In my neck of the woods: phone only for the vast majority of people.
Even people who use a computer professionally at work don’t use one at home.
The only people with home computers I know of are millennials who grew up with them. Younger and older simply don’t have computers at all in their lives. Nobody can type anymore.
Monitor and keyboards won’t disappear, but it will become more niche with time. It won’t be a universal experience like it used to be.
So you’re saying that people do their taxes on their phones? Everyone I know uses both a computer and a smartphone for different reasons.
Not every part of the world has a tax office work ritual. In my neck of the woods they don’t.
And if we are talking about the paperwork heavy countries, there are tax offices in abundance where people come in and have a third party type their info into a computer… could they have done it on their own? yes.
We are identifying trends in this discussion.
And I’m telling you that I literally do not know anyone who has a smartphone but not a laptop or desktop. That’s probably because phones can only ever achieve so much. Try editing spreadsheets; even Google Sheets is severely limited on mobile, much more so Collabora Office.
That’s good. We can have different experiences and know different people.
I use my computer for pretty much everything but I have a projector so that shit is up on my wall.
I use computers at work. Outside of work I use my phone, my Steamdeck, and my PS5 for my needs/entertainment. After fixing and working on computers all day, I don’t wanna even see another computer after I leave the office. So I just don’t own one. I borrow my grandma’s laptop if I absolutely need to use a computer outside of work lol.
I think I use my phone mostly, by time spent, not counting work. Important things I usually do on my desktop. If I had my druthers I’d have more time to spend on the desktop instead of the phone, but I’ve got two young kids so I can only do so much
Ubuntu Debian Linux desktop is the best. Friends don’t let friends use windows.
I use a desktop or laptop computer almost daily in my personal life. Mobile devices are terrible for actual productivity. And security. And usability.
And security
Disagree.
Sure, privacy wise, you can say that they are terrible (freedom wise, they are not great either). But Security? Phones are probably the most secure devices (as long as you keep them updated). Verified Boot, Sanboxing for every app, Strict Permission Control, Default Encryptions, Limiting Password attempts per X amount of time, to make brute force difficult, and can even attempt to wipe itself if too many incorrect password entry. Even if an app is malicious, all you need to do is uninstall it and most of the time they do not persist.
Most desktop installations require admin or sudo permissions, one malicious program/package and you gotta wipe clean and reinstall.
Cameras and microphones that have no physical disconnect. Virtual keyboards. NSA subsidies for cheap phones sold in poor areas. Zero visibility or access to OS components without special steps.
Windows let users install and run any junk binary to their appdata folder by default. That’s why cryptolocker got real popular around 2010. Granted this isn’t supporting my point, but admin is not required in a lot of instances.
I guess I’m saying I disagree with your disagreement. Non-mobile is far more secure. My desktop and laptops do all of the stuff you listed as mobile capabilities.
Again, the government surveillance aspect is more of a privacy issue. Yea, I hate how intrusive the government is, but, from a purely security perspective, if your threat model isn’t targeted surveillance by the government (which for most people, that’s not their threat model), if you think about how much technical knowlege the average person has, a smart phone does a better job protecting them from the every day security threats than a computer.
NSA subsidies for cheap phones sold in poor areas.
Cheap smartphones are subsidized by the “recommended apps” screen that phone manufacturers add, that app developers/publishers paid for so that their app is listed during the phone’s set up process, that’s why they are so cheap.
Drawing a distinction between privacy and security is kind of nonsense in this context. While they are technically different, they’re only different in the way that an apple and a fruit are different. Privacy is an aspect of security.
If your privacy was violated in any other context you would not feel secure.
This. There is no practical reason to separate privacy and security in this way.
If bad actors can access your data without your consent, it doesn’t matter if you call it a breach of privacy or security. It’s still a breach. At best, playing semantics like this allows a corp to claim a system filled with backdoors is “secure”. Utter marketing nonsense.
Back during early COVID there were a bunch of people caught out not having anywhere to work from in their home.
That to me suggested a lot about where phone and tablet usage have gone, and where desktop and laptop usage has now gone. It seems a lot people see laptops and computers as specialist devices.
There are at least four computers and three laptops in my house, but not chance my friends have that.
I have an inexpensive desktop plugged into my tv, for watching shows and movies. My laptop is my main computer, plugged in to a monitor and surround speakers. My phone is for laying on the couch scrolling brainrot.
People are responding personally in this thread, which does not answer the actual question being asked. Lemmizens are very far from most people.
I’d be shocked if most people had PCs any more - at best, an old laptop to lug out for “paperwork.”
I have a laptop that I use for things that I find too cumbersome for a phone such as writing, things that require multiple tabs, anything official/formal. Oh and also for playing pokemon ROM hacks.
Other than that I find a phone satisfies my day to day needs.
Phones are great when mobility is a high priority. Tablet are great for on the go entertainment. Laptops and desktops are great for everything else.
For example, searching information online is so much nicer if you can ctrl click and you have 15 tabs open in no time. Then you can jump between the tabs quickly to compare sources efficiently.
Add me to the computer only at work club.
Phone, computer, tablet.
I use my phone a lot when I just don’t feel like starting up my computer
Get a Samsung and have both in one haha. Kinda.
Lol, was waiting for this comment. DeX gang rise up.
(It is OKish)
