My plan is to next time buy the cheapest laptop I can stomach and assume the thing will pretty much only last a year and then move resource intensive stuff to a desktop.

Also I'm not ever buying HP again, they make overpriced garbage.

At this point I'm pretty happy with cheap small laptops and ssh into my larger ryzen desktop in my workshop.

I was actually shocked to see on my iPhone that I’m spending several hours a day on the device. I remember five years ago, my main activity when laying in bed was thinking about things going on in my life or sleeping. Now I spend hours in bed reading on my phone — and honestly, it’s not the most productive or uplifting content. It doesn’t necessarily better me in any way.

I agree that newer devices aren’t necessarily improving in the right ways. The MagSafe charger on my 2015 MacBook was a fairly innovative and user friendly design choice. It no longer exists, presumably to make a thinner laptop, but honestly — the weight of my older machine was never a problem. Apple solved a problem I never had, and I carried that MacBook to and from work everyday for the past 5 years.

It basically feels like a rat race where companies, to show value and drive earnings for their shareholders, are making pointless design choices with no real vision. Even the larger track pad on the new machine doesn’t really solve a problem I previously had. If anything, I just needed a more performant machine, preferably with a larger screen. I honestly would have preferred a better front facing camera, but instead, I have a thinner machine, different keyboard, and larger trackpad. We’re in a period of cheap money with cut throat capitalism — in my mind, the federal government have made all this possible and massively inflated asset prices. Apple’s stock continues to go up up and up because of this.

I’m singling out Apple for examples sake. They’re not alone in this.

Laptops have mostly regressed into consumer appliances; my 2011 thinkpad is significantly faster and has more memory than a 2017 macbook pro. The monitor (and I guess speakers if I'm using it as a TV) is better in the macbook; that's it!

I recommend that you take a look at the Raspberry Pi and other single-board computers. They're cheap too :-)

Excluding his exaggerated motivation, why would you use a laptop for real work anyway, when you can run a multiple monitor desktop with tons of storage, no thermal problems and a real keyboard to type on?

Personally I use a desktop 95% of the time for work. I own a laptop but I only work on it when I have no choice.

Due to Covid I moved away from our central office, but next year I'll have to commute there every month or two for meetings. Obviously I can't lug a massive desktop around on a train.

So I bought a customised Dell Precision Mobile workstation. It cost a small fortune, but I reckon I'll have this for years. The CPU will probably outperform my current 4790K and it allows more RAM (128GB) than my current motherboard (32GB). I can also stick a 4G SIM card into it so I'll have broadband pretty much anywhere I am. Ideal for these days of remote working.

I'll get work to buy a M.2 drive and I'll stick a VM on it and restrict work activities to that. If I leave I can just send that back.

I'm not sure I'd buy another desktop if my current one goes kaput. Potentially for gaming, but I don't do that quite so much these days. (Ryzen would be a temptation though.)

I have a low powered laptop for 'on the go' but I only tend to use it to take notes in meetings, and rarely if never use it for work.

Gone are the days of buying a 2k-3k laptop every 18 months and being disappointed with the performance!

My solution: run desktops at home as your own private cloud and use them in various ways from you laptop or phone. Create your own services or use oss services to fulfill your needs from your thin internet devices, no middle man/woman needed, use your desktop/s anywhere. This won't solve your uefi problem if you use modern laptops, nor will it solve your usb 2.0 problem if you stick to old laptops. But set up your own services, don't let them take over! It's quite a bit of work to setup, but maybe it'll get easier if more people take on the challenge. (Disclosure: this is my personal pipe dream, and I'm in the early stages of working this out myself.)

On a side note, the open laptops you refer to can be more pricy, but if that's what you believe in, then support the cause!

I know it’s not a practical choice for everyone, but I’ve always maintained both a desktop and a laptop. The desktop tends to be both significantly cheaper and more powerful, and it typically also survives a couple laptop upgrades before being replaced.

I suspect a lot of the movement towards laptops was and is due to the desire to run macOS. It just so happens that Apple desktop computers are either way underpowered or way expensive. An MBP is basically the sanest way to run macOS. So MBPs tend to become makeshift portable desktops, with external screens, keyboard, mice / trackpads, power bricks, and cooling pads.

If your work processes are not beholden to Apple software, building (or ordering a customized) desktop is a refreshing gulp of power. You suddenly can afford much more, or spend way less.

I'm writing this from a Linux desktop, and I'm quite content with it.

Use a server! , You can get cheap used, Dual Xeons 12 cores, with like 128G of ram on ebay for about 1000$

And that's not the only thing you get compared to a regular desktop you get:

  - IPMI
  - Dual Power supply
  - Hot swappable drives!
  - ECC Ram (nice for zfs)
  - A decent Motherboard with PCI extensions

Thanks to Fiber Optic based DisplayPort cables, I have my server 30 ft away from me in the basement. My work area is dead silent!

