They are killing the PC

First thing first. Yes, PC sales are dismal. They will not return. It is not only because we love our tablets and smartphones. It is also because nearly all vendors are pushing us away from the PC model to sealed devices, based on the cloud as fast as they can.

KayPro II in 1982 was my first PC "laptop". Statistical in every way by our standards, yet was "my" computer, not a seller or a carrier locked device.

When I first started working with computers in the 1970s and early 1980s, we were in a revolution. I was one of the people with a foot in both camps. I cut the teeth programming on mainframes and had polished my administrative skills in Unix minis, but I also loved those first PCs of CP/M. He knew that while "iron" is always important, the freedom that came first with CP/M - and two-powered PC was going to change the world.

In fact, I can even arrange an appointment when it changed the world: on August 12, 1981. That was the day that IBM introduced the IBM PC. With this, power shifted it to individual users.

Fast forward to 2013, and what to see? We see computers everywhere. They are in our pockets as smartphones, are in our handbags and wallets as tablets and, Yes, some remain on our desktops as PCs.

However, it has changed the balance of power. Increasingly, so the speed of processors and all gigabytes of storage than even the slower and smaller, is already not individuals, or which is charge. It is that vendors and carriers who decide what can and can not do with them, if we own our content, in fact if we can do something with "our" devices out of their eyes of Argus many eyes.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZDNet Writer and fan of Windows since long ago, has resigned to Windows because Microsoft is making increasingly hostile users to 8.x Windows experience with its "change for change". I agree. I saw from the very beginning the lack of Windows 8 and Microsoft has not changed its course.

Do you know what? I doubt that Microsoft is concerned that the rate of adoption of Windows 8 is back even depressing view first year.

Why? Because Microsoft seeks to earn your future dollars not from the desktop and its partners hardware burned, but their own lines of appliance, Surface Pro 2 and 2 of surface and its applications as Office 365 cloud.

You think about it. If Microsoft wanted to keep the users of Windows-based computers, would be offered Lync, Skype, OneNote and SkyDrive available in Android and iOS? A version of Office Mobile Office 365-tied now available on iPhones, while the Web versions of the core office applications are also available on iPad and Android tablets. If Microsoft can rent you their services do not believe that they care what you're running the.

Jason Perlow, like me and Adrian is a ZDNet Writer and a guy who grew up working and playing on PC recently wrote. Jason wrote: "where refer to endpoint devices, if you use Windows or Mac or something more complete, as a mobile as Android or iOS operating system, are simply the end users". In short, "is all about the applications, stupid. And the delivery mechanism for applications and data services they need resides in the cloud."

Amazon knows this. The company that the cloud of marketing is advertising to a business reality. Now, Amazon is trying to advance what I believe I could to be the last of the truly popular operating systems of PC, Windows 7, cloud.

I believe that Amazon will end up having a huge success with this from secure Microsoft that don't want to use Windows 7, but users love. However, there is a big difference. Amazon doesn't give you a real Windows PC; they give you an experience similar to PC with Windows Server 2008R2 using your desktop experience running up its cloud of Amazon Web Services (AWS).

It may seem like a desktop computer, it can act as a desktop, but is really Desktop as a Service (DaaS).

Google also gets this. The Chromebook is nominally a Linux-based PC, but depends on the cloud of Google software-as-a-service (SaaS).

And take a look close to the new version of Google is another operating system: Android KitKat. You will find that experience Google Launcher brings Google's predictive search functionality now to the home screen. As Ryan Whitwam of ExtremeTech, "Google services are now front and Center and it pushes all OEM customizations in the background. "This pitcher is targeting a lot of Android phones, like it or not to OEMs."

We can talk all we want Android smartphone, tablet or Chromebook is the best, but the essence is the search for Google and SaaS to join them into a single whole, transparent cloud-based.

It's the same with Apple. Their devices, as opposed to the PC, have always been closed boxes, but have recently become further sealing. Anyone surprised when iFixit gave the latest MacBook your score lowest possible repairs? Have you ever noticed that even Apple has not issued Mavericks security patches to mountain lion?

Here is what I see happening: Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft want to buy appliances, not PC. A device is a closed box. The operating system that you get can only be operated. The applications will only run approved for this purpose. Apple and Microsoft are particularly strict about this.

A corollary of this is that you should buy a new device every few years because the company will only support so much. For example, simply not can upgrade to the latest applications or operating system Android or other Apple tablets and smartphones. With a PC, you could upgrade, baby's and run new programs, and operating system for up to a decade. Not even an option with appliances.

At the same time, the buckets software is dead. It is not only physical buckets I'm talking about, is any downloadable software. Sellers would prefer that you have only a piece to launch a Web-based application or simply use a Web-based SaaS.

In fact, everyone in the business of technology moves to SaaS as fast as they can. Soon, if these companies have their way, all your applications and data is in the cloud.

The PC revolution will have been turned too. Once again, they and we will not, control our computers. Privacy? What privacy? It will have appeal especially to our Masters corporate.

Of course, some of us will be still be to make homebrew PC, buy PC white box, run our own servers and Linux distributions using desktop for our operating systems. But, it will give us a small minority of fans. In the 1970s, we were at the forefront of the PC revolution. In the mid of-10s, will be the last remaining DIY PC users.

It was fun while it lasted, but the comfort of the devices and the cloud it is clearly more important for people that freedom of choice and privacy that came with the PC. I, on the one hand, will regret losing it. Yes, I like the benefits of this new computing paradigm as much as anyone, but I know that what we are losing. And, for example, also still use my own independent PC, servers, operating systems, and applications to the bitter end.

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