Things will change greatly. The x86 based cpus and the archaic bios will eventually be replaced. As many things already have. Parallel port anyone?
So yes we should leave it at you think things will not change while others believe otherwise.
Parallel ports and arguably hardware serial ports went away. UARTs did not. Emulated USB and Bluetooth serial ports are becoming more, not less, common. And the basic principle of sending a stream of 8-bit bytes down a wire will not be going away anytime soon. All of the Valve LH units, Index controllers, Pimax headsets, probably the vast majority of VR hardware out there, has a lot of UARTs, I2C, etc. All the 3D printers and antonymous vehicles out there have even more dependency on basic serial communications. CAN bus is perhaps the future, and is also merely a variation on communication principles established decades ago. In fact, AFAIK, CAN bus is a legal requirement for new vehicles.
Ultimately, if I write an application for a game console, or Oculus Quest, and I need to ‘talk’ to a force feedback joystick, I probably cannot do this without days to months of work. Just like I cannot create my own OVRDrop application without days to months of work. Meanwhile, on my Linux workstation, I can do such things within minutes.
Integration is a problem. As is performance. Set top boxes, and the consumers that use them, have serious limitations, which PCs, and the developers that use them do not.
Seriously, think about what Linux really is and why it is used in things like Oculus Quest and game consoles. There is a reason that kernel exists, any amount of streaming from a datacenter, does not displace the UARTs and such from the computers in the datacenter.
I know what linux is why it is the most used OS in the world.
It doesn’t change the fact like the X server all things currently being patched and stretched will be replaced by new things and old methods currently in use will fade as we know it.
Not to worry raspberry pi and arduino type things will still be around to build and program. As will the tablet and pocket tablets will continue. But what we think of as a home pc will become like a luggable a nice museum piece to show how it once was.
No different that paper money and coins after how many 1000s of years will fade from use and only be a collectable.
But will be able to connect them to VR things ourselves, as developers?
Well a fellow did do so with a pimax 4k to a Raspberry pi long ago. So most likely will still be able to. His project iirc was to make a viewing device to help people with visual issues see.
For that matter unless like so many ideas pimax has changed or abandoned; remember they had plans to develop an All in One module to use the 5k and 8k models without a pc.
That is not the same as connecting our prototypes to Unity/Unreal/CryEngine or even FOSS ‘game engines’. We will not be doing that with consoles or standalone headsets most likely, as the entire point of those platforms is to only include hardware/software that already ‘just works’, cannot ‘confuse users’, does not cost an extra dime per machine, etc.
After all, if you sell 2million headsets, an extra USB-C port that costs $1 (actually usually >$2 for a decently robust port), is 10 more programmers your company could have hired that year.
If VR software/libraries/etc end up only developed for Oculus Quest, game consoles, etc, we are looking at a very painful existence for innovative developers. I sincerely hope that does not happen. SteamVR has been bad enough for a lifetime.
If the Hardware is a server farm for programs to run on like a console it will be easier as there won’t be concern over how many types of a particular component is being used by the user base.
Like I said and you said it is a pointless discussion as one needs to be able to see the direction things are moving towards vs what is currently in use.
To illustrate a simple point Onlive didn’t care what you used as long as you had a good internet service you could even just buy a steamlink like device with a game pad. Now take that with developers developing on a cloud platform specifically. A developer simply logs into the server creates program and if it works for him it works for all users whom purchase the license to use it be it a game or an office program.
Today sure what your comfortable with will remain and will be a thing for sometime yet.
However I suspect within the next 10 years you find Sony’s playstation will be a pure monthly service no console required… Wait they already have one that is pricey no Console required. I haven’t looked into it much as it is in my opinion quite expensive.
And Nvidia also has a cloud service where you can even run steam games. Now is it strong enough for VR? No not that I am aware of. But say with Canada with 1000mb inet service maybe not that far away either.
Like how companies like Walmart make it difficult for small businesses. Unfortunately tech streaming will likely do the same to smaller tech firms in some areas.
As the Borg said resistance is futile. Eventually in this case I don’t think picard, Janeway & like people will be able to prevent it only slow it down.
Same with many do not realize Lithium mining for batteries used in Electric cars is not as clean as people think when thinking lithium lawnmower as an example is ecofriendly.
In this end it will be more like devices developed under standards using OpenXR type ideas and submitting driver/lib to the online pc server vs a home computer installing a device driver.
Don’t get me wrong some of this direction will not be great for the small inventor/innovator just like big box stores and large manufacturing companies are equally bad for the mom & pop companies/ventures.
Support local and buy local sound great; but people would rather buy something for $10 vs local merchant for $20.
So now I would have to work entirely ‘in the cloud’ with lousy hardware and ‘push’ every single driver change?
Seriously. No. I like my local PC with $2k hardware just fine thank you very much, and I would very much like to expand that to >>$5k with multi-GPU.
Sure there will be some that will resist change.
Don’t confuse this with me liking what is coming and we know Linux is great for supporting legacy hardware.
I dont leave my TV on standby 
Again switch it off at the plug.
And cant wait for OpenXR.
Finally it wont matter which headset you set, they will all work with whichever platform you use.
Though as we’ve seen, Valve is still limiting us from updating the firmware on the base stations if we dont own an original Vive or Index! Very petty of them to not have sorted this out. I mean they still sold the bases so they should still support them!
makes sense.
I have been curious if the trick for using wii motes on pc could be done on steam.
For the wii ir involved installing Toshiba blue tooth software/driver tgen editing a config to use a 3rdparty usb driver. Might be able to do something similar in steam settings file.
If a friend got mad and smashed your $200 index controllers into the ground , I think i’d be more pissed that a $50 mad catz.
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No worries there he was good and only smashed his stuff in anger. 
Either way if it was mine, I would expect it replaced even if it was a $5 controller.
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