Re: Popularity Of Players According To Google Trends - All Down
Reply #15 – 2023-07-29 08:36:44
I suspect, but have no data, that domestic ownership of PCs in general is on the way down. With their primary usage being games and Internet, those purposes are much more conveniently served these days. Even for me (I regard myself as a power user), an iPad and a WiFi/AirPrint printer deals with the vast majority of my day-do-day tech usage (including right now). Background music for me comes from broadcast services via digital TV or good old old-fashioned radio. For other members of my family, they have it on a digital home assistant (I don't have a great Internet connection, but I'm not sure I would use one of those myself even if I did have a good connection). And yes, PC maintenance is a pain in the arse. Microsoft keeps ratcheting up the processing power required for a smooth user experience, driving users to replace their units, and Intel keeps providing more power for Microsoft to exploit. You can't even ignore that and stick with what you've got (not easily anyway) – stuff stops working. I could have stuck on Win98 – but the printer broke and new printers had the new-fangled USB interface, which Win98 PCs did not! But I've not gone beyond Win7, and I've seen the way a more recent Windows PC makes itself unavailable for use while it insists on doing a system update. There are alternatives to Windows of course, and they're getting slicker all the time, but if you want to do any more than ordinary things you're on your own and you'd better set a lot of time aside for IT Department work. Try running a specialist USB hardware device from a Linux machine – chances are they only supply a Windows software, and rely on a recent Windows to boot. I am gradually doing more and more on my Linux box, but still have to revert to Windows for some things... but the birth of the PC was my era, and I've grown up knowing how to manipulate them to my bidding. I'm certain younger people know far less about it, unless they go specifically into IT as a career.