Category: TechToday
Since his creation in 1961, Spider-Man has been declared dead more than a dozen times (not including comic book covers that imply he died) and last year was killed off again by a vacuous, inept writer that doesn't even deserved to be mentioned anymore. After Apple's rebirth through the iPod and subsequent successes, everyone thought Microsoft was dead and buried especially after Windows Vista. Well, they're alive and kicking on Wall Street, beloved by Xbox users, receiving fairly positive praise for their Phones, and made a little bit of money while they were at it. And Linux? Some people believe it long died, but pull up any of the forums and Linux communities and you'll realize there are millions of Linux users around the world - not including the administrators and staff that work on the servers and consumer devices that run billions of online services and machines globally.
It irks me how utterly ignorant some self-important articles are about blatantly announcing the "PC is dead". Some of them, like that bald dinosaur over at PCMag.com just want a headline and more hits. The sweeping generalization, made by writers from ZDNet, Fox News, or even Forbes, is just a way to latch on to the Internet's buzz and stay "updated". The result is a narrow-minded and ridiculous assumption that fails to consider the realities that go beyond making money of off new consumer devices. It fails to consider that most of the world is not Apple-toting, Android-loving users who can spend money on data plans. There are many places in Eastern Africa, Mindanao in the Philippines, Myanmar, rural China, and impoverished regions in Latin America where people don't care about smartphones and happily appreciate a working PC, much less a machine with Internet access. In fact, I encourage those with technical skills to try teaching Linux or even basic computer usage in these places - they'll realize just how wrong they are about the state of the PC in the world today. You'll experience farmers who use their PC's to check produce prices, teachers using content management systems to conduct classes, and kids learning English by watching videos on donated 15" CRT monitors.
The term "Post-PC" was nothing more than a buzz word - a marketing spin to jumpstart the consumer electronics market or remind people who are struggling from the recession that they need to buy these small devices. Doesn't the media take into consideration that they're using PC's at this very moment to write their articles? From the telecommunications industry, to the power companies, and more importantly, the schools, PC's are still being used on a daily basis, chugging along and making sure that utilities and services are working properly and children will learn all about physics, languages, and programming. And no, not all schools are like those in middle-class America where people bring their pearly white Macbooks and iPads into classrooms while brandishing spiffy new iPhones. There are schools in Europe that make use of mid-size to entry-level PCs running on openSUSEor Ubuntu while government offices in the U.K. make use of open source software on their whiteboxes. Again, don't forget the Linux servers that power the Internet and online services that smartphone and tablet users love so much and consider "replacements" for the PC.
"The PC is not dead!"
Kraven the Hunter art by Todd McFarlane from Spider-Man #4 (1990)
Digital and mobile devices are supposed to inform and educate people. The Internet was supposed to make people more intelligent and aware of how the world works. That's why industries and college courses were initially called "information technology". The world is a such a huge place and the technology running alongside it is even bigger so it's sheer ignorance that prompts the media (and even developers/users) to make these inchoate bubble conclusions and broadcast it as true. All you really need to do is search for steps to set up a PC, build a Debian server, customize a desktop, troubleshoot Windows, download a music converter and you'll get posts made this year, this day, and this hour about people working on their PC and being productive. The PC is dead? Right.
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