Discussion about
I've really thought about the iPad and the interface. I think this could be the future of computing for most people.
But on the other hand do you think Chrome OS will be the future for normal people or just geeks. Where do you see desktop OSes in 10 years? Or do you think tablets are the future, at least more most folks.
Less powerful, less complicated systems and hardware are the future. the forums in which i have participated in similar discussions are often disappointing because everyone in there thinks everyone else computes like they do. typically the people in these forums are like us, geeks, nerds, gadget whores, and so easily forget about the average user. there is an absolute reason netbook sales soared.
when i think about my mom, dad, and sister and how each of them use some kind of desktop in their work environments but have all gone to laptops or netbooks at home i realize a few things. one, none of them are power users, at home they web browse and skype and that's about it, almost everything they do is in the browser and the sales/market data don't lie most people are not power users. we are, whether it's because of our jobs, or our passions or both we are when most people aren't. another one came when i was having a conversation with my mom when i wnet to help her get her laptop and wifi router set up, work is not something she wants to do at home, and having a laptop lets her feel like she is no longer at the desk at work. THAT was something i never thought about. PC's have become the core piece of equipment that so many people work on at work, why would they want to come home and assume the same position in front of the same damn thing they've been staring at all day? even if it is to consume content of their choice, interact with whom they choose.
and it's that one thing that i think has even larger potential for things like the ipad. a device that allows people to access, (because again so many more people, even those tech savvy teens, are content consumers than creators) the information, friends, family and entertainment they want and make it simple and NOT feel like they are at work on a machine they use at work wins.
yup, there will always be a need for desktops, or at least computers with that level of power and depth and breadth of capacity to compute and multi-task, but i see those machines becoming more like the workhorses of the workplace and though some form of computer will always live in the home, we are seeing the change of its form factor. i've always thought it's be great to have a central home server that does all the hard work and you use something like the ipad to access the power if and when you need it, otherwise it's mainly a streaming device.
when i think about my mom, dad, and sister and how each of them use some kind of desktop in their work environments but have all gone to laptops or netbooks at home i realize a few things. one, none of them are power users, at home they web browse and skype and that's about it, almost everything they do is in the browser and the sales/market data don't lie most people are not power users. we are, whether it's because of our jobs, or our passions or both we are when most people aren't. another one came when i was having a conversation with my mom when i wnet to help her get her laptop and wifi router set up, work is not something she wants to do at home, and having a laptop lets her feel like she is no longer at the desk at work. THAT was something i never thought about. PC's have become the core piece of equipment that so many people work on at work, why would they want to come home and assume the same position in front of the same damn thing they've been staring at all day? even if it is to consume content of their choice, interact with whom they choose.
and it's that one thing that i think has even larger potential for things like the ipad. a device that allows people to access, (because again so many more people, even those tech savvy teens, are content consumers than creators) the information, friends, family and entertainment they want and make it simple and NOT feel like they are at work on a machine they use at work wins.
yup, there will always be a need for desktops, or at least computers with that level of power and depth and breadth of capacity to compute and multi-task, but i see those machines becoming more like the workhorses of the workplace and though some form of computer will always live in the home, we are seeing the change of its form factor. i've always thought it's be great to have a central home server that does all the hard work and you use something like the ipad to access the power if and when you need it, otherwise it's mainly a streaming device.
Agreed. Tablets for alot of people are the future, whether its running Chrome OS or its the iPad, there alot more consumer friendly then running Windows or even Mac OS X for that matter. Touch interfaces should be the primary form factor for the average user. These computers are extremely close to making desktops obsolete for the average user and there cheaper. Apple, the one whose products usually cost the most or are right up there, there 1st gen tablet costed 500 bucks! In a gen or two we could see this at 400 or lower. Also other companies will sell for less. I see a world where people might use a desktop/laptop for work, with a simplified OS and for casual computing, use a sub 400 dollar tablet.
