Simple Is Beter - The Future Of Computers? In the future, what will computers be like?

[minimcmonkey 0]

-Computers - The future - Who knows -

I often wonder what the average home computer will be like in ten or twenty years time; They seem to get larger, and have more functions, be faster, and have more RAM ect.
People always look for speed when buying a computer - But is this really the way forward?
If you have formatted your hard drive, then re-installed your operating system; you will have noticed, that things run very smooth, very fast, and with few or no error messages. But as soon as you have installed all your devices, media software, some games maybe, and antivirus, and everything else you want your computer to run. Your computer can be running so slowly.........

I think, that if computers were more simple, say the motherboard did everything you would normally need extra PCI cards to perform, and instead of having a photo editor, a video editor, a word processor, a database editor, and a media player ect, and you only needed a few applications to do everything. Surely, your computer would run a lot faster, and it would be easier to use - instead of using different applications for graphics, vidoe, testing ect, you could make, test, and upload your website, from one application.

So are we really going backwards, by making hundreds of new features, functions, and pieces of hardware that we only need because they have been made. What if computers were so simple that you didnt need a dual core processor and 2gb or ram for your computer JUST for it to run well.

Would our computer world be a beter place??
Edited June 24, 2008 by minimcmonkey (see edit history)

[gameratheart 0]

I actually have to agree with every point this post has made. If everything we needed were in one place, things would be easier to find and use, and things would be a lot more compact.Also, this simpler approach could have benefits when considering the non-computer-literate market - the people who have never used a computer before or have little understanding of them - as by keeping everything close and making everything easily available, these people would not have to worry about trying to look for something they need but don't know how to search for it or even what it is called. This could benefit the elderly too, for the same reasons.I have a 250GB computer at home and over 50% of it's capacity is in use. Most of the used memory I have no idea what it has been used for, but I don't want to get rid of it in case it is important. If there was a simpler way to find everything and tell what everything is, I could end up using less memory and that would make me a happy man.

Edited June 24, 2008 by gameratheart (see edit history)

[Carson 0]

I think the future will see a reduction in desktop PC's. While I favor them over notebooks or PDA's, I think that the desktop computer will go. Before the next 10 years, I think we will see today's super computers in our pockets. However with PDA's I think we have gone as far as we can with size. If you can already fit a fully functional computer in your pocket, what's next? I suppose there will also be a time where hard drive space will be considered unlimited as the average computer will have so much space that it would take years of downloading to fill.I think the future will also contain less wires and less hardware. My computer is old, but it still has cords in a mess all over the place and I'm always running out of USB slots. I already have a wireless keyboard and mouse. Is there really any need for cords anymore? Why not just have everything wireless. Flick the switch and its all connected. I also recently saw a keyboard that is projected onto a surface, and you can just use that as your keyboard. That is amazing. Hardware projected by light. With today's technology you would think they are going to run out of ideas because it is already quite advanced. Apart from making them larger(in space) and faster, I guess the major future ideas will come from creativity and not so much advanced technology.

[minimcmonkey 0]

Yea.If acomputer just had one USB module,that was next to it (or even inside it) That you could use to connect all of your wireless devices, There would not be anything like as many signal, or software interfearances.thus, it would run faster.Ive found that using a fast multifunction printer, is a lot faster than having a laserprinter, photo printer, colour printer, scanner, card reader and fax machine!!I think bluetooth could catch on - for the mouse and keyboard, and other devices. like on some mac computers.