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The real difference between a desktop pc and every other gadget you have.

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superboyac:
I've been trying to identify what the fundamental difference is between a desktop pc and everything else, and it is this:
You can build the desktop pc from top to bottom yourself.

That's pretty much it.  Everything else, the phones, the gaming consoles, the tablets, laptops...you can't.  What's interesting is that all the pieces for the other devices can totally be made available like the desktop pc parts, but it appears that the only thing holding it back is basically politics.  You can build your own cellphone if you could get the antenna at a store or something, but you can't.  I don't quite understand why the DIY laptop didn't really take off.  Tablets should also be doable.  i don't buy the "it's too small and cramped" argument for why it isn't accessible.  If the demand was there, someone would make a standard laptop form factor case to hold all the other standard laptop parts.

ANyway, just some mental excretions...

40hz:
I was always of the opinion  that the thing that made a desktop PC different from every other gadget I owned was that it wasn't a single thing but rather a soft device.

One minute it's a wordprocessor, the next it's a calculator. Later on it might be a television or movie viewer, or a weather station, or a research organizer, or a recording studio or musical instrument, or a planetarium, or an electronic circuit simulator, or a design and drafting tool - with soon-to-be affordable 3D printing capabilities for one-off manufacturing or prototyping...

Time was when each of these things would require a separate hardware device. Now they can all be done on one infinitely reconfigurable soft machine.

I don't know anything else that's quite like that. A PC itself is nothing really. Just an inert hunk of patiently waiting electronics - until you load a program - at which point it can literally become anything. It's like the genie in the bottle saying: What is your command Oh Most Nobly Born Prince of Princes?



Yeah... You ain't never had a friend like ME!

Never ceases to amaze me that something like that actually exists. 8)

cranioscopical:
Yeah... You ain't never had a friend like ME!
-40hz (June 03, 2013, 05:38 PM)
--- End quote ---
When IE updates come around I think you'll find that there's a redundant 'r' in there somewhere…
 

wraith808:
Well, it seems that you are including laptops in this... and you are wrong.

It's really not cost effective, which is the reason that there are fewer offerings today... but you can DIY it on a laptop.

superboyac:
Well, it seems that you are including laptops in this... and you are wrong.

It's really not cost effective, which is the reason that there are fewer offerings today... but you can DIY it on a laptop.
-wraith808 (June 03, 2013, 08:03 PM)
--- End quote ---
I guess what I really meant was the ease and practicality of it.  i wasn't trying to make a legal argument or anything.  :D

Time was when each of these things would require a separate hardware device. Now they can all be done on one infinitely reconfigurable soft machine.

Never ceases to amaze me that something like that actually exists. 8)
-40hz (June 03, 2013, 05:38 PM)
--- End quote ---
What's interesting about this is that with the current shift to mobile devices, we are now moving away from the multipurpose device.  I mean, apps are ok, but they are not as useful as a full blown desktop application.  but that's the same with the mobile device, which is not as capable as a desktop.  But it is mobile, I suppose.

Part of what prompted me to write this was the thought that if the general public was a little more educated about computers and tech, perhaps the arrival of DIY cellphones and laptops/tablets would arrive sooner (in an easy/practical way wraith!).  Or maybe I'm just getting impatient.

I've been saying for years...the next company to offer DIY cellphones is going to be the next billionaire.  I don't mean the end user puts the pieces together...I'm talking like a Dell thing.  All Dell did was put together a computer for you, which geeks were already doing all the time.  The weird difference is that the geeks today are not building cell phones and laptops that way (or that commonly), and the only reason I can come up with is the political barrier.  Things like raspberry pi are changing that.

I think I'm just impatient.

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