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Amherst Bytes #3 and the Death of the Desktop

04.13.05 | Comments

The next column is out, located to your right, I’m beginning a discussion on portable gaming systems to eventually compare the Sony PSP to the Nintendo DS. I’m a Nintendo fanboy, but right now I’m more enthusiastic about the PSP. Somehow, I feel dirty doing this–

I’ve been thinking recently that there doesn’t seem to be much point in owning a desktop anymore, at least for the average consumer. It’s gotten to the point where laptops are competitively priced (you could pick up something decent for around $1000), about as fast as desktops for typical PC uses, and carry the added benefits of being portable. Portability has become more important lately since wifi has come into the picture, and now we have reports of entire cities wanting to blanket themselves with wireless access.

In this scenario, the desktop user does not receive much benefit. He is still stuck at his desk, most likely in a building too old to receive decent reception from the wireless network. He is also missing out on the freedom laptop/handtop users have. This has been said recently on slashdot, with wireless internet, coupled with an efficient webcrawler like Google, we can know practically anything. They even went as far to say that Google may be god. While Google is still restricted by what we humans know, it is still a revolutionary method of finding specific bits of knowledge. While Google may not be god, it certainly is ushering in a new way of using technology. It has become so essential to the web browsing experience that it sits right next to the address bar in the better browsers, and for good reason. Never before has humanity been able to find information so quickly and easily, but I’m getting off topic right now so I will end the Google love here.

Simply put, with laptops as they are today, the only people who really need desktops are the techy types like myself who want the latest multimedia peripherals (namely graphics and sound cards), and businesses that have a need for terminals. The desktop may eventually become more invisible in these terminal spaces, but the hardcore geeks will always want their machines to be prominently seen. Still some of us are moving towards the mini-ITX setups made so popular with the Shuttle cases, but this movement hasn’t been significant enough yet to sound the death knell of the desktop. It’s merely a branch of desktop fandom, I personally see a great use for these in portable frag boxes and, in particular, multimedia centers. Who needs a set top dvd player and all that other home theater junk if your mini-ITX system can handle it all? My perfect home theater will simply consist of a decent amp, a mini-itx system with dvi out to an HD display, connected to the standard 5.1/6.1 set of speakers. There really is no need for much else if you’re only concerned with the digital realm.

Anyway, I should be reading now, this thought just occurred to me as I was randomly browsing the web. I guess it’s best to get the ideas out when they first appear…


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