[mechanical_fish]

This guy needs a better metaphor. Imagine a world where Legos didn't exist? But Legos do exist. It has probably never been easier to be a Lego hobbyist.

What this guy should do is come up with an actual example of a hobby that has died out because the parts are no longer available. Used Model-T Fords. Urban horse infrastructure. Manual typewriters. Dial telephones.

What one realizes is that actual extinct things are only extinct because the demand is gone. They are still making vacuum tubes somewhere, for god's sake - audiophiles can have passionate debates about how much better the tubes were back in 1967, but apart from such quibbling 2011 is still a pretty good time to build a tube amplifier. There are lots of plans on the Internet!

So I wouldn't count the PC out yet. Aren't they just about to release a tiny PC for $25? It has never been cheaper or easier to be a PC electronics hobbyist.

[gergles]

The point is that the "post-PC era" will make it so that being someone who thinks that you can modify or change the computing experience is relegated to "oddball hobby" status, like it would be if someone today wanted to start playing with vacuum tubes.

The current PC ecosystem lets you explore and create and play and learn on the same tools that you use to consume. You can build a lego kit with the instructions, or you can use the pieces and make something that's uniquely you. You can run the apps on Windows that you download, or you can write your own without asking for anybody's permission.

In the magical "post-PC" world, where everyone is inexplicably using an iPad, you can run what Apple says, period, and if you want to develop something they don't approve of, welp, too bad.

This loss of flexibility, exploration, and sense of wonder is bad for future computing developments and bad for future computer users.

[rdouble]

The point is that the "post-PC era" will make it so that being someone who thinks that you can modify or change the computing experience is relegated to "oddball hobby" status

It was like that during the pre post-PC era, anyway.

[gbog]

Don't agree. I know of many non geeky pc user who learnt to sysadmin their machine and a lan in order to play CS.

[suivix]

You can always ssh to a server and do development work there. That's what I do at my job anyways. It's advantageous because compiling programs on the server doesn't affect the computer you are using.

[fpgeek]

Because children and other people who don't yet know they are interested in programming have many convenient development servers they can ssh to.

[aswanson]

Could not agree more. I can only imagine how much closer my thirteen year old self would have come to building my iron man armor had I'd been armed with a broadband connection and a digikey.com account back in the 80s.