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The Decline Of The Desktop
Lam1969 writes "Robert Mitchell of Computerworld has written an article about the decline of the desktop in the workplace. He also notes in his blog: 'This theme of 'squeezing' more hours out of workers came up a few times as this story came together. Using technology to increase productivity is a good thing, but in some cases productivity wasn't increasing -- employees were simply expected to work more hours.'" From the article: "After almost a quarter of a century as the personal computing device of choice for business, the desktop PC is sliding off its pedestal. It has withstood assaults by technologies such as the Windows terminal, the Web and the network PC, but the mighty desktop has been humbled by user demand for the one thing it can't deliver -- mobility."
High Speed Wireless Networking becoming widely available. Why wouldn't a company want to give their users laptops, while there is an extra costs of the laptop and major IT Pain in the butts, with viruses, and creating proper security parameters. But besides that why not, if you can give your employee a laptop and have them work while they are sick at home, or allow them to telecommute, thus you can save on electricity and maintenance costs. Or just relocate without having to change your infrastructure.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
"Yeah yeah, mobility will kill desktop PCs, it's been around the corner fro what? Half a decade?"
1) Price has not been this low in the past.
2) Notebook systems *are* being sold in record numbers. Regardless of your opinion, desktops have lost a significant share in the last half-decade.
While the growth of wifi is an important factor, I think the original article missed another contributing factor: changes in peripherals. Once upon a time, apart from printers, most peripherals -- scanners, modems, etc -- required an expansion card of some sort, and the classic, bus mounted, cards for desktops were cheap and universal. Peripherals for laptops often had premium pricing, and in any case, laptops only offered a few card slots or serial/parallel ports. If you cared about expandability, or upgradability, desktops were the way to go.
Nowadays, between USB and Firewire, a laptop is on a level playing field as far as peripherals are concerned, especially because many devices double as hubs, reliving pressure on laptop real estate. Plus, expensive docking stations are less of an issue -- for example, I use a laptop as my primary machine, but that would a pain for writing things of any length on a routine basis, so at work I just plug a regular flatscreen and a USB keyboard and mouse (the mouse actually plugs into the keyboard) and go.
In any case the peripherals most people use most often -- wireless and wired network interfaces -- tend to be built right in these days. And as for upgradability: as the article points out most people have more than enough juice in their laptops to do what they need to do.
"Just once, I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets." -- The Brigadier, Dr. Who
In any case, minor insight, no better than some of the modded up comments I've read here. I don't see how that deserved a headline.
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I work in IT of a company of about five hundred. I see that most of the issues with laptops have been addressed already, but I'm going to have to point out the obvious.
Cracked LCD's
We don't use laptops for several reasons, and the damageability of notebooks has a huge amount to do with it. Of the five "dead" laptops that we have here, three or four screens are cracked. Maybe a dozen employees or a very few more actually have them. Backlights also go out, and when they do, you're looking at a 30% to 200% cost of the notebook to replace. Ouch.
I agree with you that SunRay brings some nice things. Especailly, reduction in IT management cost is big. However, the biggest problem I (and my customers) have had with SunRay is that it runs on Solaris. Most users are familar with Windows as a desktop OS. It's sad but true. Citrix (or whatever else Windows based thin client system) can give you most of the benefit you mentioned, and it runs Windows. I am not sure how SunRay can beat that.
Huh? Funny, I thought that this was exactly what Terminal Services and/or Remote Desktop achieved?
For those who are uniformed: Terminal Services
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
The screen on my notebook got extremely "wriggly", and I was complaining about it to a friend. Turns out, there's two screw covers (rubber gasket deals), and when removed,the two screws underneath allow for the screen hinge to be tightened. I have a HP, so I can't speak for your notebook in particular, but both of my friend's Toshbia notebooks have the "screen tighteners" as well. It's worth a look before you pay someone to fix it.
"from the bricks to the booth...I predict the future like Cleo the psychic..."
Get used to it. 50% of users is just the beginning. It will be 90% soon enough, especially with the next increment in storage (particularly flash), CPU (Low leakage chips with ultra low power consumption) and portable networking speeds (WiMax in particular). Thats not even counting things like digital paper which will drive down power consumption even more. With all this, the number of people who will be saying that they need a desktop to provide some extra functionality they can't get in a laptop is going to fall to a very low percentage of users.
While I agree with the rest of your post, there is one factor you're forgetting: price. On average, a desktop costs half as much as its mobile counterpart, for similar specs. And in the corporate world, this is what the boss will look for above all else, particularly when you factor in lost, stolen, and damaged mobile devices. Speaking of theft, sensitive data is more likely to be stored in static locations, so there will always be a market for desktops.