The PC is going away! Tablets rule!

So one of the original designers of the IBM PC said that the PC is going away.  Yeah right.

The PC is not going away.  The important thing about a personal computer is the personal, not the computer.  Whether it is the size of a wristwatch or a fridge, the most important thing about a PC is this:

Some control freak in the machine room cannot tell you what you can do with the computer and when you can do it.

That was the fundamental change that came with the Altair 8080 and the first IBM PC.  Not the form factor.  The PC gave everyone local processing and storage capacity that wasn't charged by the CPU second or the kilobyte.  Capacity that didn't need forms in triplicate to access.

A tablet is merely a desktop PC with the keyboard removed and distributed in a more mobile form factor.  It can run some types of applications very well, but others very poorly.  Reading other people's web pages is nice on a tablet.  Try creating a new web page for yourself and you'll want that keyboard back.

The biggest threat to the PC is not tablets or smartphones (which are just PC's).  It is cloud computing.  Because that puts the control freaks in charge of your data again, and reduces the device in your hand to little more than a dumb terminal.  Resist that to your dying breath.

The control freaks never went away - they have MBA's these days and think that computing is only useful if they can charge you by the CPU hour or the gigabyte, or charge someone else to insert ads into your data whenever you access it.  They are reshaping the entire computing world to serve their business models rather than your personal needs.

When someone talks about the death of the PC, they are trying to send you back to the world of mainframes, dumb terminals, and central control by crippling the devices you use.  Ignore them.