3 ms·

Before I list my setup, I'd like to ask: What's with all the laptops? I worked off a 15-inch laptop for several years, but after using a desktop, I've complete

by cytzol 16y ago

Before I list my setup, I'd like to ask: What's with all the laptops? I worked off a 15-inch laptop for several years, but after using a desktop, I've completely converted. Laptops give you less screen space and less computational power, and in general I've never liked their keyboards. They're also more expensive (I think?) and trickier to self-build. The only advantage I see is portability, which is understandable, but I think it's more that they're becoming the new default computer type for everyone, rather than having people choose between them and desktops. Anyway, mine: I put together the desktop a couple months back: AMD Phenom II X4 @ 3.6GHz, 4GB RAM, and an SSD for the OS and programs. I decided to future-proof myself, after living off that laptop for too long. It's connected to two Acer monitors - one 24-inch, one 23.6-inch, leaving a difference that's enough to irritate me every time I try to align things perfectly. It runs Windows 7 for general use and a virtualised Arch Linux machine for development work. I've tried setting up Windows the way I like it, but when Linux is available I don't think it's worth the effort. The VM does nothing but run Emacs in seamless mode, so everything still works together, and I don't have to worry about window managers. I type in dvorak on a Kinesis Advantage (the black one). I've never had recurring hand problems, but the keyboard setup feels so much nicer to use, I stick with it. That, and a Logitech mouse that I'm ambivalent about. My phone is an HTC Dream (aka the G1), running Cyanogen 2.1. It's been outclassed several times by today's standard of phones, but I'm waiting until it fully breaks down before replacing it. Not sure what with yet, which is a shame, because I like the design, even if the hardware space bar is already starting to go. All in all, I'm happy with what I have.

