You mean like what happened to affordable 10" laptops a year ago? I'm just worried where I'll find a replacement once mine breaks. Or have x86 tablets with a keyboard, or other tablets with a keyboard and a compiler and a not-full-screen calculator app, become as affordable as netbooks were in 2010-2012?

Microsoft will stop issuing security patches for the Windows XP operating system in April of next year. PCs still running Windows XP and connected to the Internet will either A. get a new OS installed, or B. get replaced, or C. get 0wn3d and then replaced. I imagine most users of Windows XP beyond the deadline won't be savvy enough to put Xubuntu or newer Windows on the machine, which leaves replacement.

Thank you for recognizing this career path. In this case, as a developer progresses through own-site sales and Steam before moving to consoles, PC's advantage will continue to be "you get to play games from rising stars... first."

Or. You'll never have official game modding tools on a console. I'll grant the exception of game-maker titles with very limited engines like RPG Maker and WarioWare DIY, but if (say) Half-Life were console exclusive, there would never have been Counter-Strike.

The No-Fly list does not allow the person on chartered private flights, and it even denies a person from flying overseas into Canada or Mexico. There are even reports that DHS will go further and attempt to block a person from taking a ship into the US as well, US citizen or not.

The US DID intern Arab-Americans in the week after 9/11, in mass roundups and arrests, and almost all of them were later released without charge nor apology. Then the government began a series of interrogations, fingerprinting, and in many cases deportation proceedings in 2002 for thousands of Arab and Muslim green card holders and immigrant families.

The problem here is that apart from old Acorn Archimedes computers running RISC OS, ARM tends to strongly correlate with cryptographic lockdown that prevents someone from using a device to, say, do his homework for programming class. The transition from 6502 to x86 didn't come with the same loss of ability to write your own programs.

How do they react when you tell them they can keep Windows 8 but still have it feel like 7 by installing one piece of freeware? That's what I got when I installed Classic Shell on my Windows 8 PC at work.

Are you referring to previous generation consoles (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) or current generation consoles (PlayStation 4 and Xbox One)?

In that case, please allow me to move the goalposts just once: What Linux distribution capable of putting multiple windows on one screen has become popular? When I open a calculator or notepad app on an Android tablet, and it completely covers up the other app that I was using rather than staying in a phone-sized window, the screen feels wasted to me.

So for people who often need a "car" but occasionally need a "truck", what does Apple recommend? And how should one afford the upgrade from an iPad to a MacBook when one's circumstances change to need a truck more often, such as a family member enrolling in a programming class?

The problem comes when this narrowed mission brings with it a substantial price premium over a locked-down tablet that isn't useful for, say, computer science homework.

Such as indie games that aren't ported to consoles yet because the developer is still seeking a publisher for a console port.

I don't see what's wrong with learning these things eight hours from now once I'm back at an Internet connection. I wait eight hours anyway when I take a nap for the night. And yes, my Dell Inspiron mini 1012 laptop fits in my satchel, and the reason I complained when manufacturers killed the affordable 10" laptop was that bigger laptops wouldn't fit.

MacBook Air computers do not ship with a Windows OS. Nor do System76 laptops.

It's not just what one does; it's also what one plans to start doing over the next few years. If all you have is a locked-down tablet, then you or your child won't be able to complete homework assignments once you or your child enrolls in a programming class.

It appears we've already run headfirst into Layne's Law, arguing over definitions. I'd recommend abandoning "consumption" and "content". But by your definition of "consumption", how many people engage in "creation" at home? And if too few people engage in "creation" to warrant continued production of affordable home PCs, how many people will just skip trying "creation" because of the cost?