So in the future... physical PCs will disappear?

[Texashiker]

I think you are forgetting the fact that much of the country still does not have adequate bandwidth for this model to work. It will be a long time till the necessary infrastructure updates are made, if ever.

That is my issue, the only high speed provider in my neighborhood is cable modem. By the new standard set by the FCC, my cable modem does not qualify to be called broadband because its not fast enough.

at&t refuses to build the area for dsl. Even though dsl stops about 1/2 mile from my house, at&t will not expend the lines or run fiber to a new hub.

Its almost as if the providers have some kind of non-competition agreement. the dsl provider will not move in on top of the cable modem, and the cable will not move in on top of the dsl.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

That is my issue, the only high speed provider in my neighborhood is cable modem. By the new standard set by the FCC, my cable modem does not qualify to be called broadband because its not fast enough.

at&t refuses to build the area for dsl. Even though dsl stops about 1/2 mile from my house, at&t will not expend the lines or run fiber to a new hub.

Its almost as if the providers have some kind of non-competition agreement. the dsl provider will not move in on top of the cable modem, and the cable will not move in on top of the dsl.

I think in a lot of places they aren't bothering to run hard lines and will just wait for the 4G (and beyond) cell towers.

 

[Bignate603]

In what business model is someone going to rent you a $1000 computer for $10/month? And continually upgrade it for you?

It wouldn't be like they're keeping a computer on a rack that only you use. When you hook in you'd get whatever system was available. Because all of their customers would never be online at the same time they'd never need a system per paying customer. Hell, if they got sophisticated they could give you multiple cores when you're doing something CPU intensive and then just a portion of a single core when you're browsing the web.

That being said, I think people are going to want PCs in their home for a LONG time. I think part of the problem with the cloud computing model is security. Each person's personal computer is a relatively small target, it only has one or two people's data. A massive data center that has tens of thousands of people's personal data, including everything to pull off identity theft? Now that's an attractive target.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

It wouldn't be like they're keeping a computer on a rack that only you use. When you hook in you'd get whatever system was available. Because all of their customers would never be online at the same time they'd never need a system per paying customer. Hell, if they got sophisticated they could give you multiple cores when you're doing something CPU intensive and then just a portion of a single core when you're browsing the web.

That being said, I think people are going to want PCs in their home for a LONG time. I think part of the problem with the cloud computing model is security. Each person's personal computer is a relatively small target, it only has one or two people's data. A massive data center that has tens of thousands of people's personal data, including everything to pull off identity theft? Now that's an attractive target.

how long is a long time?

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

I think companies are slow to keep with technology trends. Either they do not care to keep up, or they do see what the future might hold.

Here at my work we bought this huge flat panel TV for the conference room that was supposed to be facebook and twitter ready. Well, those are the only sites you can visit. Instead of having a full blown web browser, the TV has some kind of lame browser that only supports 2 or 3 sites.

Whats up with a tv that has a built in ethernet port, but does not have a web browser. In my eyes its pretty lame.

As for the future, I see the typical PC being pushed aside in favor of portable tablets. Why even watch netflicks on a TV, when you can stream video through a portable tablet? Go out on the back deck, bathroom, have a bar-b-q, and watch your favorite shows at the same time.

One of the issues that I have, I would like a tablet where I could post stuff on my blog from anywhere, and not from a smart phone. Lets say that I am out on a camping trip, and I want to upload a video to youtube from the side of a river. I would like to be able to film the video, edit it, and then upload it to youtube from a tablet. One of the issues is the cpu being able to edit 1080p HD videos that I filmed on my camera.

how big is this TV at work?

 

[Texashiker]

how big is this TV at work?

Vizio 55 inch

http://www.vizio.com/m550nv.html

 

[Golgatha]

That being said, I think people are going to want PCs in their home for a LONG time. I think part of the problem with the cloud computing model is security. Each person's personal computer is a relatively small target, it only has one or two people's data. A massive data center that has tens of thousands of people's personal data, including everything to pull off identity theft? Now that's an attractive target.

{Puts on tin foil hat}

I don't trust the "cloud". Especially with things like tax returns, family information, and files I would like to keep private. I assume if it's in the "cloud" then my government and potentially hackers have access to it.

 

[sdifox]

30 years ago physical PCs practically didn't exist. Everything was on the clould (Mainframes) and people just used terminals. Your assumption that progress must be towards PCless environments is funny. I bet you're still in shock there are no flying cars.

30 years ago is 81 right? I had an Apple ][ clone then. And I wasn't even in the USA.

 

[Macamus Prime]

Nope.

We are 15 years late on a CPU connected to data, wirelessly.

Software was to handle graphics, sound, etc. All your programs are on a cloud (we are close to this) and a CPU would handle everything!

Instead, hardware has gotten just as complicated and almost as hot as a car engine.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Vizio 55 inch

http://www.vizio.com/m550nv.html

oh, when you said huge, i thought you meant like 150".

55" is pretty standard these days.

 

[Texashiker]

oh, when you said huge, i thought you meant like 150".

55" is pretty standard these days.

