Desktop or Laptop for the home?

My iBook is wireless...always have new bathroom reading!

I still have a desktop in MA but when I'm in FL (6 to 8 months of the year) I use the laptop for all my computer work. When the desktop goes I probably will not replace it.

I like the lappys, but a pain to expand, so my reliable workhorse, is a cheap HP desktop with an Athlon 3000, and is what I'm building my new software on. I figure it's always better to use an older, slower machine for software development, because it will run more robust on the newer computers the customers are using. It forces me to write the software to be more efficient.

All of my family uses lappys exclusively though -- you should see the mess of power wires in the family room when they come to visit

I have 4 lappys, and am kind of fond of the Dells I have, when I need portability.

Next laptop will be a Mac though -- getting bored with Windows

Rick, come the Mac side. We have cookies.

I like cookies

You'll love Mac.

Desktops are going to last longer then notebooks because of the better cooling management, you'll also find that they can run faster.... but do you need that extra year and 10% performance?

Most likely not.... Just take care of your notebook, and you'll get a good 3 years out of it that are more productive then the desktop could ever be.

I have 3x of each 3x deskstops and 3x laptops

so when I want certain things done then I can change around
also have the main servers (2x) in a seperate room works well for me

I like mac.
I like cookies.

Now if I could just get into a new one and trade up my ibook 13".

Why not have both? A good desktop can be periodically upgraded when more speed / memory / disk space is needed. I have a huge ATX system that I've been using for ten years now, and just installed new DVD and faster fire wire stuff in it.

Then I have two laptops. The downside is that the one you buy today is the one you'll have tomorrow. No faster chips, difficult and expensive memory upgrades...and usually only RAM can be changed. (Some do offer upgradable hard drives, but they're few and far between.) The upside, though is in the peripherals: external USB / fire wire hard drives and thumb drives (a.k.a. flash drives). This allows you to take whatever you're working on with your desktop and transfer it to your laptop very easily. This also allows for GREAT back-up, having your stuff on two (or more) computers!

Don't be too quick to dump your old machine either. If it's got ATX architecture, then you can upgrade the processor chip and/or motherboard and then network it with your "main" computer. This can have a whole lot of advantages. First, you've got more drive space to put stuff! Secondly, you can assign all your e-mail and browsing duties to one box and isolate the one you do important stuff with so that you're virtually immune from viruses and spyware. It's also kinda cool to load Linux on at least one computer somewhere so you can take advantage of shareware, not to mention the lack of viruses n' stuff that are being written for that OS.

I know -- I'm getting kinda deep. I guess my point is that both have advantages, so why not choose both? Get a hub and network 'em together. You can do it pretty cheaply today compared to even a couple of years ago.

Best o' luck!

I use a laptop at home. It'll last just fine because I never move it, and I have a Thinstream cooling fan installed. Plus, I actually turn it off when not in use- no standby....

I touched a mac and burned myself... I refuse to crash different.

Oh a side note, I love my laptop very much. In fact my more powerful system mostly stays off now as I do all my essentials on here. I do try to keep this system from being cluttered with useless software That is the key.