back to article Dell CTO shares his hottest trends for 2021: Four interesting technologies, one of which is still borderline sci-fi for now

Dell's global chief technology officer, John Roese, shared his thoughts on where technology will go in 2021 at a roundtable event this week. Short version? Anywhere it likes – so long as it's on Dell kit. After noting that "the death of the PC was highly overrated or exaggerated" – thanks in large part to the events of 2020, …

  1. Jason Hindle

    5G is fine with the plebs

    And no more expensive than 4G on SIM only.

    1. Paul Smith

      Re: 5G is fine with the plebs

      5G is no more functional than 4G for consumers. There is only one thing you can do with 5G as a consumer that you can't do with 4G, and that is brag that you have 5G. Telecoms operators can do more with 5G kit for the same money so that is why they are interested. Phone makers have another box they can tick on the feature list encouraging upgrades which is why they are interested. You, as a consumer, just don't have an opportunity to use URLL.

      1. Jason Hindle

        Re: 5G is fine with the plebs

        Sure, I have 5G and I live in the kind of coverage that would make a conspiracy theorist’s eyes swivel independently of one and other. In addition to the attention grabbing download speeds, it gives a consistency of service that 4G does not. Also, since I can end up shunting lot of data about when out and about with a camera, the improved upload speeds are nice. I tend to like improvements on general principle.

        I recall similar arguments when 4G arrived. I find these arguments against progress about as compelling as arguing against gravity.

        1. Roland6 Silver badge

          Re: 5G is fine with the plebs

          >I recall similar arguments when 4G arrived.

          >I have 5G and I live in the kind of coverage that would make a conspiracy theorist’s eyes swivel independently of one and other. In addition to the attention grabbing download speeds, it gives a consistency of service that 4G does not.

          I seem to remember the early adopters of 4G who enjoyed similar coverage levels ie. they lived in a area 'blessed' by an operator, saying similar things...

          >I find these arguments against progress about as compelling as arguing against gravity.

          Not arguing against 'progress' (whatever that is), just keeping the eyes open and applying learning from history as we've been here before: 4G, 3G, GPRS...

          If we look at 4G, remember it was supposed to support speeds of up to 1Gbps, however, EE "the fastest 4G network", caps download speeds at 60Mbps, which is still less than half the download speed my 2014 4G LTE mid-range phone supported.

          I suggest with 5G we can expect similar and in fact this is exactly what EE are saying, implying that they will be capping 'normal' 5G download speeds at 100Mbps.

          1. Jason Hindle

            Re: 5G is fine with the plebs

            “ I suggest with 5G we can expect similar and in fact this is exactly what EE are saying, implying that they will be capping 'normal' 5G download speeds at 100Mbps.”

            Ookla’s best download result was 397Mbps for me. Best upload speed I’ve had is just short of 40. That doesn’t mean you’re not bang on the money thought. Popular speed test services may well be whitelisted.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: 5G is fine with the plebs

            Operators capping speed and bandwidth is one the dumbest things mankind has ever done.

            It doesn't make any sense. On any level.

            Quality of service should be measured in throughout as well as availability. Reducing or increasing one to gain the other is absurd.

            1. Martin an gof Silver badge

              Re: 5G is fine with the plebs

              But there's a difference between throughput per user and total throughput for a cell. 5G, like all radio technologies, is essentially a shared medium, so for a fixed total bandwidth more users inevitably equals less bandwidth per user.

              Now, 5G might be better at adapting and sharing that bandwidth out on an as-needs basis, but as we found with previous technologies, real life may not quite match up to the marketing hype and for the vast majority of users, 1Gbps at your phone is not only unnecessary but probably wasteful - drop to lower speeds and improve battery life. Who cares if the front page of El Reg loads in one second or a tenth of a second anyway?

              M.

            2. thondwe

              Re: 5G is fine with the plebs

              Capping exists for two reasons - one - financial - ability to charge for higher caps and practical - managing the amount of traffic on the back haul.

