On Thu, Jul 03, 2003 at 02:23:57PM -0400, Ed Centanni wrote:
<snip>
> Will a new generation of advanced consumer electronics running Linux
> make desktop computers (and microsoft's monopoly) obsolete. What if the
> current depressed personal computer market never recovers because people
> start buying other kinds of devices instead. It could happen. This isn't
> all pie-in-the-sky. Look at the IBM lab URLs.
>
> If the desktop computer becomes as obsolete as the horse and buggy,
> shouldn't we be focused on the technology replacing it. In an age of
> automobiles, who cares if microsoft owns the buggy whip industry?
>
> A long-running war isn't always decided by the stronger of the
> combatants. Sometimes a foe just gets old and dies.
>
> Ed
>
> BTW. "buggy whip" sounds like a good name for a new version of Windows.
> An instrument of pain -- with bugs.
IMHO, the computer won't go away. You may be able to surf the net on
your TV, but writing letters or doing spreadsheets is something that
doesn't really lend itself to doing on your toaster. Maybe you might be
able to write letters and do spreadsheets on your TV, but then you're
still dealing with a programmable PC underneath it all. In the same
sense, I don't think books will go away because of ebooks. There are
certain aspects of tree-based books that I think are too valuable to
people to shift the whole market to ebooks.
Paul
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