# Oh, you bought a DESKTOP! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 15, 2010, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267 "2010-04-15T22:39:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fake_Tales_of_San_Francisco)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/81 "2010-04-23T07:43:16Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > That’s a silly attitude. There are many other reasons to get a laptop besides mobility. Compact size, low power consumption, less clutter (fewer wires to deal with), ease of shipping (e.g. if you’re living in a dorm and therefore need to move at least twice a year), etc. None of those reasons have ever been relevant. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/82 "2010-04-23T07:47:49Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > It depends on the class and on the person. I always sat at the far edge of the room so I wasn’t in people’s way (and my laptop is quiet and don’t have clackity fingernails), and I took very good notes on my laptop. Especially in art history, where I could not only type notes (which I can actually read later, as opposed to anything I try to write by hand) but could also google up the artwork we were studying and put thumbnails in my notes. Whenever a student missed class, the professor sent them to me to get a copy of the notes, because they were considered to be the next best thing to having been at the lecture. In fact, the she didn’t make me take the final exam, largely because I provided this service. (But also because I’d never scored less than an extremely high A on any paper or exam in her class, and I’d had her for a few classes before.) I had a history professor ask me for a copy of my notes at the end of the semester once, too, and had me write a “how to take notes” mini-essay for her to give to future students. > > Of course, I was a non-traditional student in my mid-30s and not some easily distracted 19 year old, too. My professors knew that I was taking notes and not goofing off. > > Also, re: eye contact? I have to look down when I write on paper. When I’m typing, I’m looking at the professor (or whatever is being shown on the board/projector) virtually the whole time. > > As for the main subject of the thread: I have both and I like both, but honestly since I got a 17" screen laptop I don’t use the desktop much anymore. I would like a larger screen (I do a lot of graphics work) but I can live with what I have. That, and the new house we moved into doesn’t have room for an office, so there isn’t a place to set up my desktop. I use it remotely as a file server for now. 😕 I love the thumbnail idea … I am getting my ducks in a row to go back to school myself - and I was planning on scanning my textbooks in so I wouldn’t have to lug them to class. It would be way easier to use a wheelchair without having to haul books around as well. I just found a great bag that would fit my smaller laptop and slings under the seat of the chair. ---
**Author:** ![StrangeBird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e480ec/32.png) [@StrangeBird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StrangeBird)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/83 "2010-04-23T08:11:02Z")
The main drawback of laptops for me is the ergonomics - not just the feel of the keyboard, but the relative position of screen and hands. If you’re using it for any length of time then that’s really bad for the neck - and if you’re using a separate monitor or keyboard, well, you’re not really using it as a laptop anymore, are you? ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/84 "2010-04-23T14:14:12Z")
I think that’s the point: you can have a laptop and use it as both a laptop and a desktop. You don’t have that flexibility with a desktop. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/85 "2010-04-23T17:45:34Z")
I would like for my current laptop to be my last laptop. I’d like my _next_ computer to be a modular. You know, like when you go to lunch, you pull your computer (which is 4 inches by 1 3/4 inches by 3 mm thick) out of the little dock-thingie, leaving the 3 monitors, the keyboard, the mouse, and other externalia behind at your desk; the display converts & resizes to accomodate the 2 inch ultrahigh res screen build into the device, and you stick it in your pocket or handbag, turning the ringtone to vibrate and all other sound off. They’re not quite there yet (although the iPhone _does_ run the MacOS itself under the hood; the potential is there); so I guess I’ll be buying another laptop. This one, when I’m using it at any of my various desks, has up to 3 displays (the internal + 2 external), a very good external keyboard and optical mouse, headphones, etc. It has sufficient processor oomph and enough RAM for all my computing needs. Why would I want a Desktop computer? Those are for servers. Or rendering farms, maybe. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/86 "2010-04-23T19:37:40Z")
> [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](#): > > None of those reasons have ever been relevant. How the heck would you know how much value they put on desk space, clutter (or lack of), etc? ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/87 "2010-04-23T21:37:14Z")
