I have a dream.

Nobody has one computer any more -- we have a bunch of them. We have mobile phones, book readers, laptops, desktops, and other things, such as gps devices.

Once upon a time, people asked themselves what kind of computer to get, PC, Mac or Linux. Or maybe dual-boot. That is no longer the right question.

What we now think about is, what combination of computing devices do we need? We think about the variety of situations in which we use computers and, lately, the number of size choices is increasing rapidly.

What may have been obvious to some of you suddenly occured to me. Is the big box desktop computer dying out? I hope so, because I am tired of messing with them.

So, maybe some of you can help me with this question. What is the best combination of devices that will allow me to toss my desktop entirely? Have any of you done so yet?

Big screens aren't about to go, and a full-sized keyboard is a must.

Another thing: when I'm at home now, I rarely work with one device at a time. At a minimum, I tend to have my N900 and my Kindle within reach. I'd like a larger, tablet computer as well. At first I was thinking of a 7-inch tablet, but at the moment I am dreaming of a ten-inch or even larger tablet, with a slide-out or detachable keyboard. Of course, a detached bluetooth keyboard is another obvious choice.

In order to keep this from being too much of a duplicate of other threads, please try to keep in mind the goal of putting your desktop computer out on the curb to be hauled away. Can we do that now? What else do we need?

how about a mac mini --> big sceen. when you watching movies. n900 do the rest. You dont need more than that. and when the phones with HDMI arrive, you through out mini and go all mobile. This will happen sometime late next year!

PC or MAC i would understand, but from when linux is the type of arch or dual-boot is the type of computer?

u want to trow your computer? give it to me or maybe find some kid from poor neighborhood who can't afford one

I image having a set of devices that are totally synced in terms of their contents, and you choose the device you want to work on based on factors like requested screen size, input abilities, additional hardware, etc. Here is my list of devices from smallest to biggest:

1. Wrist watch. (I want to be able to sync at least the calendar to it)
2. Mobile phone with or without keyboard.
3. Tablet.
4. Netbook
5. Desktop
6. Television

E.g. if I start off writing something on the phone and realize that I need a real keyboard I should be able to just pick up the netbook and just pick up where I left off.

And btw, I wouldn't want to kill the desktop computer because it is the most robust of the lot. If the screen or the keyboard breaks you buy a new one. You want a stronger graphics card, you just get it. The integration of devices like mobile phones and laptops means that you pay premium when you have to repair or update them.

It's too frightening to think...I'd rather just switch off the lights and go to sleep.

Sorry if this wasn't helpful. But too much technology options is really confusing and frustrating. Just stick with what you have and learn to make the full use of them.

Personally, I'd like a Toshiba Portege R700 and my N900.

I have a desktop purely because I'm returning to study this year, and because my N900 cannot handle the Half Life series (love those games). Otherwise, I've built myself a neat little mobile computing package:

-N900
-stock data cable
-stock wall charger
-female-female USB adaptor
-SU-8W bluetooth folding keyboard
-rechargeable bluetooth mouse
-stock TV out TRRS-RCA cable

(Some may also be interested to know that I have a Super Nintendo controller I've modified to use over USB that can run via host mode: DrNokSnes with the proper controller)

This all fits snugly into a SLR camera bag, which I can then easily chuck in my backpack. Covers gaming (VGB, DrNokSnes, Mupen64Plus), word processing (FreOffice), internet browsing (Opera, with BT keyboard/mouse), watching movies (on the go or on a big screen) and anything else I haven't though of that I use.

I'm waiting on the h-e-n update with jrbme so I can add a USB Y-cable and travel USB charger for powering/charging whilst using host mode. Oh, and dependency issues between extmou/extkbd and PS3sixaxis so I can add a Ps3 controller into the pack for use with M64P.

<3 N900

I don't think it is going away anytime soon. There is a decent sized market for boxes that can be built to spec and expanded/upgraded cheaply and incrementally over the years. But no one's forcing you to do that if you don't want to :-)

A lot of it depends on what you do with it, really. For example, if you do any CPU-intensive tasks (compiling, video editing etc) I don't think any of the appliance-style computers available will be able to compete. On the other hand if your work consists entirely of tasks like email, word processing and a bit of browsing you can probably throw the PC out now and replace it with a netbook, tablet or even phone and external display & input devices.

I suggest a complete set alienware notebook and a good USB modem.
With that combination I don't think you will need anything else.

No way. I still like doing stuff on the desktop.

Or maybe a power hungry Origin desktop

If we're talking dreams, I want a set of devices that aren't synced - I want them to be the one device.

I'd like some form of main computer cube that can fit in a pocket or backpack, and a load of little devices that communicate with it. All of the other devices on me would link to the computer.

The watch on my wrist would show the time, date, or anything else I want, though of course limited by it's smaller screen, but then it's only supposed to show updates.
A tablet-like device would be the main way of communicating with it. A range of sizes depending on personal preferences.
You walk within range of your monitor or tv and you can use the full screen.