jaxn 16y ago
I have been using laptops ever since the Pentium 1 days (it was a 133Mhz Thinkpad 310 ED). I have had a few desktops as secondary computers, but having my computer with me has been a way of life for over a decade. That is changing some now that I have an iPad.
epochwolf 16y ago
> What's with all the laptops? I have a 15" Macbook Pro (version just before the aluminum ones) I love being mobile. I'm never at a desk. I'm always at a table or couch somewhere. (I love coffee shops. I'm at one drinking an iced tea right now.) One use case I never envisioned for my laptop was hooking it up to a friend's TV to watch videos. I can store an entire anime series on my laptop. (or loads of rifftrax[1]) When some friends and I want to watch some stuff I just bring my handy case of cables and hook up to their TV and fire up Front Row. (or MPlayer) OSX is pretty good at handling this, my desktop icons stay where I put them when unplug from the TV. [1]: http://rifftrax.com http://rifftrax.com
awolf 16y ago
I have an extenral monitor, keyboard, and mouse with my laptop.
jasonkester 16y ago
This: http://photos1.blogger.com/photoInclude/x/blogger/5478/1688/1600/522049/chamonixoffice.jpg http://photos1.blogger.com/photoInclude/x/blogger/5478/1688/... and this: http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/2007/04/west-coast-mobile-office.html http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/2007/04/west-coast-mob... Granted, they sell desktops in France, and you could technically put one in a van, but the experience of taking off for a month-long road trip to get some work done is a definite perk.
- technomancy 16y ago
  And this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/technomancy/3797798785/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/technomancy/3797798785/ And don't forget this: http://twitpic.com/20sk9y http://twitpic.com/20sk9y I love 3G.
- cytzol 16y ago
  Okay, you've just shown me how drab my working area is. Time to install some... trees. If I went on a road trip, I'd take a laptop, yeah - but I couldn't take my main computer. To me, it's not worth the risk of losing all that kit when a low-powered netbook would probably do. Actually, the times when I need to be portable and the times when I need gobs of processing power are almost exclusive... That's just me, anyway.
- revorad 16y ago
  It's a nice picture, but how can you see anything on the screen in that much sunlight?
  - technomancy 16y ago
    Well it rules out a glossy screen, but as long as you've got one that's LED-powered it's fine. Course it's nicer in the shade, but it still works in the sun.
benofsky 16y ago
The problem with desktops (for me) is that I need a laptop to be mobile, I would love to have a mac pro or imac at home but keeping them both in sync is too much of an effort!
swah 16y ago
One factor I forgot when buying a PC: noise! The fans are horrible...
jseliger 16y ago
I agree: I actually wrote a post: http://jseliger.com/2008/12/26/computer-post-desktop-or-laptopnotebook http://jseliger.com/2008/12/26/computer-post-desktop-or-lapt... on this subject.
trustfundbaby 16y ago
Worked on a desktop for years ... You're right, you can get monster cpu's, Ram, and Video cards to run 3 screen displays but what I hated was having to switch between the laptop and my desktop often (As a Rails freelancer, I work from a multitude of locations). Often I'd get a file or install some software on my desktop and forget that I hadn't done so on my laptop, then I'd have to go find the file again or reinstall and setup the software. It just got annoying after a while.
- edanm 16y ago
  That's why I love Dropbox so much, makes it so easy to keep the important stuff in sync. I use it to have access to all my important stuff on my Desktop and Laptop (also why I tend to prefer portable apps nowadays, that I can just drop into the Dropbox folder to share with my laptop).
jerf 16y ago
"What's with all the laptops?" I've gone all laptop for a few reasons. Ergonomics: For 6'4" me, quite a ways off most ergonomics charts (in theory not, in practice yes), the best position I've found at home is in a reclining chair with the computer on my lap. It isn't recommended anywhere that I can see, but with the position I hold my computer in, all the actual ergonomic factors that you are supposed to seek out are in play: I'm usually partially reclined so it's more like I'm in a chaise longue, which I've seen mentioned as one ergonomic optimum in a few places (and I agree). My wrists are very straight and unpressured. I don't use the trackpad a lot anyhow and it's in easy reach. I can go all day like this no problem. (Yes, I am aware that I shouldn't even so and in practice don't. My point is that I can.) Very few desktop setups have been able to match this. Also, Dvorak on my laptop keyboards has proved sufficient for me. YMMV. Display Space: My laptop is at 1600x900 (yes, exactly). I'm in Linux running compviz, and with a single keystroke I can switch virtual desktops arbitrarily quickly. (With compviz now it can be literally a single frame on the display if you like; I find I prefer a bit more animation so my poor primitive lizard brain, already struggling with this whole "computer screen" thing, doesn't get completely disoriented.) I still like my dual-monitor display at work but I can't say it's critical. In Windows, I would scream. Even Windows 7 is still too multi-desktop hostile for this to work. Computational power: Usually my compilation is actually offloaded to fast VMs anyhow, so that's less of a problem. You shouldn't buy the cheapest laptop you can get, but anything above about $600 should scream for most dev tasks, even modestly-disk-intensive loads, because everything comes with such obscene amounts of RAM nowadays that a lot of stuff is hitting cache anyhow. With a full desktop Linux and two VMs generously allocated with RAM, I'm just barely using all 4GBs, including disk cache. (Without it, I'm at 1.8GB free RAM. Obscene, I tell you.) Anything else and laptops are fine. Admittedly, you may have to run Linux. And this laptop is now coming up on a year old now, and there's been advancements even then. Just about the only thing I do now that shows any sort of delay is starting up Firefox, and, well, I'm still waiting to see the system that doesn't take visible time to do that :) The last desktop advantage for dev is IO and I expect SSDs to end that disparity. (Leaving behind only 3D graphics, but unless you're developing a 3D game that shouldn't matter for dev.)

by cytzol 16y ago

jaxn 16y ago

I have been using laptops ever since the Pentium 1 days (it was a 133Mhz Thinkpad 310 ED). I have had a few desktops as secondary computers, but having my computer with me has been a way of life for over a decade. That is changing some now that I have an iPad.

epochwolf 16y ago

> What's with all the laptops? I have a 15" Macbook Pro (version just before the aluminum ones) I love being mobile. I'm never at a desk. I'm always at a table or couch somewhere. (I love coffee shops. I'm at one drinking an iced tea right now.) One use case I never envisioned for my laptop was hooking it up to a friend's TV to watch videos. I can store an entire anime series on my laptop. (or loads of rifftrax[1]) When some friends and I want to watch some stuff I just bring my handy case of cables and hook up to their TV and fire up Front Row. (or MPlayer) OSX is pretty good at handling this, my desktop icons stay where I put them when unplug from the TV. [1]: http://rifftrax.com http://rifftrax.com

awolf 16y ago

I have an extenral monitor, keyboard, and mouse with my laptop.

jasonkester 16y ago

This: http://photos1.blogger.com/photoInclude/x/blogger/5478/1688/1600/522049/chamonixoffice.jpg http://photos1.blogger.com/photoInclude/x/blogger/5478/1688/... and this: http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/2007/04/west-coast-mobile-office.html http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/2007/04/west-coast-mob... Granted, they sell desktops in France, and you could technically put one in a van, but the experience of taking off for a month-long road trip to get some work done is a definite perk.

