I’m in a rare category of computer user-a category that gets smaller with each day. I actually enjoy building my own systems, mixing and matching parts to obtain the results I want, and repairing my systems as needed. In fact, I started out as a hardware guy in the Navy 36 years ago. At that time, you really needed to know about the hardware in order to do anything practical with a computer. I still build and maintain my own PCs. However, the day of the home computer builder is ending. I don’t actually see myself enjoying a computer I can’t fiddle with, but I know that I eventually will end up with one. If you aren’t so comfortable with computers as I am, it is better to trust a professional with repairing computer and servers.
The computer as a non-appliance is becoming a reality. In fact, I daresay that most people would never consider opening their computer to look inside, much less do anything with it. All that they want to do is start the computer, do some work on it, and then shut it down. As far as they’re concerned, the computer is like any other device they own-a television, refrigerator, or toaster. The problem is that a computer can’t be an appliance like any other appliance you own. One of the more useful opinions on the topic comes from John Dvorak in his “The Computer Appliance Myth” post. As small as they have become, computers are still complex multiuse devices that fulfill myriad tasks for the owner.
Even so, the days of repairing computers are coming to a close. For example, the most recent version of the iMac is pretty much unrepairable, even by a guy with my skills. This actually makes computers different from appliances. When my wife’s steam vacuum fails, I go to MarBeck.com and buy the parts to repair it. Over the past 25 years, I’ve bought about $60 in parts and managed to keep the machine operating without problem. The fact that I can do the work myself means that it’s more economical for me to repair the unit, than it is to buy a new one. I’ve made repairs to most of the other appliances in our home at one time or another. Even the VCR has a belt I can replace and I recently swapped the VCR in one machine with the VCR in another machine to build one complete VCR/DVD unit.
In my mind, an appliance is a single purpose device that is easy to operate and repairable for someone with the required skills. Computers don’t fit this definition and with the loss of the ability to repair them, they won’t ever fit the definition of an appliance. No, computers are becoming something different. Perhaps we’ll have to coin a new word to define them because I’m sure we’ll have a host of other devices in the same category. Actually, when you think about it, we already have a few other devices in this category. A smartphone isn’t actually a computer, but it’s definitely not an appliance either. When it comes to things going wrong with a mobile device, repair and iphone data recovery is still possible through specialist services available.
I do have limits when it comes to appliance repair. When our water heater went out, we decided not to repair it because calculations showed that we’d pay for a new water heater with savings on propane in just three years and after that, we’d actually earn money (in reduced expenses) by having the new unit. We went online to a site similar to Waterheaterreviewssite.com to find the best water heater for our home. I’m also not inclined to repair the furnace-failure could cost us our lives. However, these devices are still repairable by someone with the proper skills. When I have a problem with these devices, I make a call and an expert arrives to turn a non-working unit into something that’s useful again.
With the release of computers, smartphones, and other devices that aren’t repairable by a skilled home user under any circumstances, we need to come up with a new term to describe them. There isn’t any way you can convince me that computers have become appliances, especially not now that they’re unrepairable. Let me know your thoughts on computers as unrepairable multiuse devices at [email protected].