Last week’s news wasn’t generous to PCs. In fact, half the Internet was ready to eulogize our beloved black boxes after market research showed that computer shipments fell by double-digit percentages in the first quarter. Stick a fork in ’em, the common wisdom declared. PCs are done.

But nothing could be further from the truth. PCs aren’t dead—they’re microwaves. But not for much longer.

Hear me out.

From marvelous to meh

Right up until the early ’90s, computers were a luxury, an oddity even. If your childhood chum had a 386, you were at his house every day, churning out ASCII art on a dot-matrix printer and playing asynchronous PBEM games or MUDs. Good times! Today, however, everyone in every neighborhood has a PC, just as everyone in every neighborhood has a stove, a refrigerator, and a microwave.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here