      2. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

        Re: 5G is fine with the plebs

        5G seems to have fixed Band 71, so I benefit there. It used to suffer from insane latency and asymmetrical signal strength on LTE. Now it's slow but usable among forests of trees or stucco houses.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'd like Dell's technology to go

    to where a fair amount of tax is paid. Thus being treated like the majority of us.

    Dell is highly innovative in manufacturing and at making boxes that people like. It's not innovative in the technology it sells. I take it that the CTO role is part-time?

  3. JDPower Bronze badge

    Well he clearly never got to where he is by making exciting predictions.

    1. The Oncoming Scorn Silver badge
      Coat

      CJ

      I didn't get where I am today by making exciting predictions.

      FTFY

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Pint

      "Exciting Predictions"

      A cuppa decaf for the CTO (a pint might be too exciting).

      Too many people have gotten to where they are via exciting predictions. But I know where I'd like them to get to.

      Reality, what a concept.

    3. Roland6 Silver badge

      I made a (relatively) successful career by delivering innovative IT solutions that worked whilst using well established technology. I left it to less practically and commercially attuned colleagues to play around with the bleeding edge stuff and fail to deliver...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Is this the same Dell...

    ...who made their money making the most boring hardware ever?

    1. Pirate Dave Silver badge
      Pirate

      Re: Is this the same Dell...

      I've never seen a boring Dell power supply. Smoking, sparking, melting, glowing, burning? Yes. Boring? Never...

  5. Craig100

    Put the "Personal" back

    I'd just like them to put the "Personal" back in to PC's. As a Linux user on latest Dell kit (XPS15 i9 + TB16 Dock), I find that what they actually produce are "Windows Appliances". Oh yes, with some wrangling you can get Linux Mint running but by Christ don't ever think you can upgrade the dock without Windows. Yet their reps are very happy to flog you the stuff in the full knowledge of what you're going to run on it. Just wish they'd stop tuning the hardware design to a particular OS.

    They have a wonderful next business day onsite engineering service. I've had them out 4 times in 2 years. Friends and colleagues, many times more. I'd rather buy kit that didn't need it tbh. And don't get me started about swollen batteries.

    1. Wilhelm Schickhardt

      Re: Put the "Personal" back

      Why dont you shop with specialized Linux PC vendors in the first place ? Dell is probably subsidized by MSFT when they sell their machines. Dell cares about the 90% of the market, which is office PCs for businesspeople.

      Here is a list of specalized Linux vendors:

      https://www.qwant.com/?q=linux%20pc%20vendors&t=web

      1. yoganmahew

        Re: Put the "Personal" back

        The first link returned is https://itsfoss.com/get-linux-laptops/; the first item on it is a Dell XPS... the other links prominently feature Dell, yes, I looked. I'm not sure if you're trying to disagree with @Craig100 or agree with him...

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Put the "Personal" back

          Forget all that overpriced shit. Get a KDE Slimbook and leave everyone else in the dust.

  6. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Quantum and Edge

    So it seems that someone has finally levelled the playing field on quantum computing. It's a lab rat for the moment, and when we do get that, you won't run a browser on it. That clearly indicates that we are not going to shift from PC to QC at all. QC will be in addition to the PC. That sounds like the ideal slot for a coprocessor to me. One fine day, Intel will reveal the i21000Q, a 64-core CPU with an integrated 200-qbit coprocessor, all engraved at 0.2 nanometers.

    Then we will finally be able to run Crysis.

    Edge, then. Edge computing, of course, not that thing you use to download Chrome. So Edge computing is going to go horizontal ? I'm guessing blackhats everywhere are already salivating at the prospect. A powerful CPU and lotsa RAM at their disposal for botnets and whatnot ? They're going to be overjoyed at the news.

    Might want to think about security on those things before you start relying on them.

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