Personal Computing Is Getting More Personal
Source: Dan Costa
Whether you're a maker or a consumer, there are more ways to personalize your computing experience now than there have ever been before.
Computing doesn't get more personal than building your own PC. Here in PC Labs, a lot of us have built our own custom rigs, for home, for work, and sometimes just for fun. In fact, Matthew Murray, the author of this month's cover story, works at a desk surrounded by unsteady piles of PC components, as if he may need to swap out a spare part mid-workday. I imagine a lot of PC Magazine readers have similar work areas, loaded with components imbued with more potential than purpose. At the same time, I fully acknowledge that the concept of building your own PC will be alien to a lot of readers: Why build when you can buy? The answer to that question divides people into two camps: makers and consumers. This issue has some excellent stories for both types of reader.
There was a time when building your own PC was a way to save money, but those days have pretty much passed. In most cases, you can log onto Dell.com or HP.com, configure a system, and have it shipped to you for less than the price of building your own. At this point, building your own PC is about control―and it is just as much a hobby today as it was when the PC revolution started. Matt walks you through everything that's necessary if it's one you want to take up (or revisit) yourself, from shopping for parts to the actual construction, or if you're interested in upgrading the computer you already have.
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Another enabling technology at the core of the maker movement is the 3D printer. Although we've tested most of the major models on the market, it's hard to get excited about 3D printing without seeing how people are using them. For that, we sent Tony Hoffman to the Inside 3D Printing Show, where a few thousand artists, industrial designers, and 3D printing companies showed off their latest creations. Suffice it to say, there are a lot more interesting things to print than our standard Yoda head test.
Even our hands-on with the new Microsoft HoloLens augmented reality headset is primed for the maker market. Microsoft is going to build the hardware and software ties for the HoloLens into all of its Windows 10 products, including phones. But the games, environments, and use cases for it will need to be built by third parties. In a lot of ways, Microsoft is hoping to leverage the HoloLens the same way it did the Windows platform: by enabling thousands of developers to build on top of it.
These stories are exciting and inspiring, but they aren't the only narratives at work here. At the same time a handful of folks are building their PCs, Apple is making billions cranking out completely sealed laptops that are impossible to upgrade. Software has stopped being something you buy and is now something you subscribe to. Indeed, Windows 10 will be the last "major release" of the OS; from here on out new versions of Windows will come as an endless series of point releases. Much to the dismay of Spinal Tap fans around the world, we will never get to 11.
If you skip to the Last Word, you will see that John Dvorak thinks this is nothing short of the end of personal computing as we know it. I'm more sanguine. Convenience comes with a loss of control, but it democratizes the tools we use today. Mint.com offers some pro-level financial reporting and budgeting tools for the price of an email login. I'm never going to build my own spam filter―or take control of my email―but I happily pay $7 per month for SaneBox to turn the noise level down on my inbox. I don't even mind Adobe charging monthly for Creative Cloud―if its products stop being competitive, you can cancel at any time. There's a time to build, and then there's a time to just buy it and move on.
Of course, there's room for both makers and consumers in this world and in this issue. As always, it's about walking the line between the two. Let us know how we're doing by sending an email to letters@pcmag.com.
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