Ed Pawlowski wrote in
:

On Sun, 15 Jul 2012 11:33:01 -0500, "Atila Iskander"
wrote:



Laptops have a place, but for home use, I still prefer a big honkin'
desktop with a 21 inch or larger monitor, keyboard that can be moved
around, etc.

When I want portability, my netbook has traveled to much of the US
and Europe with me. Or it can sit on my belly when in front of the
TV.

You are not thinking outside of the box, and are suffering from tunnel
vision
.
A properly set-up laptop as the equal to your "big honking box"
but with a smaller footprint
AND a backup battery
I also have no problem hooking up 2 monitors, a keyboard and a backup
HD to my laptop

I've yet to find a laptop keyboard that is a comfortable to use as my
full sized MS keyboard. Even on my wife's 17" laptop. Sure you can
hook up all that stuff to it but then you have to take it off if you
want portability; always a compromise. Oh, I also have good speakers
and a sub woofer too.



Just because it's "portable" does NOT mean that it cannot perform in a
non-portable role as well
I have 2 older laptops acting as server and firewall.

Sure it "performs", but just not as comfortable to use at my desk.



Not only are they on a smaller footprint but they also use less power.

CPU is a couple of feet away and not taking valuable space. Not a
consideration. I do have battery backup for about 30 minutes with a
UPS, but longer does not make any difference once the router goes
down. I never had the desire to sit in the dark and work on a
spreadsheet.

My computer guy also charges less to work on desktops than laptops and
can usually get parts faster an cheaper. If it works for you, fine,
but advantages are minimal at best.






you get more processing power from a desktop,they last longer,and don't
need pricey new batteries every so often.
Laptops are more prone to damage from traveling,so they don't last as long.
Plus,you can configure a desktop or tower PC to be a DVR and record several
TV channels at the same time. you can do audio processing,converting CDs to
other files,or vinyl records to digital files.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com