A PC in 2006

From Bill Gates keynote:

The personal computer in 2006 will be a 4-6 GHz machine with 2GB of RAM a 1 TB disk with 1GB networking and 54 Mb wireless.

Well I am not sure about that, but today, to be honest, you still have a lot of PC running W98 as clients and Windows NT4 as server.
And wireless is still a yuppy gizmo in Europe.

AIB in Ireland for example run only with NT4.
The configuration Bill talk about is for a geek or a really serious gamer, not for the common people ;-)

So IMHO I would rather say that in 2006 a lot of machines will look like this:

2-3Ghz - 512Mb-1Gb Ram - 160Gb Hard drive and 100Mb Network with maybe some wireless facilities.

 

8 Comments

  • I think he talks of the stuff being SOLD. This is realistic, though. And will be nice. Really nice.

  • ...I'm not sure WLess is just a gizmo. Here in Italy the market is growing very fast (I'm currently browsing via WiFi), in number of operator and users, and in amount of money spent.

    (But I admin that same nations still need to upgrade their legislations - in Italy the use of 5Ghz band is almost impossible, so bye bye to 802.11a)

  • Thomas seriously only a geek (and I am one myself) would like to buy something with 1 TB ;-) And I believe the cost will be also astronomic !

  • In Ireland wireless is more a fashion than really being availabale everywhere.

    If I travel in the countryside, I surely going to see some old PC, maybe PIII with 20 Gb hard drives, a modem 56K and that's all.

    So wireless is great thing but the common people (no negative thoughts here) are far away from the overhype we like to talk about.

    It's sad but it's a real world, so let try to work for real uman beings ;-)

  • ::Thomas seriously only a geek (and I am one

    ::myself) would like to buy something with 1

    ::TB ;-) And I believe the cost will be also

    ::astronomic !





    Get realistic. This is 3-4 years out.



    The ost will NOT be realistic. "only a geek" bys today hard discs larger than 40gb. Ups, sorry - most computers are sold with hd's hlarger thn 4 gb.



    VIDEO EDITING requires a ton of storage space. The hard discs just get bigger. My first one ha 120mb storage space, and I was considered a gook at this time. It was dfarn expensive (aroudn 500 USD, used).



    2005-2006 1Tb may really be the norm in the computers you buy in the shops.



  • Yes Thomas sure you're right for video editing, but for Word users ?

    What they can do with 1TB ?

  • Well, at do they do TODAY with more than 10Gb?



    It lays there, wasted. The price difference is not really there for a smaller hd.



    So, you will see alot more empty space lying around.

  • Here's the thing Thomas: What are minimal requirements for Longhorn? What are they for Longhorn to actually be usable?



    Remember back in 1995 when Win95 came out? BIG difference in performance between minimum config and usable config.



    By most accounts, the best machine you can buy TODAY is barely minimal for Longhorn. Meaning, business interests MUST plan for capital expenses to replace essentially ALL machines over the next 3 years.



    Yes, web services and thunks can (once again) allow TODAY's PC to run Longhorn acceptably. But only if you have something that can run .NET today.... and most home users barely can. Meaning, you can code for Longhorn, but only if you consider gently degrading (once again).



    Don't get me wrong: Longhorn is spectacular. But backward-compatible? Laughably, but I'll grudgingly agree. We're back to the 16 bit versus 32 bit argument. Except.... this time there are millions more current users - who simply cannot afford a FORCED hardware upgrade - using the legacy technology.



    Keep this in mind as you evaluate what you see this week. Oh, and keep one more thing in mind too - more of us will make quite a bit more money the next 5 years developing things that work on today's machines than those who are getting this 'big neccessary jump' by attending the PDC and using what they are showing.

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