Tue 26 Aug 2008 09:56
Why own a Desktop computer?
The thirty-year reign of the desktop
computer may be coming to an end. According to various
news reports, since about the mid 2000s, notebook (or laptop) computers
have been outselling desktops. More surprisingly, perhaps, miniature
notebook computers like the Asus EEE
PC, with small screens and low-power CPUs that are no more powerful
than mainstream CPUs of a half-decade ago are becoming increasingly
popular, with a flurry of new low-cost (about $500) models. The reasons
are intriguing: few productivity applications such as personal databases,
spreadsheets, word processors and presentation tools need more than a
small fraction of today's fastest CPUs. Thus the sort of CPU tradeoffs
that need to be made to ensure long battery life in a notebook are less
and less noticeable in practice. Other tradeoffs are also diminishing in
importance: notebook screens can be large and bright, more and more rivalling
desktop screens, notebook hard drives can be spacious and increasingly fast,
and the rise of USB peripherals has made a portable notebook with a couple
of USB ports as easily expandable in practice as any desktop computer.
While notebooks are still pricier than desktops, the price difference is
steadily diminishing as manufacturing economies of scale begin to weigh in.
Even many who are in the habit of using their computer in one spot most
of the time are realizing that an external screen, keyboard and mouse
can be added to a notebook to make it function as if it were a desktop
for general use, but when necessary, the notebook can be used elswhere,
providing the convenience of having one's computer along (with all its data
and software) when needed, without the fuss of copying data and worrying
about different versions of applications. Moreover, notebooks have been
improving in those areas where they offer abilities not found in desktops:
battery life has steadily increased from the one to two hours common a few
years ago to three or four hours. Lightweight notebooks are increasingly
available, and not all of them are expensive. Most importantly, various
forms of wireless networking are becoming ubiquitous, providing internet
connectivity to notebooks without the need for wires. As such, it is
no surprise that notebook computers are being widely purchased, and many
peoples' first computer is now a notebook, not a desktop.
There are still some good reasons to buy desktops. The lowest-cost computers are still desktops, not notebooks. The very best CPU and graphics hardware is available only for desktops, and many modern games use as much of these resources as they can get. Hence desktops suit hardcore gamers much better than notebooks. Finally, Microsoft Windows Vista generally requires much more CPU and memory than most other operating systems, and the introduction of Vista has put some pressure on computing resources; because of this, some of the less powerful notebooks are now shipping with versions of Linux or with a previous version of Microsoft Windows, such as Windows XP. Nevertheless, it seems clear that given the increasing attractiveness of notebooks in comparison to desktops, a sensible way to approach buying a computer is to simply buy a notebook unless one has some concrete reason to need a desktop.