King Desktop

Why the Desktop is Supreme Discipline for both Hardware and Software

Why is such an article necessary?

Opinions – Mobile Mania, Pressure for Change, Superficiality

• General tendency to think smartphones or tablets are suitable to work with: people try to not only surf the web for small pieces of information, but also checking mails, in education there is the idea of making lessons with laptops, tablets and even smartphones, though they are expensive and lacking in any respect;
• Even in the professional domain we see seminars coming up like: The era of Desktop Computing came to an end: Mobile Work with Smartphone and Tablet (from Chamber of Industry and Commerce [IHK] Academy, Coblenz, Germany: No. 30-MoAr-S-T);
• Developers of GTK consider Desktops laptop-like – particularly when it comes to CPU power and screen size (see LWN Article);
• Intel Icelake (10th Gen. Core / Gen. 11 GPU) comes for ultra-mobile laptops etc. first {Oct. 2019} ... then for servers in 2021 ... desktop CPUs are not even announced yet {rumours say beginning of 2021 - or even with Tiger Lake ...}; this may have a cause in manufacturing problems of the new 10 nm technology just good enough for thin‑and‑light laptops (Y‑series chips are rated for TDP 9 W or 12 W, U-series chips for 15 W or 25 W; cf. Weblink); after rumours gone wild saying Intel will never show any desktop CPU with 10 nm, there was an official statement, but the situation stays as is (see e.g. Intel adds 10nm Ice Lake desktop and server CPUs to Linux kernel, PCGamesN, 23.10.2019);
• Even concerning safety at work we see more and more blurred language / imprecise terms not making clear what is required for mainly working with IT Technology (in Germany BildscharbV [Bildschirmarbeitsplatzverordnung, 1996‑2016] and ArbStättV [Arbeitsstättenverordnung, therein Section 6: Measures to design monitor‑based workplaces]).

Ruining the Discussion by Contaminating it with the Facts^😎. 

Facts – Need for Ergonomics, Resolution, Quality and Size of the Screen

Snapshot of Categories

Ergonomics 

Quality  (Screen)

(no elegant but bothersome black sleek finish and no glossy displays, like urgently suggested by occupational safety: [glare screens would be] ergonomically questionable and not suitable for  work in an environment with strong light sources – i.e. using anti-reflex foils on glare displays: typically found together with toy devices like Smartphones and Tablets, concerning Laptops it finally gets increasingly rare {similar for TVs with HDR [🆧]}; it is best to take care for non-glare / matt / anti-reflex displays right from the start – and not be taken in by euphemistic terms of advertisements {like e.g. CrystalBrite, Glossy, Polish, TrueLife, Crystal View, SuperFine, BrilliantView, UltraBright, BrightView, VibrantView, MagicBright, Xbrite, X-black, Clear Bright, TruBrite, Clear SuperView} and not to be an easy pray for the ideology of smartphone addicts that reflexes are invisible on their beloved devices)

Screen:   Resolution and Size

Data of DIN A Page Sheet Formats (ISO 216)
Format	Size❶	Area	Diagonal	Number of pels❷
DIN A10	3.7 cm × 2.6 cm	0.000962 m2 = 1/1024 m2	0.0452 m = 1.8"	0.134199 Mpel
DIN A9	5.2 cm × 3.7 cm	0.00192 m2 = 1/512 m2	0.0638 m = 2.5"	0.267840 Mpel
DIN A8	7.4 cm × 5.2 cm	0.00385 m2 = 1/256 m2	0.0904 m = 3.6"	0.537076 Mpel
DIN A7	10.5 cm × 7.4 cm	0.00777 m2 = 1/128 m2	0.1285 m = 5.1"	1.083917 Mpel
DIN A6	14.8 cm × 10.5 cm	0.0155 m2 = 1/64 m2	0.1815 m = 7.1"	2.167834 Mpel
DIN A5	21.0 cm × 14.8 cm	0.031 m2 = 1/32 m2	0.257 m = 10.1"	4.335660 Mpel
DIN A4	29.7 cm × 21.0 cm	0.0625 m2 = 1/16 m2	0.364 m = 14.3"	8.718767 Mpel
DIN A3	42.0 cm × 29.7 cm	0.125 m2 = 1/8 m2	0.5144 m = 20"	17.437535 Mpel
DIN A2	59.4 cm × 42.0 cm	0.25 m2 = 1/4 m2	0.727 m = 29"	34.875070 Mpel
DIN A1	84.1 cm × 59.4 cm	0.5 m2 = 1/2 m2	1.03 m = 41"	69.750139 Mpel
DIN A0	118.9 cm × 84.1 cm	1 m2	1.46 m = 57"	139.500279 Mpel
DIN A0++	125.0 cm × 91.4 cm	1.1425 m2	1.5485 m = 61"	159.379069 Mpel
DIN 2A0	168.2 cm × 118.9 cm	2 m2	2.0598 m = 81"	278.986328 Mpel
DIN 4A0	237.8 cm × 168.2 cm	4 m2	2.9127 m = 115"	557.972658 Mpel
Note:   ❶) for landscape [🖵 or 🖼️], i.e. wider than high as seen by standard screens (portrait [📱 or 🖼] would be rotated by 90°, i.e. higher than wide as typical for Smartphone use);   ❷) at 300 ppi  (pels per inch – being unit of printing point density;   pel: printer element;   " = inch = 2.54 cm).

