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>If it's truly an indispensable part of your job, you should have a backup--that goes for anything, not just computers. It could be a 10-year-old hand-me-down o

>If it's truly an indispensable part of your job, you should have a backup--that goes for anything, not just computers. It could be a 10-year-old hand-me-down or a cheapo Chromebook, but you should have a backup plan. There's a difference between backups and failover. It's unprofessional to not have backups, yes. Expecting every working person to own 2 expensive laptops 'just in case' a faulty keyboard design requires 1 week of downtime? Makes no sense. A cheap Chromebook or 10 year laptop is almost certainly not going to be usable as a replacement so it will have to be a larger investment than that.

zenexer 7y ago
As a programmer who works as a contractor, I carry around at least two laptops (one Windows, one macOS) and two phones (one Android, one iPhone). If I'm traveling to an unfamiliar area where I'm not familiar with the theft risks, I swap out the two laptops for an older laptop and a Chromebook, or sometimes just the Chromebook. I can do everything I need to do from that Chromebook, and I have a very hard time seeing how others couldn't do the same. I can use Chrome Remote Desktop to connect to my desktop or a cloud-based workstation as long as I have an internet connection--and my two phones have two distinct carriers, so that's rarely an issue. Really down on my luck? I've got a few Raspberry Pis on which I can use vim. They're slow, but they work.