Display (which has hookups for USB, Thunderbolt, etc)? I also use a wireless keyboard/trackpad with my air, so I still have desktop ergonomics. But I can understand the argument for extendability.
"A family of four will certainly have more than 20GB to 60GB of photos and home videos"
a family of four will also probably have more than one computer. you can pick up a 2TB NAS for about $150, that should be plenty of room for all their home movies and photos and it is accessible from all their computers.
The sudden explosion in other form factors has people thinking they'll somehow replace the desktop. Unless my office starts making everyone work on a tablet, this is not the case.
You won't be sitting there hunched over a tablet. But you might hook your tablet to a monitor, attach a keyboard and mouse to it, and run "conventional" software.
Monitors, keyboards, and mice aren't going anywhere. But it won't be very many years before a desktop machine becomes a niche item for those who even today can't get enough power (3D artists, etc), while the rest of use are using one variety or another of portable core device with multiple IO options. (Though it isn't tomorrow, either. This stuff actually exists now, but it's bleeding, bleeding edge, as in the "cut yourself" type of bleeding edge. But still, that will fix itself.)
Yes. Though really this "prediction" comes along at least once a month, every month, since the mid 90s when the desktop PC rose to prominence. Prior to that the "prediction" was that the desktop PC either wouldn't exist, or would never take off.
The only thing that makes the claim different this time is it's IBM saying it, not some journalist hack. See here:
Thanks very much for this link. My reading of the article is that communications and social interaction will be the main use for computing devices, and that market will grow significantly. It might be that the desktop PC is still sold in large quantities for those that need it.
And, of course, high-end gaming. You can build a PC that runs the latest titles for a fraction of the price of a gaming laptop. Its pretty easy to learn at reddit.com/r/buildapc
The same is true of other outboard hardware - for example, I use a UAD-2 card for music production. Sure they have a FireWire version for laptop/iMac owners, but in place of another box with another power brick taking up another (often scarce) port, I got a tiny little PCI card that goes in the box and is never seen or heard from again.
I understand not everyone needs tons of storage, or dedicated audio/video hardware, but if you do, desktop can't be beat.