[Amateur 🔭Astronomers may have examples of binary stars at the nighty sky where the mainly atmospheric seeing can be judged if one can separate the components or not. It's not magic, it's just pure sciences. 🤓 ]

Valuation of Categories

• • Workstation:
    an expensive professional Desktop with huge screen larger than 22", certified for real standards like Open GL or Vulkan and for professional programs like special CAD/CAE programs, maybe even special input devices like 3D Space Mouse etc.; PC (i.e. Intel/AMD CPU) with Linux, IBM Power AIX, ....
• Desktop  [🖥️]:
  large screens of sizes bigger than 17", full keyboard, full-size mouse, no touchscreen (too imprecise input and interference with screen quality), running on mains power; typically PCs (i.e. Intel/AMD CPUs) with Linux, Windows, or macOS.
  [As a personal note: I am working predominantly on PC desktops since 1987, with a 13.666 year gap using perdominantly PC laptops ...]
• Laptop / Notebook [💻]:
  typically internal 11.0"-17.3" {uncommonly 20"} display, external power supply and/or lithium-ion battery (also Li-ion battery or rarely LIB), usable for professional work via dockingstation for connected desktop screen and peripherals (full keyboard, mouse, printer, ...).
  [As a personal note: I worked from 04/1998 to 12/2011 predominantly on PC Laptops mainly due to them being more silent, but this has changed thus I returned to Desktop systems as done since 1987 ...]
  • Sub-Notebook / Netbook / Convertible / ...:
    a mix of smaller Laptop trying to be more mobile while keeping functionality or bigger tablet being of more use while trying to stay portable: screen size about 9"-13" (can vary); currently I can see no reason for them, but if they can be attatched to a real dockingstation and be more of use than tablets are they may find traction to get a reasonable market share
• • Tablet / Huge Cell Phone:
    Small Touchscreen: 7.0"-12.9", just a big smartphone suitable for reading few pages and for getting an overview concerning images or tables; maybe for viewing films when no good screen is available; thus it is more suitable for reasonable things, but share all the negative effects with Smartphones.
• Smartphone / Cell Phone [📱]:
  Tiny Touchscreen: 3.2"-6.5", only lithium-ion battery, quite performant, but currently despite some effort no things like docking stations similar to laptops; most Smartphones use ARM CPUs with Google Android; the extremely small screens (in Germany called Mäusekino, i.e. mouse cinema) is not suitable for more than short messages or calendar functions and thus not for high quality videos, reasonable web pages, let alone real work; additionally, as Smartphones are typically used too frequently and/or for too long, they are harmful and even spoil education due to their many effects of distracting, disturbing concentration and even suppress higher brain functions (like transfer efforts {solving another example with expertise gained in a slightly different situation} or abstraction {constructing a general scheme from a few known examples applicable to many other examples}). Those negative effects are strong even above 30 years of age, similar to the negative effects from alcohol, but lowering mental functions faster as mid term effect.
  [As a personal note: I never used a Smartphone and never used a Tablet – just a dump phone without Internet / WLAN connection – the latest from 11/2010 (Samsung S5230 Star with inferior touchscreen but with antireflex foil).]
• Server / Cluster / Cloud [🗄️]:
  No direct display connected, no direct input devices and other peripherals connected, just connectivity with LAN⁺ and SAN⁺, PC, special server or mainframe hardware frequently built in racks; their data will be displayed on the screens of the other categories.

^😎 )
The Headline is derived from the citation:
      There is no surer way to ruin a good discussion
         than to contaminate it with the facts.
             — Cecil Adams

Conclusion 

Tamagotchi

Don Bosco

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