technomancy 16y ago
And this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/technomancy/3797798785/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/technomancy/3797798785/ And don't forget this: http://twitpic.com/20sk9y http://twitpic.com/20sk9y I love 3G.
cytzol 16y ago
Okay, you've just shown me how drab my working area is. Time to install some... trees. If I went on a road trip, I'd take a laptop, yeah - but I couldn't take my main computer. To me, it's not worth the risk of losing all that kit when a low-powered netbook would probably do. Actually, the times when I need to be portable and the times when I need gobs of processing power are almost exclusive... That's just me, anyway.
revorad 16y ago
It's a nice picture, but how can you see anything on the screen in that much sunlight?
- technomancy 16y ago
  Well it rules out a glossy screen, but as long as you've got one that's LED-powered it's fine. Course it's nicer in the shade, but it still works in the sun.

benofsky 16y ago

The problem with desktops (for me) is that I need a laptop to be mobile, I would love to have a mac pro or imac at home but keeping them both in sync is too much of an effort!

swah 16y ago

One factor I forgot when buying a PC: noise! The fans are horrible...

jseliger 16y ago

I agree: I actually wrote a post: http://jseliger.com/2008/12/26/computer-post-desktop-or-laptopnotebook http://jseliger.com/2008/12/26/computer-post-desktop-or-lapt... on this subject.

trustfundbaby 16y ago

Worked on a desktop for years ... You're right, you can get monster cpu's, Ram, and Video cards to run 3 screen displays but what I hated was having to switch between the laptop and my desktop often (As a Rails freelancer, I work from a multitude of locations). Often I'd get a file or install some software on my desktop and forget that I hadn't done so on my laptop, then I'd have to go find the file again or reinstall and setup the software. It just got annoying after a while.

edanm 16y ago
That's why I love Dropbox so much, makes it so easy to keep the important stuff in sync. I use it to have access to all my important stuff on my Desktop and Laptop (also why I tend to prefer portable apps nowadays, that I can just drop into the Dropbox folder to share with my laptop).

jerf 16y ago

"What's with all the laptops?" I've gone all laptop for a few reasons. Ergonomics: For 6'4" me, quite a ways off most ergonomics charts (in theory not, in practice yes), the best position I've found at home is in a reclining chair with the computer on my lap. It isn't recommended anywhere that I can see, but with the position I hold my computer in, all the actual ergonomic factors that you are supposed to seek out are in play: I'm usually partially reclined so it's more like I'm in a chaise longue, which I've seen mentioned as one ergonomic optimum in a few places (and I agree). My wrists are very straight and unpressured. I don't use the trackpad a lot anyhow and it's in easy reach. I can go all day like this no problem. (Yes, I am aware that I shouldn't even so and in practice don't. My point is that I can.) Very few desktop setups have been able to match this. Also, Dvorak on my laptop keyboards has proved sufficient for me. YMMV. Display Space: My laptop is at 1600x900 (yes, exactly). I'm in Linux running compviz, and with a single keystroke I can switch virtual desktops arbitrarily quickly. (With compviz now it can be literally a single frame on the display if you like; I find I prefer a bit more animation so my poor primitive lizard brain, already struggling with this whole "computer screen" thing, doesn't get completely disoriented.) I still like my dual-monitor display at work but I can't say it's critical. In Windows, I would scream. Even Windows 7 is still too multi-desktop hostile for this to work. Computational power: Usually my compilation is actually offloaded to fast VMs anyhow, so that's less of a problem. You shouldn't buy the cheapest laptop you can get, but anything above about $600 should scream for most dev tasks, even modestly-disk-intensive loads, because everything comes with such obscene amounts of RAM nowadays that a lot of stuff is hitting cache anyhow. With a full desktop Linux and two VMs generously allocated with RAM, I'm just barely using all 4GBs, including disk cache. (Without it, I'm at 1.8GB free RAM. Obscene, I tell you.) Anything else and laptops are fine. Admittedly, you may have to run Linux. And this laptop is now coming up on a year old now, and there's been advancements even then. Just about the only thing I do now that shows any sort of delay is starting up Firefox, and, well, I'm still waiting to see the system that doesn't take visible time to do that :) The last desktop advantage for dev is IO and I expect SSDs to end that disparity. (Leaving behind only 3D graphics, but unless you're developing a 3D game that shouldn't matter for dev.)