No desk top computer?

[Neil Winchurst]

Hakan Koseoglu wrote:
> Hi neil,
> On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 7:16 PM, Neil Winchurst <barnaby at drofle.com> wrote:
>> So I am wondering about replacing the desktop with a (good sized) laptop
>> computer. This leads me on to wonder if any list members do not use a
>> desk top at all, and rely on a laptop only. Anyone? Anything to consider
>> if I go down that route?
> Unless you're into gaming, ditch your desktop. As long as you do a bit
> of research up front, you won't regret it.

No gaming at all.

> The only desktops I have here are in use as servers, the rest of them
> are laptops (Two Dells, one Acer, one Asus EEE).
> 
> If you don't do your research, you might not get a couple of hardware
> not working but lately I haven't had a major problem. In my experience
> the biggest headaches appear to be screen resolutions, dual-screen
> setups and webcams and more fancy stuff like extra buttons for media
> control, although most of that is fixable pretty easily and some
> happen on the desktops as well (fancy MS keyboards are great for your
> wrist but half of the fancy buttons don't work by default) and don't
> get me started on most of the $5 USB webcams!
> 
> About reliability, they're about the same but don't forget that you
> don't tend to bang your desktop as often as your laptop. On the other
> hand, properly looked after, a laptop will function perfectly well
> within its usual 3 year warranty period and a lot longer. Just don't
> spill coffee on the keyboard. On a desktop all you replace is the
> keyboard, a laptop on the other hand.... :)
> 
> The last thing: Laptops are not easy to customize once ordered and a
> pig to upgrade. This Dell Inspiron 9400 I have here is over 3 years
> old and still going strong since I got quite powerful CPUs. All I had
> done since then is upgrade the RAM to 4GB and the disk to 320GB for
> penauts. RAM and disk are the easiest (and almost only) components you
> can upgrade.

Thanks for the advice. It has become obvious that I must do plenty of 
research before buying a laptop, if I decide to go there. This is one 
reason I started this thread, to hear about the experiences of list 
members who use laptops.

Neil