HN Explorer

Have you abandoned your desktop computer?

4 points by iwr ↗ HN
From Steve Jobs: "The desktop computer industry is dead. Innovation has virtually ceased. Microsoft dominates with very little innovation. That's over. Apple lost. The desktop market has entered the dark ages, and it's going to be in the dark ages for the next 10 years, or certainly for the rest of this decade."

Mobile devices have grown powerful enough in the last years to replace desktop machines at most tasks. So do you still find value of keeping around, upgrading or buying new desktop machines?

As an aside, have you delved into overclocking or case modding?

6 comments

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tibbon
10 years ago, I never thought I could be without a desktop and it was laughable that I'd even consider going laptop-only.

Yet, even for HD video editing now, laptops seem to hold their own. I'm starting on a documentary soon and I'll likely do most of my HD editing on a Mac Pro, but I could get by on just a laptop if I needed to.

I have a desktop around for gaming and testing Windows software. That's about it.

jfb
I can't quite cut the cord; so I have an MBA and a big iMac at work. But I can see the not-too-distant future when a laptop will be sufficient, especially as I no longer write much CPU intensive video software.

I also practice "disposable computing"; I change hardware every six months or so (the older machines trickle down to friends and family), so the overhead in changing is pretty minimal. For as much as I bitch about Apple, they make this very easy (unsurprisingly, upon refection, as they love them their 40% gross margins on hardware.)

squidbot
I stopped using a desktop about a year and a half ago as my main development machine. MacBook Pro 15" is my main development workstation now. When I work at my desk I plug it in to a keyboard, mouse, external monitor and ethernet. The only thing I miss is SSD, but really, not that much.

All the "non mobile" computers I use are either racked servers or a fleet of Mac Mini's I use for a build farm.

Now that I have a laptop that's on par with desktop performance needed for day to day development, I can finally stop the pain of syncing multiple machines. It's nice.

mahmud
I haven't owned a desktop machine since 2001. My last box was an 800MHz AMD Duron.
bendmorris
The vast majority of my development work can be done on an incredibly lightweight netbook with a 10.5" screen and 2gb RAM, with a battery that lasts 10 hours so I can just plug it in at night. Why would I chain myself to a desktop? Only when working with very large sets of data do I switch to something more powerful, and even then usually a larger laptop will do.
JoshCole
I'm just using my laptop at this point. I think it has a lot to do with what is convention. Why should I be using the slightly more powerful computer given that my laptop can travel with me?