I don't its hard to call right now. Apple is banking on simple is better but with such limited capabilities I don't see this or any other mobile OS replacing desktops/laptops anytime soon. Kids now a days are so proficient on computers this would only be seen as a push backwards. I could not do my normal routine limited to only having one tab open at a time. My web browser usually has 5-10 and I generally have more then 5 applications open and switching between them. So this and any other mobile OS would slow me down to a crawl. Now tablets are definitely going to be big in the future but there needs to be an OS designed specifically for tablets like a mix between a mobile OS and a full OS, but all touch/pen ready.
Personally I don;t like this trend of making things simpler by dumbing down the UI, I see the need for it, but at the same time a computer shouldn't be magical.
Personally I don;t like this trend of making things simpler by dumbing down the UI, I see the need for it, but at the same time a computer shouldn't be magical.
I most likely see a world where most people buy simple touch tablets, like the iPad/ webOS/ Android tablet and maybe a Chrome OS or simple desktop box for home with a larger monitor. People like us and with special use cases will use a more a full desktop OS. I'm thinking Mac OS primarily because most geeks already use it and other use cases that demand the full desktop experience (photo editing, video editing). Windows will probably turn into the enterprise OS and turn into a light consumer desktop/laptop OS. Sounds right, wrong, close but missing something?
I think reducing complexity is where things are headed. Desktop computing has really hit a point where innovation in UI won't come unless there is some punctuated paradigm shift, which is what these tablets are trying to accomplish. Things right now are good enough and improvements in OS are coming in very small improvements, Windows 7 was essentially an optimized Vista, Snow Leopard was an optimized OS X, and the various linux builds a better linux. There has been nothing drastic in computing for years now.
But saying this, a desktop OS will always have a place. Gamers will need their mice and keyboards to game, programmers will need keyboards to program, and accountants will need excel to do whatever they need to do with it.
A tablet will probably never replace my desktop.
But saying this, a desktop OS will always have a place. Gamers will need their mice and keyboards to game, programmers will need keyboards to program, and accountants will need excel to do whatever they need to do with it.
A tablet will probably never replace my desktop.
It's hard to judge that type of thing. I don't think Apple's iPad would have gotten nearly the same praise if it didn't have a robust app ecosystem powering it. The browser is not very good in terms web browsing, slow load times, page rendering issues, and it can't handle a AJAX heavy pages so well.
Chrome OS, ONTH, might have an extremely powerful browser driving it, but if it doesn't flexibility driving it like giving someone the ability to create apps, then it probably won't do very well. Also, I don't think HTML5 is at the point where it can be infinitely useless, it's not robust enough to create an application on the same level as native APIs. My most used webapp, gmail, is still very far away, in terms of functionality, compared to email clients.
With all of this, I'd lean towards the iPad. The apps it has are much more compelling than a straight up browser based OS, but this could all change if Google decides to make a Tablet based on Android instead of Chrome.
Chrome OS, ONTH, might have an extremely powerful browser driving it, but if it doesn't flexibility driving it like giving someone the ability to create apps, then it probably won't do very well. Also, I don't think HTML5 is at the point where it can be infinitely useless, it's not robust enough to create an application on the same level as native APIs. My most used webapp, gmail, is still very far away, in terms of functionality, compared to email clients.
With all of this, I'd lean towards the iPad. The apps it has are much more compelling than a straight up browser based OS, but this could all change if Google decides to make a Tablet based on Android instead of Chrome.
I really like the idea of both but I think there will be a lot more work involved before they become the "future of computing." I think my issue with both OSes lies in the filesystems...or lackthereof. People need to be able to store, access, and re/organize files. Sometimes those files are huge. I don't mind keeping most of my documents up on Google Docs (and I do) but there comes a point when the slowdown and file size limits become very cumbersome. Obviously on the iPad you can keep media files on it with no size limits besides the capacity of the iPad but it doesn't support all filetypes and you can't access them from the machine.
