If you're a producer of anything, you should have a real desktop computer or at least a laptop. It should have a non-mobile operating system and on-board storage. If you don't have one of these, you've resigned yourself to being a complete consumer, never to create anything.

There's going to come a day soon when the desktop computer as we know it is marginalized. Mobile phones are getting so good that that you can realistically plug them into docking stations and use them for anything you would a PC. I'm not looking forward to this, mostly because your phone is tied to your identity and at the moment there are basically two options out there, both owned by giant corporations that really want to know every detail of your life. I think Microsoft has a chance in this coming generation by the way, having held on to businessy shit that the other two have ignored… so say three options.

For most, this is going to be fine and perhaps an improvement. You'll have everything you'd ever need in your pocket if you're away from home or the office. At least you'll have human-sized input devices to play with when you want. That will be fine if you can get past Google knowing your preferences in all consumer goods and media…

The standalone computer will not die any time soon, though. For the creative types that depend on them, the desktop/laptop is a working machine, a separate space from the social media machine that is the phone.¹⁾

Speaking of that, let's talk about that a little…

Once upon a time, computers were big, expensive, and used entirely for business purposes.

Then the microcomputer came along and it got a little less expensive and the thought among the manufacturers of these machines was that they would expand into other business-related fields. Instead, people played games on them. At work, mind you. So they wanted one for home too…

Computers became toys for awhile (like the Commodore 64 and the countless European home computers). Then something weird happened and basically games were cleaved off of the home computer, segregated for a long time to consoles. There were still PC games, but they were always substandard to the console offerings. The PC became about business for awhile: a machine where you created things.

When the Internet came along, it became the video game of choice for awhile. You can also make the argument that it's not the Internet itself or its static posted offerings, but the people that are part of it that are the game. That's what turned into social media. Everyone had to have this new game, so they got online in droves and did it the only way possible at the time… but not everyone wants to be a producer, some are content to only consume. And that ugly mess of wires takes up too much space in the dining room…

Mobile phones allowed for these types to vanish from the harsher Internet into the coddling arms of corporate social media. Games went here too, which is weird, but now things are even weirder with PC gamers a minority with some of the highest-quality offerings… compared to all other times, things are broken as fuck, but then again, that has been the case for a long time now.

The pendulum is going the other way now. PCs are going to be increasingly for creation and business for awhile. There will still be games and the Internet is always way more fun in retro-mode, but the masses are distracted by their phones, walking into traffic, and otherwise doing their thing… good for them.