Is your desktop a dinosaur?

I don’t about you but I haven’t used a desktop for a long time now. I have one as a test machine. It’s not exactly gathering dust as I still use it to run test on MySQL and PHP. But more recently I’ve been doing more of this work on my laptop. Virtualisation makes life so easy - no more dual booting or trying to repair your boot records. Looking at a report just released it seems that more and more people prefer using a laptop.

Forecasts suggest that late 2008/early 2009 will see notebooks sales exceed that of desktops. That’s not to say that the desktop market is dead. Sales are expected to grow for several years more but only in single digit figures. The current economic climate isn’t helping either.

Why the move?

Do you have a desktop? How much room does it take up? How easy is it to show friends photos or ‘home made movie’? I know there are plenty of sites, such as Flickr, that allow to share media but I’m sure you know someone who doesn’t have a computer - no jokes about the Stone Age. Owning a notebook, or any other mobile device, gives you huge flexibility. Add in one the many mobile internet packages such t-mobile ‘web and walk’ and you never need be chairborn again.

Businesses also have a vested interest in replacing desktops. The trend appears to be moving to a more mobile workforce with ever growing numbers of employees working from home. So what is a company to do? Give the worker two desktops; one for home and one at work? Or a laptop? Not long ago the price of a notebook would have seen employers favouring desktops. The advent of ULCPC and MIDs has changed that view.

I’m going to dust of my desktop - it’s need some TLC and assuring that it’s not going to the great mainframe in the sky…well, not just yet.

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