This week, my trusty IBM ThinkPad of ten years developed a severe case of lock-up. This is most likely a problem with the CPU card. (In a laptop, just about everything is on the CPU card, so that's where the problems lie.)
The loss of the laptop is disappointing. It has been a good friend through a number of projects. It was reliable. It had a very nice screen. I liked the keyboard.
Its passing leads me to think of a replacement. And this leads to several ideas.
First idea: Do I need to replace it? I'm not sure that I do. I've collected a number of other PCs in the past ten years, including an Apple MacBook which has better wireless connectivity. I may be able to live without a replacement.
Second idea: Replace it with a tablet. The Apple iPad comes to mind, although I am not happy with the screen (I dislike the high-gloss finish) and I would prefer a tablet that can play my Ogg Vorbis-encoded music.
Third idea: Replace it with a smart phone. Probably an Android phone, as I have the same dislikes of the iPhone as the iPad.
In brief, I am not considering a desktop PC, and considering but not committed to a laptop. This is a big change from a few years ago, when a desktop was considered "the usual" and a laptop was considered "nice to have".
Conversations with others (all tech-minded folks) show that most folks are thinking along similar lines. The techies are leaving desktop PCs and laptops. The future is in mobile devices: smart phones and tablets.
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