PC--What is it good for?

By PC I mean "personal computer", be it Windows OS, Mac OS, Linux OS or
even 
Amiga OS, what are personal computers good for? Considering the backlash 
against Windows Vista, I was wondering, what's the point? Aside from 
increased security, there seemed to be little reason to upgrade other than

semi-transparent window interfaces, that 3d task windows interface and
video 
wallpaper. Four gigs of ram for that? What's the point? And then I 
considered the question more generally:

Long a stable of science fiction, yet what's left conceptually and 
pragmatically for home or personal computers to do? should do?

What functionality is there left to put into their base operating systems?

Sure one can constantly improve speed, input and output. but new
"functions" 
are there left to install (e.g., cd players in cars are upgrades of
cassette 
players, but both serve the same functions: prerecorded music players)?
What 
new functions are "needed" as opposed to "bells and whistles" or could be 
done more as applications that can be loaded as needed?

The one major, for lack of a better phrase, "paradigm ****ft" in personal 
computer operating systems seems to be from the mobile computer, laptops
and 
increasingly cell phones where some functions are keyed into your
geographic 
location: e.g., local ads, local maps, local directions, but what else?

-- Ken from Chicago