I know this isn’t practical for everyone, but I have a laptop for work/email/web browsing around the house or away from home, and a brand-new desktop for videos/gaming/multimedea. They’re both good tools for specific uses. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotGrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/88 "2010-04-23T23:01:27Z")
Where are people getting the idea that a laptop has to have a different display, keyboard, or mouse than a desktop? Got any cites for keyboards, displays, or mice that can’t be used with a laptop? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/89 "2010-04-23T23:17:31Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#): > > Where are people getting the idea that a laptop has to have a different display, keyboard, or mouse than a desktop? I think they’re operating on the fact that laptops have different screens, keyboards and mice than desktops. Desktops lend themselves to larger screens (I got a 19" screen thrown in cheap with my desktop), a laptop’s keyboard is inherently different than a desktop, and the default mouse for a laptop is the trackpad. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/90 "2010-04-23T23:19:17Z")
I think the point is that you can hook up a regular monitor, keyboard, and mouse _to_ a laptop. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotGrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/91 "2010-04-23T23:36:41Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > I think they’re operating on the fact that laptops have different screens, keyboards and mice than desktops. Mine doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![put\_down\_the\_sabre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/da6949/32.png) [@put\_down\_the\_sabre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/put_down_the_sabre)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/92 "2010-04-23T23:53:24Z")
Another vote here for many of the people who think they are taking good notes on a laptop kidding themselves … in my university, when you walk behind the students in a lecture, most of those on laptops will be on facebook. It’s really striking. Also in the library – when I get up to get a glass of water a lot of the students I pass are ‘writing papers’, but they seem to be doing it on facebook. pdts ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/93 "2010-04-24T20:11:20Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > I think the point is that you can hook up a regular monitor, keyboard, and mouse _to_ a laptop. Which requires even more of a premium over a standard desktop because now you have to buy all the accessories in addition to an already higher priced laptop. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/94 "2010-04-24T21:25:38Z")
It’s cheaper than buying both a laptop and a desktop computer, though. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/95 "2010-04-24T21:37:01Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Which requires even more of a premium over a standard desktop because now you have to buy all the accessories in addition to an already higher priced laptop. 😕 :smack: Oh, you mean the laptop versus the desktop? But you’d have to buy all those “accessories” if you were buying a desktop computer. I realize the end result is that you pay significantly more for the laptop-with-everything, but if you were previously / initially comparing the cost of a desktop-with-everything to a laptop-by-itself you don’t have much of a price gap at all, do you? (I guess it depends on how many “accessories” you had in mind…) By the time you’re talking about two nice monitors (three in the case of the desktop computer), a keyboard, a mouse, a handful of external hard drives, a slide scanner, a printer, a flatbed scanner, a DSL or Cable modem, a MIDI adapter, external speakers, headphones, and an auxiliary DVD burner, along with all of the cabling necessary for the above, it doesn’t make a huge difference in overall price whether you’re buying a desktop rig or a laptop. (You really should also include the price of a modem, a wireless internet card, a video camera, a microphone, and a UPS for the desktop ONLY, if the laptop comes with a battery, a modem, WiFi, built-in mike, and a video cam but the desktop does not. Unless you don’t use that stuff, I guess). The _usual_ (unspoken) assumption is that you probably own a lot of that already, so when you’re buying a new computer you don’t really have buy all that mess at the same time in order to have it as your disposal, which is a reasonable position to take; but it’s equally applicable to folks buying a laptop. