i don't mind the tablet form factor (e.g., the iPad). What i —and power-users in general —simply cannot abide is how helpless the user is rendered technologically, in terms of observing low level stuff (e.g., can't use a CLI terminal to study the entire filesystem, can't monitor processes or network connections, etc).
edit/ Apple's effort to 'stupefy' the user is perfectly illustrated by the lame network activity indicator in iOS: the spinning gear. Why not a red arrow (triangle) for send and a green arrow for receive? So simple, yet . . .
As such, tablets may be both fun and useful as secondary devices, but definitely won't ever serve the geek demographic as one's sole machine. Therefore i don't believe that "real" computers (e.g., the MacBook Air) will be disappearing anytime soon.
It might also be argued that serious content creation (graphic, video, whatever) and the touch-screen GUI aren't yet nearly a productive combination, as the more familiar (and malleable) mouse/trackpad + keyboard method. Even basic text input (such as composing this reply and maneuvering/scrolling around the edit box) is still somewhat "fiddly" on touch-screen... though (admittedly) partly due to how webpages are designed (layout, etc).
Last edited by Hal Itosis; 03/07/12 05:38 PM.
