While I get the consensus opinion of the other people who have replied to your comment, I think you and I feel another missed opportunity here. A notable audience for Microsoft is the PC enthusiast—people who use multiple 4K monitors connected to powerful workstations.
One of the disasters of Windows 8 was viewing full-screen Metro applications on a 39" 4K monitor. It would have been funny—heck, it was funny—but it was also tragic. It was a touchstone of how utterly out of touch Windows 8 was with desktop computing.
When Microsoft shows silhouettes of all of the Windows 10 platforms, one should be a 3-monitor monster desktop workstation, the kind of PC that some of us own and love. In not showing something truly high-end, they make us feel like high-productivity computing is no longer a focus of Microsoft.
Hmm it seems difficult to find statistics that separate desktop boxes from laptops (I see separation of desktop and laptop va ultraportable) but I think the trend is less desktops and more laptops. So I'm not entirely surprised.
Honestly I constantly built my own towers for years but these past 3 or 4 years I haven't even booted a desktop tower; laptops are just so good nowadays and I can pick it up and go or dock it with multiple monitors it almost seems silly to do a tower anymore. Obviously there are still plenty of power user use cases or high end gaming to consider but many laptops can do a lot of that well enough.
Not to detract, but are you booting on a hard disk or SSD.. the HTPC in my livingroom does a full reboot in about 12 seconds (ubuntu 15.04) and my desktop isn't much slower. Both of which are way faster than my 1+1 android phone.
I also prefer a mechanical keyboard, have my own at work as well... I hate when I'm on my rmbp, which is about as good as a laptop keyboard/touchpad interface gets...
I agree about the mechanical keyboard and large screen. But I do use a laptop. It sits on my desk docked in (usb and thunderbolt docks are awesome - 1 cable). Then, I can take it with me.
Fewer and fewer people. Given that laptops today can have 32 GB or RAM, Quadro cards and fast quad core CPUs, there's less and less work that requires a 'real' workstation. Even the CAD people where I work have mostly switched to laptops.
(Full disclosure: I use a workstation as my main computer both at home and at work. My laptop is mainly for traveling and computing in the sofa)
I guess I'm in the minority then, but even as someone between "light user" and "professional developer/designer", I still prefer the powerful desktop/relatively affordable laptop combo.
To get laptop specs approaching my desktop I'd need to spend close to double the cost and I'd still be giving up quite a bit since there just aren't equivalent laptop-grade CPUs, GPUs, and storage options that compare.
Instead, I keep a desktop that's a bit lower spec than a serious workstation but higher than most basic office/home systems (i7, 16GB RAM, SSD, a couple of HDDs that were in previous machines, GTX 980, optical drive, etc) and a more basic laptop for use in less demanding tasks when away from home.
I guess my usage is a bit of a throwback in this sense but my desktop is the center of my home computing. Until recently it was the network storage for my media library (since offloaded to a NAS but still acts as the Plex server for transcoding and streaming media throughout the house). It's my main gaming platform. I use it for editing photos and video and well as my hobbyist-level dabbling in 3D graphics and animation. And it's obviously capable of all the less-demanding stuff like web browsing and Netflix on a decent-sized monitor.
A docked laptop would have lower CPU, GPU, and storage options and even if I bought some exorbitant "desktop replacement" model, it would cost a fortune and not be very portable. Much easier to buy a more reasonable notebook to take with me and even remote into my desktop if I really need to do some heavy lifting outside the house.
I think its an image or brand thing. MS doesn't want Window to end up too attached to a stodgy office-only world of depressing desktops. Heck, I can't even think of a good looking desktop they could use. Perhaps Lenovo's All-in-Ones? Even those just look like iMac copies.
Probably because touch is a central feature to the user interface and Microsoft wants to emphasize the touchiness. Most desktop display panels don't support touch, but a lot of recent laptops and tablets do.
I sort of feel your sentiment, but the reasons given here in the comments are all valid as far as I can tell (for the majority of people, that is, not for everyone). I'm still using workstations but am too considering laptop + dock for the next purchase. Simply because it would mean I can have one device do it all instead of two. Only if your requirements for cpu/ram/expansion are really outside the 'standard' ranges these days a workstation is required because there simply is no alternative.
However one problems with latops, or anything with a small screen which is by default not at eye level when your head is in it's standard position, is that it is probably quite bad ergonomically. I really wonder what is going to happen to all those young people spending hours with their neck bent in what seems a rather unnatural position. I am not entirely sure it really is bad nor do I have the background to argue much about it, but it just seems not right. Maybe someone with a medical background or so can chime in?
I use a laptop because I can travel with it. But I plug in a real monitor because the laptop's screen is way too small. Using a laptop doesn't mean you have to use its screen.
