The Traditional Desktop PC is Dying

I remember a post from Mark Kent (in my favourite Usenet Newsgroup comp.os.linux.advocacy), stating that the end of the Desktop was near. I didn't argue with Mark about that article, liked his plausible statement, yet it had a "hum, ho" and "we'll see" effect on me.

Mobile devices like Smartphones and Tablets where somewhat underpowered, but the times have changed.

Last week I bought a new TomTec 10 Ultimate (9.7 Inch) Tablet, running Android ICS 4.0.3.

It's a "El Cheapo", marketed at least under 4 different "Brands" in The Netherlands and Belgium only and it's also available in the UK under yet another brand:

http://www.android-tablet-computer.co.uk/newsmy-k97-9-7-inch-ips-android-4-0-tablet-pc-bluetooth-wifi-3g-16g.html

http://tinyurl.com/bsfk4pq

Anyway, it's a nice tablet for that small amount of money and it provides everything one could ever wish for.

I bought a HDMI cable and a MicroHDMI to HDMI converter plug, which I connect to my Linux Powered Samsung 32 inch TV and plug in the USB receiver of my whireless Logitech Keyboard and mouse set. And there you have it: another pseudo desktop running on Android ICS 4.0.3.

Once it's rooted I'm able to install ether Debian GNU/Linux or Ubuntu on it in a chrooted environment, via Linux Installer from Google Play.

So why on Earth should I invest in another traditional Desktop or Laptop Computer? I can have it all on one nice and mobile device.

I am looking forward to buy a "Ubuntu For Android" phone.

Mark Kent was right all the way, albeit ahead of his time: the traditional desktop is passé!

Looking forward to Ubuntu Precise Pangolin

Like never before I am looking forward to the first Alpha release of the Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution.

First of all I am a huge fan of Ubuntu's Unity and from what I understood from sadfl's posts is that Unity will get the final touch and polish it requires.

I am very pleased that Canonical finally gives up on Banshee and the entire Mono stack, which means I don't have to remove this trojan, each time I upgrade to a new version of Ubuntu any more.

As soon as Precise Pangolin Alpha 1 is released, I will install it on the internal hard disk drive of my laptop.

Why Unity is not ready for prime time.

Preface.

No this is not yet another "Unity sucks" "Canonical is the new Evil Empire" rant. I am searching for Canonical's attention to urgently address a serious flaw in Unity, which I think the Unity dev team somehow overlooked.

The problem.

The problem is the absence of a "clear history" or "delete history" function in Unity as present in Gnome 2.

A (Sample) Scenario.

John Doe, typical 35 years young dude next door, married to Jill of the Jungle and father of 2, has a computer running Ubuntu "Snappy Snake", to do some "administrative tasks" (riiight). In reality he games his ass of and has a huge pr0n .avi .flv - and its ilk - collection.

Nothing wrong with that, nobody notices or suffers from it and John has a good time...

... Until Jill one fine night comes into John's hobby room and asks him if he has a program to manage recipes.

John clicks the Ubuntu logo on the left top of his screen and searches for "recipes" in the Dasher.

And OOPS, there it is! although the search was totally unrelated. Dasher shows John's file history, including a thumbnail of JeniferLopezFingersPussy.flv.

Congratulations Canonical, you have just unleashed WWIII on a family scale!

Until a "clear history" function is implemented, Unity is not usable. Just as simple as that :-p

Good luck implementing it ;-)