From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jul 20 18:46:16 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 51876106567A for ; Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:46:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from DStaal@usa.net) Received: from mail.magehandbook.com (173-8-4-45-WashingtonDC.hfc.comcastbusiness.net [173.8.4.45]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 240DC8FC2F for ; Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:46:15 +0000 (UTC) Received: from www.magehandbook.com (mail.magehandbook.net [192.168.1.100]) by mail.magehandbook.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 974EE9F9 for ; Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:46:14 -0400 (EDT) Received: from 152.121.16.254 (SquirrelMail authenticated user daniel) by www.magehandbook.com with HTTP; Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:46:14 -0400 Message-ID: <375e5bcac1acd4b781ef97bd1718e689.squirrel@www.magehandbook.com> In-Reply-To: References: Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:46:14 -0400 From: "Daniel Staal" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.21 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Importance: Normal Subject: Re: 2020: Will BSD and Linux be relevant anymore? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:46:16 -0000 On Wed, July 20, 2011 1:52 pm, David Jackson wrote: > I do not believe that these phones or tablets will replace desktop but > there > is a lot of room for these two types of devices basically to communicate, > giving people access to their data and environment from both. The reason I > dont see the desktop going anywhere is that, basically people dont want to > work on a spreadsheet, play a game, write a letter or do many other things > on a 3" screen. Students wont want to use them to do their reports, etc. > Phones and tablets are handy when on the go due to the portability, but > their portability makes them impractical for use at home when a larger > screen is more desirable. The growth of tablets is due to there simply not > being the market there before and more people buying them for mobile use. > But desktops will remain popular for home and work use. Also users want > upgradeability, they dont want to be stuck with the same amount of hard > disk > space and may want to add a new camera to the system, a capture device, > scanner, etc. Desktop systems provide much more upgrade flexibility. > Linking > the desktop to the tablet will be an important thing so people can access > data and so on from their tablet. I'll disagree, somewhat: I know several people who are using a tablet as a desktop-replacement laptop. They have a Bluetooth keyboard, and can use the tablet as a full computer or not. Most *consumers,* in my experience, also don't typically care about upgradablity. Either the machine works when they get it, or it doesn't (which is a warranty issue), and after that if it breaks in few years, well, time to get a new one. A few will add RAM or a HD when they get it, but that's about it. Other additions, if any, are done as USB/Bluetooth, etc, and can be done on a tablet just as easily as a desktop. As for binary drivers... They work ok *if* and *while* the company wants to support the hardware/OS. Once they decide they don't want to, that's it. This tends to cause problems down the road. Also, they may do no more than the minimum necessary to support a certain version of the OS, unless that OS is a major source for their customers. So while they *can* make better drivers than the core team, they often *don't.* Best is an open driver by the manufacturer. Second is open docs, third is binary blob. My opinion. Daniel T. Staal --------------------------------------------------------------- This email copyright the author. Unless otherwise noted, you are expressly allowed to retransmit, quote, or otherwise use the contents for non-commercial purposes. This copyright will expire 5 years after the author's death, or in 30 years, whichever is longer, unless such a period is in excess of local copyright law. ---------------------------------------------------------------