150"???? Na, I have something like a 32 inch in my living room, and it seems to be plenty big enough.

I do not think the TV should be the center of attention. In fact, my TV is in a hutch so that we can close the doors and hide the TV from view.

But it would be nice for companies like TV manufacturers to get with the times and include a built in browser.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Nope.

We are 15 years late on a CPU connected to data, wirelessly.

Software was to handle graphics, sound, etc. All your programs are on a cloud (we are close to this) and a CPU would handle everything!

Instead, hardware has gotten just as complicated and almost as hot as a car engine.

CPU power consumption has decreased significantly in the last several several years.

A modern CPU or GPU is much more complicated than a car engine

 

[PingSpike]

There are certainly applications where this would work well. On the consumer side, I don't see how replacing currently very cheap PC hardware with expensive, limited bandwidth usage that isn't even available in many parts of the country is compelling. I could see it some day being the bottom rung for people that don't do significant work on computers (like your facebook and email) and maybe more specific designs used at work...but wireless bandwidth is not infinite and our wired connections are uneven in quality and availability and will always lack actual hardware.

Maybe this might work in an extremely dense country with a lot of fiber and a government initiative to keep upgrading it at a fever pitch. Otherwise I expect some low hanging fruit will be grabbed and the marketing crew will come up with something else.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

mobile phones are already operating @ 1ghz....5 years that will be 2ghz or more..capable of doing 99% of the average users tasks. Home computers will exist in the sense there will be a display, keyboard, mouse, and dock for your mobile phone. It will be tough to justify a $600 desktop and a $600 phone.

I'm pretty sure my current quad core will be the last iteration of my "traditional" home computer.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

150"???? Na, I have something like a 32 inch in my living room, and it seems to be plenty big enough.

I do not think the TV should be the center of attention. In fact, my TV is in a hutch so that we can close the doors and hide the TV from view.

But it would be nice for companies like TV manufacturers to get with the times and include a built in browser.

lol, my monitor is 30", and my tv is 55" and i don't think it's big enough.
i like being immersed in my movies.
different strokes i guess.

and browsers will be standard features in any device with a screen in a few years. lots of tv's have them now.

 

[SKORPI0]

So don't see the need to upload my personal info to a "cloud" service that I'll have to pay for monthly/yearly. I'll want to be able to have control of what I do or watch without using any internet bandwidth just to retrieve the data. Who know what "big brother" system might be implemented in regards to screening/watching whatever activity you do using a "personal computer". Improvement in computer technology and faster internet speed is a given, but in the end whatever data I generate I'll keep to myself.

I don't see any problem for poor countries providing this kind of service. A kid in school having a terminal in front of them during class. Probably a portable device they can do their homework on and submit to the teacher.

Perhaps a change of how a computer looks. What about those who DIY and build their own systems to their liking or for budget reasons. I just don't see PCs at home disappearing in my lifetime.

 

[Jeff7]

Bandwidth will still be needed for local processing. Your CPU deals in some high number of gigabytes per second, and nanosecond access times. Have fun getting reliable sub-millisecond ping times.

 

[Vic Vega]

I completely agree, I actually wrote an essay on this not long ago, the client / server model as we know it is going out to be replaced with the "cloud computing" model. Give it time and owning you're own PC will just be for tinkerers.

Uhhh... Cloud computing is about as client/server as you can get.

You can call it whatever you want... if anything we are moving MORE toward a client/server model, which is what we had mostly before PCs took over. Moron.

 

[busydude]

Bandwidth will still be needed for local processing. Your CPU deals in some high number of gigabytes per second, and nanosecond access times. Have fun getting reliable sub-millisecond ping times.

Unless.. mankind creates something which travels faster than light.

In the future.

 

[JTsyo]

At work they are looking into these ideas. We might be getting virtual desktops where all we get is a client box and access to computing power on a server. What would suck is currently you only get a base image and your user info. Programs you install wouldn't take until it was placed on the master image. I like the idea of scalable power but I'm not completely comfortable with the idea.

 

[BoberFett]

LOL, silly kids, thinking that the thin client/fat server model is new and revolutionary.

 

[Train]

LOL, silly kids, thinking that the thin client/fat server model is new and revolutionary.

srsly, this.

Thin clients were supposedly "making a combeback" in the late 90's (I worked for a Citrix vendor) and there was a lot of truth to it then. Not much has changed since. There were some cases where the thin client made perfect sense, others it did not.

"The cloud" is mostly marketing. It's friggin virtual servers people. It will work well for a few scencarios, but not all. Dedicated database servers will not be going away anytime soon.

 

[Jeff7]

Unless.. mankind creates something which travels faster than light.

In the future.

It'd still take less time for data to make its way around your PC's guts than to get to a remote location.

Unless we have nano-scale wormholes.

 

[bfdd]

Uh... I think we will have physical computers they will just be in drastically different form factors. For instance I see Microsoft using Windows 8 to push an Atrix-style format to replace the conventional computer.

 

[zerocool84]

In many other parts of the world, more people have smartphones than personal computers. It's how it is in Japan.