[Katsunami]

I don't know if this is rant, or an exultation.

I can still remember the 15 years from 1990 to 2005, where it was almost mandatory to update a computer after 2-3 years, because computers sped up by quantum leaps, and newer program versions required that extra speed to run decently.

Nowadays? Not so much. I'm typing this post from a 2008 vintage Dell Latitude E6500.

Specifications;
Intel Core 2 Duo P8600, 2.4 GHz
4GB RAM
64 GB SSD (where the original HDD used to be, replaced in 2011)
256 GB HDD (original HDD, in a caddy, where the original CD-RW was)
15.4 inch screen, 1280x800
Age: 10 years

It originally came with Windows Vista Business 64-bit (as Windows 7 wasn't out yet). In 2011, while doing a course at a university, I got access to SurfSpot, and bought Windows 7, removed the CD-RW, put the original HDD there, added an SSD, and re-installed. I did the entire course on this laptop. Normally, this laptop functioned as a backup for my desktop.

Its last serious stint was in the beginning of 2015, when the computer at my job broke down. The manager handed me a Pentium 4 from 2004 (!), and didn't seem to think it a priority to actually get me a new computer. (It took him like 4 weeks 'to do research and decide on the parts...', and then he ordered sub-par stuff for too much money. Idiot. He could just have given me a budget, and I would have ordered parts or a complete system the same day.) I started and finished an entire software project on this laptop.

At the beginning of 2016, I upgraded the laptop to Windows 10 during the free upgrade offer, updated the basic software, removed the development stuff, and pensioned it off when I got my current laptop. It was 8 years old at the time.

Now, two years later, I dusted it off and upgraded the installed software to the latest verions, including Windows 10, and synced the important data from the desktop. I did it just because the system is now 10 years old and just because I can.

You know what? This dinosaur is actually usable for everything I would need to do on a daily basis, even if its some light development. I've been using it for the last two days without a hitch, just to see if it can be done.

Granted, my newer laptop and desktop are respectively 3 and 5 times as fast, both with 32GB RAM, but as long as I'd need to do office work or light development, this system can still be used effectively. The one thing I wouldn't do with it are tasks that require a lot of calculation or a lot of memory. (For example, converting a Delphi Classics omnibus using Calibre would take a long time on this CPU, not to mention that the memory requirements would make the system swap heavily. But still, it _would_ work.)

The weakest point is the screen, which is TN, with horrible viewing angles. (AFAIK, there wasn't an IPS option for this system back in the day, or if there was, it was horribly expensive. Otherwise, I would have chosen that.) If memory isn't sufficient, it could be upgraded to 8GB RAM for about €150.

No wonder PC and laptop sales are shrinking each year, if a 10 year old dual core system can still be used for productive office-type work, and even some (web)development.

So many people are screaming that the PC and laptop are dying, but this experience just tells me something different. Phones and tablets are fast enough for basic tasks already. Maybe a phone in a docking station, connected to a keyboard, mouse and screen will be commonplace in another few years, for users who want a bigger screen.

The computer and laptop are not dying, and they won't. They are just moving back to where they came from: for use by professionals who need the power, for development, editing media and analysis of data, and enthusiasts who want it, for things such as gaming.