A nice article (Computer Active May 2022) highlighting that PC sales hit a 9 year high in 2021.

A nice article (Computer Active May 2022) highlighting that PC sales hit a 9 year high in 2021.

PC hardware/software skills as part of a undergrad degree remain a great path for a good career.

 

Link, please.

 

Hmmm .... file copy of the artcile was uploaded, doing it again.

 

Doesn't seem to be happening. I looked and it appears no direct link to the article exists. The popular UK magazine itself doesn't post the full copy on line. Various other 3rd party sites, some of them sketchy-looking, let you download the issue (plus G*d knows what else) as a PDF but they mostly all want your info so they can bombard you with stuff. I'll have to pass.

 

Can you upload it to somewhere else and then link to that instead?

 

From his sig. line: "MCSE, CCNA, CCNA Wireless, Cisco Cyber Security Specialist, CIW Security Analyst, Novell CNA, CompTIA A+, CompTIA iNet+, CompTIA IFT+"

Yeah, Rachel - I think that should be real easy for him.

 

Meanwhile, here's an article you can see, that says the pandemic-fueled boom in PC sales is OVER. Declines being posted. Other sources say the same.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/11/pandemic-boom-in-pc-sales-is-over.html

 

Here's the same topic

https://www.canalys.com/newsroom/global-pc-market-Q4-2021

 

That was then. This is now. Q1-2022 was a bust, compared to these rosy predictions. Yes, a whole bunch of machines were sold during the pandemic for work-from-home, and yes again - distance education. Yes - the industry was back up on its knees again - to 2012 levels. It may be back down on its face again. Q1-2022 sorta looks that way.

Even if there is a good demand, (which is NOT a given) supply chain issues plague manufacturers and retailers alike. Those are gonna take QUITE a WHILE. You can't sell what you can't make - or get. Lenovo an' them shouldn't uncork the champagne just yet. And I think they're wise enough to know that.

 

One problem, even with good supplies, is often the people charged with selling and servicing computers in the retail environment.

I was looking for a good Android tablet (I hope that's not an oxymoron.) I asked the salesman if "this" one had USB inputs. "Oh no - none of them come with that." So I went home and Googled. All kinds of them do, including the Samsung he and I were looking at. I might indeed buy that Samsung, but not there.

A long time ago, when SSD's (Solid-State Drives) first became readily available, I commented on the great speed, to another store salesman. His reply: "Oh yeah, that's because the platters in 'em revolve at mind-boggling speed."
He was confused, when I corrected him. No platters - no moving. The magic of semiconductors. Maybe that's why they call them Solid-State? News to him...

More recently - about 3 years ago I bought the laptop I'm using right now. I'd been a relatively happy Windows user since the early 90s - but one day of Windows 10 ended that. So, for curiosity I asked a guy in the big chain electronics store: How much would it cost to blip off Windows and install Linux - Ubuntu preferably. He looked at me like I was crazy and said "Oh, that's RARE. I've been a tech here for (ta-da) ...nineteen months - and we've never had this request."

Me: "You have one now. Can you do it?"
Guy: "We could try..." (what a confidence-builder.)
Me: And how much would it cost to, um - try?
Guy: Probably the same as we charge to re-install Windows. About $200.

$200? For putting in a CD and periodically watching for 20-30 minutes -maybe click on a couple of boxes -or not even that! I went home and did it myself. Ubuntu makes it easy. Like I said - 20-30 minutes. I get the new version every year. Free.

I've still got that $200. I think I'll put it towards the Android tablet I'll buy somewhere else. Most of these retail salespeople are terrible. Their companies do not train them. I'm not sure they even pay them... They migrate there because there are no jobs pumping gas any more.

And if these sales(?) people keep this up -- never another boom, for them. Maybe they'll be able to get something, like running the pay-booth at the Car-Charging station - who knows?

 

I just got back from the local electronics store. Had similar experiences. Also, was not overly impressed with the selection. It's not even that there are chip shortages. They just don't have the things. Especially not the things that their website said were in stock. There are still some things that I'll buy LOCAL, but Amazon is getting more business from me now. When you charge 30-50€ for a 1.5m cable and your sales staff isn't even that helpful, I'd rather go somewhere else.

