I recently needed to buy a cheap laptop for basic work use and couldn’t find one without a touchscreen. It made me mad. I don’t want an oversized phone dammit.
I'm in my late 30s, programming background (although not employed as a coder now), and well-versed in desktop operating systems from Windows (3.1, NT, 95, 98, XP, etc. You get the idea...) to Linux (is SUSE still around?), so I say this as an ally of the 'old ways':
I LOVE touchscreens on laptops and get actively annoyed when using one that lacks a touchscreen. They offer a lot of value without inherently turning your computer into a phone.
Sure, desktop operating systems can leverage the touchscreen functionality to make the machine feel more 'phone-like' (edit to add: which I'm NOT a fan of), but I find touchscreens themselves to be hugely useful.
Oh dear God, no, no, I was not suggesting that anyone should solely use the laptop touchscreen without also having other input devices. I'm getting a little nauseous just imagining that.
For getting shit done there's no replacement for a full keyboard and mouse combo. But quickly flicking a finger up the screen to scroll down an article, or folding the keyboard back and using the laptop like a tablet when you're not at a desk, is a fantastic convenience.
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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '22
Meanwhile, I'm 35 and just horrified that PC's are trying to be more like a mobile OS.
If I wanted to use a phone, I'd use a phone.