The family computer
For roughly 20 years, from the 1990s to the 2010s, the family computer (always a desktop) was the household symbol of modernity in Brazil, a prerequisite for promising futures and the only gateway to the internet. It competed for space with the TV or, in larger homes, earned its own room where residents did schoolwork, casual research, played games, and spent time on primitive sites from a web dominated by written text.
It was the “family computer.”
From what I remember, this now-anachronistic device reached most homes in Brazil in two big waves. The first, in the 1990s, was driven by the sector’s opening after years of government protectionist policies through the late 1980s, and flooded by the Paraguayan gray market, where heavy, noisy beige boxes were sold at friendlier, tax-free prices.
The second wave was an internal one, a direct result of the “Computador para Todos” (“PC for all”) program — a digital-inclusion initiative launched by the federal government in 2005 that made “legalized” computers cheaper and easier to buy on credit. That period coincides with what many (let’s admit it, somewhat senior young people) remember as the golden age of the Brazilian internet: blogs, MSN Messenger, an amateur early YouTube, and, on top of it all, Orkut holding social glue.
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We’re in the “post‑PC” era, a term that accurately describes how phones — the true universal computer — ran over the desktop.
The Cetic household ICT survey (TIC Domicílios) gives a clear picture of that shift: in 2023, 99% of Brazilians accessed the internet via mobile phone, while only 41.5% did so via a computer.
(Post‑pandemic remote work probably gave desktops a temporary boost — they hit bottom in 2021 at 35.7% — but mobile penetration was already at 99% that year.)
Whenever I visit my parents, I get a glimpse of the past’s future when I pass by their family computer, which still sits there.
It’s different from when the family computer was mine too. I don’t know the current machine’s specs, but judging by its age and by the lack of interest from its users in advanced, costly applications, it’s probably a midrange model from about 15 years ago. It still has a hard disk (HDD)!
Everyone has a phone. I always bring my laptop on visits. In that context, it’s fair to ask: what is the family computer for today?
I asked the same question. Today, the family computer is a kind of deluxe typewriter. As usual, the family computer must have a printer beside it. People draft a few simple documents and print bills. Until a few years ago, a school-aged relative or a job-seeker would occasionally show up to use Word and the printer.
What else would someone with a decent phone use a computer for? Sometimes I catch myself wondering — if I didn’t write this blog, would I have any use for a desktop? Probably not.
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The family computer has been to the local repair shop a few times and on one visit came back “formatted,” an old-fashioned word meaning “wiped and reinstalled with a pirated Windows.” In that case it was Windows 10, already being abandoned by Microsoft and, in that instance, long out of security updates.
I checked a few things, got the necessary approvals, got a SSD I had lying around, and did what any sensible person would: I installed a Linux distribution.
It has Firefox for web browsing, LibreOffice Writer for drafting contracts, résumés, and schoolwork, and CUPS, which has long been resurrecting printers manufacturers left for dead.
For the distro I chose the newly released Debian 13 “Trixie” with the KDE Plasma 6.3 desktop. More than on servers, Debian’s famed stability shines on the family computer. I enabled weekly automatic updates and, with that, I expect at least five years without unpleasant surprises. (And, of course, I created a non‑privileged user for everyday use.)