 

With the COVID-induced semiconductor supply problems --- that might be harder now than then. I know it is around here. You got a bunch of CPUs - you better get a vault. Like gold, especially the more desirable ones. And I don't think the makers are in ANY hurry to see the shortage end. They'll milk it bone dry. They're VERY experienced, efficient milkers. Always have been.

Come to think of it, CPU's are pretty light. I'm fairly sure they retail for MORE than their weight in gold. Hmm.

I also think there's some connection between chip-makers and coffee-farmers in South America. I think the coffee folks can make a frost in Brazil whenever they need to. They've taught the chip-makers "Creative Shortages 101" Must be worth a few credits someplace...

 

Has the PC changed since the late 1980s? I contend that it is "no."

Keyboard, mouse, CPU, monitor, sound, storage, internet, GUI, modem. Had them all then. Still have them all now.

Oh, they're all much cheaper now. And everything is better, too. But it's the same stuff.

I think the one big difference is the internet with the development of the World Wide Web. (They're two different things, really.) But I was doing research, communicating, and downloading information and data long before the Web. The Web brought it all to the masses, but the basics were there for many years prior.

And now there are alternatives to the PC (no, not the Mac; that's still a PC), primarily smart phones and tablets. But nothing is new with them for years, either. They, too, have gotten lighter, faster, and better, but the concept hasn't changed.

When distinctions boil down to factors such as price and quality, you've got a commodity on your hands, not an innovation. Not anymore.

 

SO TRUE. Three bits of really good news in one line. A rarity these days. Where else has stuff gotten THAT much better and reduced THAT much in price at the same time? I can't remember another instance. And operation? Still Windows, Apple or Unix / Linux. Yes, Familiar. Have to admit, DOS is finally dead, though. But it still runs on my 1988 Sharp laptop - on floppies.

 

But not really. It is still the basis for Windows. I occasionally have to access the C: prompt to fix things. I think it's amazing that Windows never moved completely away from DOS.

 

My current lineup:

Dell XPS desktop (for publishing)
Apple iPad Pro (1st gen)
Apple iPad Air (5th gen)
Apple iPhone 13
Apple Watch (Series 7)

Why not a Mac on the desktop? Because I've been a DoS/Windows guy since 1985 (Kaypro PC with 8088 4mghz chip, monochrome monitor, 2 floppies, DoS 2.3, Juki daisy wheel printer, and Everex Evercomm 1200 bps modem. No hard drive. No laser printer. No cable modem. No graphical monitor (and no color). And yet, I had the baddest computer setup of anyone I knew, most of whom had the Commodore 64 or Apple II.

 

They pretty well did - quite a while ago. almost 22 years.

I presume the C: prompt you're using these days is the Powershell, Rich, that comes with Windows. Yes, it's a command line interface, but it's Linux based, not DOS. Yes, you can run batch files and all sorts of familiar stuff. Looks the same, though, doesn't it? The MS Powershell can also be installed on various Linux installations. MS has been making inroads into Linux use for quite a while.

Here'a a question I asked Google - and the answer.

What was the last DOS based Windows?

Windows Me, the last DOS-based version of Windows, was aimed at consumers and released in 2000.

 

One more thing. I said "Dos is finally dead." As an operating system, it is. Unless you have old hardware like my Sharp PC-4600 or Rich's Kaypro. But there's DOSbox, of course. If what you want to do is run Software that uses DOS - yeah, you can still do that, using Dosbox. Your programs reside and run inside the DOSbox environment, which works like DOS but isn't DOS. DOSbox works for current Windows systems and there's a Linux version too, so I can run DOOM or 1986 Visicalc or Carmen Sandiego on my Ubuntu-equipped HP laptop. Free, too.

But DOS as an OS - outside of antique hardware? Not any more. Time was called on the patient years ago. Requiescat in pace.

 

What I should have said is: the code that makes Powershell work is Linux-based. Thousands of lines of it.
The old familiar DOS commands will (mostly) execute (As Rich doubtless knows) plus a couple of hundred new ones just for Powershell, some identical to Linux commands (or almost so) and some unique to Powershell.

And yes. MS has the proper permission to use everything in there, I'm reliably told.