I think that’s what’s driving me nuts - it’s that people seem to default to thinking of “computer” as “laptop.” A desktop is better in almost all respects unless you absolutely need to do whatever you’re doing “in the field.”
Here’s a horrible laptop story; my band recently went into the studio to record a one-off track for a compilation, and the label doing the comp is local and was footing the bill and everything. So we get there and get set up, and the engineer guy is getting ready to record everything…on a Mac laptop! I halted the session right there and essentially said, “Uhh…why are you recording us on a laptop? We’d prefer to do 2” tape, as that’s what we record on on our own, but if we absolutely must record digitally, don’t you guys have a ProTools HD system?" Nope - this guy brought a pen knife to a gunfight with his low-end mac laptop. I was personally insulted and gloated as the macbook was quickly unable to keep up, grinding to a halt under increasing track counts. It eventually got so hot that it locked up and shut down, and we ended up having to cancel the whole session.
Why on EARTH would someone have chosen a laptop in that situation? It MIGHT have been an acceptable solution for live recording in the field, but in a “professional” studio it was an embarrassment and a failure - all because some guy thought “laptop laptop” rather than “real computer.”
That’s the story of every laptop everywhere, it seems to me. I mean, look at the “one laptop per child” initiative!
Would you post the make and model of your laptop? I’m really curious to see what laptop you can actually use in your lap without it burning your crotch and overheating.
I mean, I guess I don’t have a problem with laptops if you absolutely must have a computer “on location” somewhere, but I really hate that they seem to be replacing desktops in people’s minds because people think of a home computer as a glorified blackberry that they can use to send e-mail and read about Britney impregnating her own sister with her hydraulic metal penis.
The majority of computer users have absolutely no problems using laptops for everything they need: surfing the internet, writing documents and sending e-mail. I’ve found that loud fans, hot crotches and short battery life are just widely accepted limitations.
But the typical computer enthusiast knows that laptops, even “gaming” laptops like the Dell XPS series, aren’t serious machines.
Seriously. In most situations, people don’t NEED a high-end, top-of-the-line, screaming graphics, BOSE-sounding, lightning-fast, gigantic capacity desktop tower sitting next to them. They want it to get online, primarily, maybe play some solitaire or muck around with word processing. That’s about it.
Gamers get gaming rigs. Home media nuts get high-capacity, high-memory, TV-input carded media centers. Graphics folks get high-RAM, top-quality monitor, graphics-tablet having Macs, usually.
Most regular people get what they need. Something to get online with. And the convenience of being able to take it to the coffee shop or move to the couch or whatever outweighs the inability to have a GeForce nine billion or 17 GB of RAM or whatever. Why do you think you know what people need better than they do?
If I had money, I’d have both a desktop and a laptop. I have only a laptop because it was a graduation present and my college program at the time required Mac laptops. I do love it, but would also love a nice, fast dektop with a huge screen and all that. But I also love laying in bed surfing the dope like I’m doing now. Laptops have their place, as do desktops. One day I will have both, the desktop holding all my music and photo files and all that, and the laptop for surfing wherever I want. But I don’t see the hate on laptops really. They’re good for certain things.
My primary computer for the last year has been a laptop. (A Gateway, I don’t remember the model, but I bought it about a year and a half ago.) The battery is good for about three hours when fully charged, and it vents to the side (although I seldom actually have it in my lap, so I can’t vouch for certain as to it’s non-crotch-burning ability). I seldom use the trackpad, since I have a USB mouse that works very well, but I haven’t any trouble adjusting to the trackpad when I have to.
Well, yeah, mine gets hot. That’s why I use a lapdesk. Big Whoop. I cozily lie on the sofa, with the laptop on the lapdesk (which has a nice, soft beanbag bottom), surfing and watching tv. I take my laptop with me on vacations both long and short, take it to work so I can pay bills or play games during my lunchbreak, take it to my mom’s to show her my latest photos, take it on photography gigs to upload photos while I work* and burn dvd’s for the client on the spot…I couldn’t do any of that with a desktop.
::hugs my HP Pavilion laptop:: And it even has pretty blue lights all over the place!
*I’m not a professional–I shoot weddings and parties for friends and family sometimes.
Just a little old MacBook 2GHz Intel Core Duo. It gets warm, but not enough to bother me, even in summer. It’s got a sweet little form factor and does everything I need. Note, everything I need DOES NOT include heavy image processing (although I do run Photoshop CS2 on it when I need to) or music/video processing. I use it to surf, email, irc, write, edit photos, listen to music, and watch DVDs. I imagine if I were to try to watch a DVD and do a lot of image manipulation in Photoshop at the same time it might start getting a bit on the toasty side.
It all comes down to what you need! If I were to be completely honest with myself, I don’t need anything more powerful than the Amstrad PCW (heh… god that was a piece of crap) my family had in '87. It had perfectly adequate word-processing capabilities, and was better for writing than a pen and paper. Beyond that, everything else is gravy, for my personal needs.
I hate to agree with the OP but I do (in only a small way). I am an extreme power user who works in IT for a Mega-Corp. For some reason, the company decided last year that every important employee literally needs to be able to continue productive work in the event of a terrorist attack, a hurricane, or WWIII (we actually had an online class about this). The result was that everyone similar to me was issued a laptop, our former desktop computer was removed, and we have to have our laptops with us at all times except for official vacations.
Now, I have never had much respect for people that carried laptops. To me, they are just electronic etch-a-sketches and I made my opinion loud and clear. I literally cannot do my job on a 15 inch screen even though the performance of my laptop overall is great. My director found a solution with a docking station. I just walk into work, set the laptop in the docking station, and I have a full keyboard, mouse, and large LCD monitor fired up with 15 seconds. The bonus is that I also have the laptop screen that functions as a secondary monitor. It is great.
I told them I need the same docking station and setup at home which I should get shortly. That makes a laptop worthwhile to me. I can use it as a full desktop at work and at home with ease as well as a crappy regular laptop anywhere else. That is an ideal solution for me.
So you don’t dig laptops. Hey, that’s your right. But what’s your problem with their owners? How do they hack you off?
I don’t carry a laptop all that often. But if any random bug-up-ass individual ever came up to me on the train to New York and acted all pissy about my using a laptop when all around were idiots braying into cel phones, I would happily yank that person’s brains out through their nostrils and grind them under my heel, you mark my words.
There’s something about a nice, toasty laptop that makes me want to knit on an airplane. In fact, I’m making a laptop cozy. Blue, to match my eyes. Like the laptop salesman said, “Lookee here, little lady. It’s all shiny and purty!”
Woah. Havn’t seen one of these since… Let’s see. Handy and No Medical Advice, what’s his name and No Bondage… What other special rules have there been?