I have never gotten comfortable with a laptop. I know you can,but if I were home I would fire up the PC to read emails and play games. Is it just because I never committed to them or does the normal laptop user fold it up and put it away at home?
I usually have both on all the time. My laptop is my work computer and it goes into a docking station at work that turns it into a dual-monitor, full-keyboard beast. However, I have to have it with me all the time but I don’t like laptops much. I use my personal desktop computer for recreation and personal tasks. I don’t trust anyone who only uses a plain laptop all the time unless it is one of those really huge ones.
This is probably more suited to IMHO, since I don’t think there is a “factual” answer to the question.
In my case, I use my laptop for both my home and work computer. Since I work from a home office, this is the most practical. However, when I’m not on the road, I do have my laptop connected to an external keyboard, mouse and monitor, so it’s almost like having a desktop.
Frankly, I hate typing on laptop keyboards, and the touchpad drives me crazy.
When it was time for me to get a new computer, I got a laptop. I use it at home all the time. I keep it in the family room, it’s connected to a wireless network and anytime we want to look up something, read email or whatever, we just fire it up and cruise. I think it’s great. Very convenient.
If I’m watching TV or have friends over, I use the laptop, it’s easier, smaller, I can move it around, I can use it while I’m sitting on the couch. OTOH, if I’m going to be doing something where I want/need to focus on the computer I go to the basement where the desktop is.
I prefer to use my desktop, but the laptop sure is convienent. We just shove it under the couch when we’re not using it.
I have a monster desktop machine (Quad-core G5) and a nice laptop. I use the big machine at home, because it has two monitors, and a desk to work at. I fire up the laptop at home occasionally if I am backing up my desktop machine, or doing something that is very CPU intensive (rendering video).
I use my laptop for everything.
I will often use it in the kitchen or on the couch, but I have a 24" monitor and external keyboard/mouse that I plug it into when I want to get some serious work done.
Sure, my laptop stays on my bar in my kitchen, on Standby mode and ready to go when I open it up. Great for quick reference. I also use it in the living room and sometimes in bed. I’m used to the touchpad, if I had a mouse hanging off it I don’t think I’d like it as much.
Exactly this, except I didn’t know there were any ever Quad-core G5’s made, and I very much prefer my desktop machine’s keyboard (which is just too bulky to drag around with my laptop).
I don’t use the PC at home at all anymore. My laptop is much nicer than the 3 year old pc.
The laptop stays on the living room table 99% of the time. I usually have it on. However, most of the things I do are multitasking while watching tv or listening to music. Surfing the Dope, updating podcasts, IMs with friends, etc.
The 17 inch screen on the laptop is fine for those purposes. I use a very small laptop mouse which is almost always attached.
I use my laptop for everything but games - I have a little desktop that I use for that.
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP37
For a machine that’s three years old, it’s still pretty damn fast…
Forgive me if you already know this, but USB powered wireless optical mouses are inexpensive, can be used on almost any surface (even a pant leg or on the seat beside you) and make laptop navigation as easy as with a desktop.
You’d need to deactivate your touchpad so your computer doesn’t get instructions coming from two different directions whenever you touch the touchpad, but that’s easily accomplished through the appropriate control panel (or FN/F9 on my Toshiba laptop).
ETA: Oh, yeah…I use my laptop for my main computer but it’s one of the big honkers referenced above. If it was smaller, I’d probably use the desktop more often.
:: nods ::
My Lappy plugs into the external screen and keyboard and tablet and scanner and router/backup drive when it gets home.
I have three laptops and a PC. I’ll usually use the laptop on the couch, or the PC if I have to use the printer, since it isn’t networked.
I’m planning to replace the PC with a newer model for gaming purposes since it’s pretty old but I don’t intend to get rid of it since it still works perfectly well (and it’s running XP).
Er. Can you have too many computers? 
No. I have three ZX-81s.
Since this is essentially a poll, it’s better suited to IMHO than GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I keep a laptop by my bed for reading material should I be short a book. For daily use my PC does everything else though. I guess I check email on a laptop if it’s late at night, but I usually do it by remote accessing my main PC.
I’ve only got one of those, but I’m sure my VIC-20 makes up for it. 
I actually have maybe a dozen laptops, but as they’re all old office cast-offs in various states of disrepair they don’t count. I long ago defined “computer” to be something on my network, 'cause the number of computers required to get you strange looks doesn’t go up very fast. 
I’ve got both, and I use both about equally- the desktop is much more powerful, so it’s for gaming, multimedia, anything video or memory intensive. The lousy little laptop I’m working on at the moment is good for wireless internet or word processing, but that’s about it, and it gets grumpy if you try to run both at once. It’s great if I need to work in the library or when I’m on a trip (I’m a student).
I do spend more time in front of my desktop than my laptop at home, but that’s because my desktop is hooked up to a BIG screen. Also I do some things like video editing that requires a lot of computing power and nice video. Otherwise, I’m equally comfortable working on either device and usually have both on at the same time. My laptop is definitely the one that follows me around from room to room. I like redundancy so I have two desktops and two laptops.