Is it that more people are buying Linux, or fewer Windows customers are buying new computers at all?
A few years ago, you’d have households with a laptop for every member of the family. Now with tablets and phones doing so much of the heavy lifting, many families are dropping to just 1 Windows or Mac laptop that mostly gathers dust.
My experience is more people having those devices on top of having laptops. I don’t know a single person in Uni that does not have a laptop at all. At last when it comes to writing reports or thesis you just need a proper keyboard device.
Meanwhile gaming and also PC gaming has become much bigger over the years, which keeps driving computer sales.
Believe it or not - but most people actually aren’t college students. Crazy, right?
Anybody in this forum isn’t a typical tech user.
I carry 3 laptops in my backpack (one for 8-5 job, one personal, and one for teaching night classes at the University) along with a foldable phone, a work phone, and e-ink notepad.
Between my 3 laptops, Rog Ally, 2 desktops, and some old laptops I keep around for media devices and network interfaces around the property, I’ve got like 10 Windows machines in my life.
ooh! what’s the e-ink notepad, and what’s your usecase like?
it seems so appealing to just have a functionally infinite notebook on hand, but i’ve yet to find one that could ACTUALLY replace a regular physical notebook for me.
Don’t get the keyboard case for it - it sucks hard. It’s so thick it turns it into another laptop, it types terribly, and when folded backwards so you can write it still tries taking over from the pen.
If you carry three laptops around you are definitely doing things wrong. There is no real world scenario where doing what you say you do needs 3 physical computers, and if you have a 9-5 AND teach night classes , you don’t have extra minutes to use your “personal” laptop that day, which leads me to call bull on the carry 3 laptops thing
I can see it. My corporate work laptop is locked down with their security and monitoring software, so I’m not using it for personal things, even if it is allowed for some limited things. And there’s company resources that I can only access through the machines under their control, so I couldn’t ditch it either. And using that laptop for a second job would be a big no-no.
I can see the school laptop being similar, though my experience is that they tend to not be locked down quite as hard as the corporate machine, unless you do boneheaded things with it and piss off the school’s IT department.
So I can see the need for a personal computer, plus it’s always nice to keep that well separated to avoid things like incidents hooked up to a projector and screen sharing.
or people are like me, not gamers, so perfectly contented to upgrade old used PC gear…shoehorn a CPU in with higher core count, max out RAM with a new matched pair of sticks, install a fresh NVMe drive, good to go!
I recently ordered parts from China to repair my old mechanical keyboard =_= Also ordered fancy new mice for other PC’s & wife’s laptop woo just a little tech refresh goes a long way for me =_=
I used to think that I’d be glued to my PC forever, but ever since getting a foldable I’ve found that I’m no longer reliant on computers anymore for daily tasks. Plus there’s no point in eating up 300w of electricity during the summer (according to my watt meter), just to watch YouTube.
These days the only time I boot my PC is to play a game, search for a job, or make a large purchase. I’m a MilleniaI, so big purchases have to be done on the big computer. The phone is more than adequate for everything else. It’s not the 2010s anymore; phone screens are finally large enough now to replace a PC, and there’s an Android equivalent for almost everything a computer can do.
Yeah I used to think I’d always need a desktop, but these days I mostly only use my phone and laptop. And considering how small desktops are getting, I can only imagine the days of the traditional desktop are numbered.
It’s also interesting to notice that linux is growing in that chart, which means that linux is really growing in popularity, and it’s not just an effect of the desktop market possibly shrinking or something.
How far down are PC sales in general though?
Is it that more people are buying Linux, or fewer Windows customers are buying new computers at all?
A few years ago, you’d have households with a laptop for every member of the family. Now with tablets and phones doing so much of the heavy lifting, many families are dropping to just 1 Windows or Mac laptop that mostly gathers dust.
My experience is more people having those devices on top of having laptops. I don’t know a single person in Uni that does not have a laptop at all. At last when it comes to writing reports or thesis you just need a proper keyboard device.