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2010, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/96 "2010-04-25T16:36:41Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > Desktops are not mobile but are better in every singe other way. They are bigger, faster, shaped more conveniently, more expandable, have more ports, have larger disk drives, have nicer keyboards and monitors and mice, are more reliable, run cooler, and even after all that they are cheaper. Is there anything at all that is better about using a laptop other than its mobility? What you’re not considering is that people don’t all want the same things in a computer as you. You listed 13 qualities you apparently consider important in a computer and of them I care about exactly 3 - mobility, reliability and price. My last 3 laptops, a Powerbook, Macbook Pro, and Macbook Pro have never had any problems that couldn’t be fixed in a few hours at an Apple store and only had that happen a few times over the past decade. Most of the things that are important to you are just utterly unimportant to me. Bigger? Why would I value a computer for being bigger? More ports? I have nothing plugged into my laptop 99% of the time. I don’t even know what it could mean to be shaped inconveniently. In the last 10 years I’ve “expanded” or added features to exactly none of them, not even one time. So what I’m trying to say is, you can’t just list features that are meaningful to you and say “look how many things I thought of - and laptops have only one advantage over desktops!”, because for someone like me, who doesn’t care about your features, the situation remains “you can take this with you everywhere you go and it does everything you need and it just costs a bit more than that desktop that’s entirely unsuitable for you”. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/97 "2010-04-26T13:34:08Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#): > > Mine doesn’t. That’s disengenious, at best. Out of the box, a standard laptop has a) a smaller screen than an average desktop, b) a smaller, more cramped keyboard and c) a trackpad instead of a mouse. You can get a USB mouse that’s easily portable that fixes c). The rest aren’t flexible. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/98 "2010-04-26T13:45:27Z")
I’ve switched to a laptop at work, but only because I could recreate the set up I have with my desktop (dual monitors, full keyboard, mouse). I would actually have stuck with a desktop (I don’t care much for the laptop monitor), but my computer was an old XP and wasn’t due for replacement for two years. I was given a new laptop, though, and I decided to switch. But laptops keyboards and touchpads are not designed to get work done. I only use them as a convenience (and laptop keyboards are first class compared to the piece of crap that’s a touchscreen). ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/99 "2010-04-26T16:40:16Z")
Laptops v desktops are like handguns v rifles. You use the tool that matches the job. If you need the high end power, desktops are always going to have it. Just like guns, any Pc can perform the task, it’s just a matter of which one is more effective under the circumstances. No desktop rig is easily portable, and no notebooks are running the kind of power you find in a similar pedigree desktop. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267/100 "2010-04-26T16:48:49Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > That’s disengenious, at best. Out of the box, a standard laptop has a) a smaller screen than an average desktop, b) a smaller, more cramped keyboard and c) a trackpad instead of a mouse. > > You can get a USB mouse that’s easily portable that fixes c). The rest aren’t flexible. Actually, almost all laptops have a VGA and/or DVI port so you can hook it up to an external monitor. And you can also hook up a USB keyboard. So you can have the laptop off to one side of the desk and just have all your cords going into it from the external monitor, keyboard, and mouse. With regard to note taking in school: When I was in college (2000-2004,) every student was required to have a laptop, and they preferred you got one through the school so it would have the min. specs and software needed. They had that policy for a couple years before I got there and it’s still going, and catching on at a lot of other schools, mostly schools that are heavy into tech and engineering (like mine was.) It was both good and bad…some classes are easy to take notes on a laptop in, like a history or English class (we didn’t have a lot of those, but there was that damn interdisciplinary requirement, grr…) And other classes are hard/impossile to take notes on a laptop in (pretty much any math or science class, what with all the equations, diagrams, etc…) but still made you bring them, because odds are there was a lab that you needed some software on the laptop for. The school was basically in the process of phasing out all the old desktops that would be in the labs. Essentially, saving money by making all the students by computers so the departments wouldn’t have to, and probably passing along a good brunt of the student license fee for a lot of the software, too. But any recent engineering student can tell you what a pain in the ASS it was to have to wait to use a computer in one of the labs to do your CAD/computer programming/whatever work. In most cases, even if you had a computer, it wouldn’t have that software. But at least in our case, we got the CAD package, Labview, Minitab, etc… all on there so we could do that shit whenever and wherever we wanted. No waiting four hours in the computer lab to do a one hour HW assignment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-you-bought-a-desktop/536267.md?page=6)