Meanwhile gaming and also PC gaming has become much bigger over the years, which keeps driving computer sales.
Believe it or not - but most people actually aren’t college students. Crazy, right?
Anybody in this forum isn’t a typical tech user.
I carry 3 laptops in my backpack (one for 8-5 job, one personal, and one for teaching night classes at the University) along with a foldable phone, a work phone, and e-ink notepad.
Between my 3 laptops, Rog Ally, 2 desktops, and some old laptops I keep around for media devices and network interfaces around the property, I’ve got like 10 Windows machines in my life.
But I also know I’m an outlier.
ooh! what’s the e-ink notepad, and what’s your usecase like?
it seems so appealing to just have a functionally infinite notebook on hand, but i’ve yet to find one that could ACTUALLY replace a regular physical notebook for me.
Boox Tab Ultra C.
It’s a 10" color e-ink tablet that runs Android.
Don’t get the keyboard case for it - it sucks hard. It’s so thick it turns it into another laptop, it types terribly, and when folded backwards so you can write it still tries taking over from the pen.
Other than that I love it.
argh that’s literally the ONE that was tempting me, now I guess I GOTTA buy one! this sucks!
(thank you so much i’ve wanted to buy this since it came out)
Have you told your therapist?
If you carry three laptops around you are definitely doing things wrong. There is no real world scenario where doing what you say you do needs 3 physical computers, and if you have a 9-5 AND teach night classes , you don’t have extra minutes to use your “personal” laptop that day, which leads me to call bull on the carry 3 laptops thing
The course I teach involves photo and video editing, which I do on my personal laptop for 2 reasons:
I can see it. My corporate work laptop is locked down with their security and monitoring software, so I’m not using it for personal things, even if it is allowed for some limited things. And there’s company resources that I can only access through the machines under their control, so I couldn’t ditch it either. And using that laptop for a second job would be a big no-no.
I can see the school laptop being similar, though my experience is that they tend to not be locked down quite as hard as the corporate machine, unless you do boneheaded things with it and piss off the school’s IT department.
So I can see the need for a personal computer, plus it’s always nice to keep that well separated to avoid things like incidents hooked up to a projector and screen sharing.
@chiliedogg @Magnolia_
or people are like me, not gamers, so perfectly contented to upgrade old used PC gear…shoehorn a CPU in with higher core count, max out RAM with a new matched pair of sticks, install a fresh NVMe drive, good to go!
I recently ordered parts from China to repair my old mechanical keyboard =_= Also ordered fancy new mice for other PC’s & wife’s laptop woo just a little tech refresh goes a long way for me =_=
I used to think that I’d be glued to my PC forever, but ever since getting a foldable I’ve found that I’m no longer reliant on computers anymore for daily tasks. Plus there’s no point in eating up 300w of electricity during the summer (according to my watt meter), just to watch YouTube.
These days the only time I boot my PC is to play a game, search for a job, or make a large purchase. I’m a MilleniaI, so big purchases have to be done on the big computer. The phone is more than adequate for everything else. It’s not the 2010s anymore; phone screens are finally large enough now to replace a PC, and there’s an Android equivalent for almost everything a computer can do.
Programming? Nah. It’s a consumption device, not a creation device.
Run Vim in termux
Really ain’t writing code in termux. I want an IDE. Why use a substandard device?
I’m not a programmer.
Yeah I used to think I’d always need a desktop, but these days I mostly only use my phone and laptop. And considering how small desktops are getting, I can only imagine the days of the traditional desktop are numbered.
Both
Windows isn’t only losing markershare to linux, but also to android and ios. That can be seen in the chart for all OSes, also available in that site:
https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share#monthly-201501-202407
It’s also interesting to notice that linux is growing in that chart, which means that linux is really growing in popularity, and it’s not just an effect of the desktop market possibly shrinking or something.