Note I also use a usb extender and a usb DAC, so I got 2 long cables and I get keyb/mouse/audio and 4K 60Hz video.

I think a comparable spec new desktop would have cost about 5-10k..

With the savings I was able to get a PCI card with NVME drives, and 2x16TB drives and that was still cheaper :)

I had desktops for a while. Then I decided to switch to laptop and bought latest Thinkpad X1 Extreme (at a time). It throttles, it struggles to play even relatively easy games. Occasionally it loses connection to the lenovo dock and I need to restart it. It can't have more than 3 monitors.

When the time of next upgrade will come I'm certainly going to desktop + some light laptop like my wife's X1 Carbon. I don't like macs and I strongly believe that Win + WSL / dual boot to linux are much better for development.

Also since you have a lot of computer science majors, and coding is a thing everyone knows about (?), it seems like there will always be a sizable portion that will need proper computers and a proper OS that isn't just a "device". I mean without programmers and technical people in the future the companies themselves will not be able to run so there must always be proper options for those who want it

I'm also using old laptops (T500s) so that I can replace Intel's firmware with libreboot and also install alternative wireless cards.

The USB 2.0 thing is a problem, and reading this article made me think that there might be a way around that, and sure enough, you can get a PCMCIA card with USB 3.0 ports[1].

I know this isn't a long term solution, but it might be an immediate solution to the time spent making backups.

[1]https://www.newegg.com/p/17Z-00GU-00075?Description=PCMCIA%2...

All that said, I have moved 100% away from desktops. I really do like to be able to work outside (two areas to choose from), kitchen table next to our parrot’s cage, living room, or bedroom. Sometimes I need to work while traveling.

Finally, iPad Pros (or similar products) are simply better devices for reading, doing research, and watching entertainment.

A beefy desktop computer - high performance/$ CPU and GPU with several terabytes of storage so I could not worry about how much stuff I download and have several OSes installed without having to shortchange some on storage.

A netbook - one of those 10"-screen dinky little things that had just enough compute to run some basic desktop stuff. I would use this as a remote terminal to the desktop so I could still use the desktop's power from my couch.

As wifi speeds have increased, netbooks have all but disappeared and laptops mostly suck, I'm seriously considering this again, but instead of a netbook I'd jerry-rig a Raspberry Pi into a "laptop".

I've always used self-built desktop towers. When it's time to upgrade we build them five or ten at a time so every system matches. It makes for a much simpler build and bring-up experience.

In this case I needed to continue working, and so I decided to task two HP laptops on the network as external processors for the FEA tool. I have to say, they worked great for about four weeks. During that time they experienced about 18 hours per day of continuous processing. Fun while it lasted.

What these people usually don't get is that computer at the end of the day is just a tool. It is a means to an end not the goal. Having a powerful computer for the sake of having a computer doesn't accomplish any meaningful.

(it also means it can run Linux properly, not with battery issues...)

The rub for me is that I really dislike Windows. I use it for work - I have to - but it's not an OS I'd choose for myself[0]. I like OSX but the problem there is that, unless you go down the Hackintosh route (which soon I suspect won't really be a viable option anyway with the move to ARM), you have to buy preconfigured Apple hardware.

And then there's desktop Linux, which fills me with dread simply because I've not had great experiences in the past. Moreover, some key software that I need simply won't run on it. Notably Ableton Live. (I know Linux-compatible DAWs exist, but I really like Live and don't want to have to give it up.)

A decade ago, for me, buying a Mac was unequivocally the best option. Now that's perhaps no longer the case and, worse, there aren't any other great options that I can see. I'd be glad to be proven wrong though.

EDIT: Actually, maybe what I could do is dual-boot Windows and Linux. Use Linux for software development and most everything else (even Office 365 will run on Linux under Wine nowadays, apparently), then use Windows for Ableton Live and games. With UEFI it might not be the worst thing in the world to set up and maintain either.

[0] The main beef I have with Windows is that it just doesn't get out of the damn way. It really wants you to know it's there, from the dreadful multi-DPI multi-monitor support[1], gimpily inconsistent UI, the shitty 10 second dance all your desktops and windows do when you plug in another monitor[2], and crappy update mechanism, to the driver issues, WiFi connectivity issues, ropey audio support, instability and blue screens. And there's always, always, ALWAYS some random thing or other sucking CPU and running the fans. Don't get me wrong: every problem that bothers me on Windows also bothers me on OSX. It's just that on Windows these problems bother me several times per day, whereas on OSX I'm bothered by one of these issues maybe once a month. The upgrade to Catalina was initially painful and enraging but after the first couple of weeks, having upgraded everything, all was well again and remained so.

[1] Granted, likely to be less of an issue with a desktop system where you're likely to purchase monitors with identical DPIs and resolutions.

[2] Also less likely to be an issue with a desktop system, unless you need to use a KVM so you can share your desktop displays with your work laptop.

And as far as USB2 limiting backups speed, I would look at a NAS with gigabit Ethernet which any old laptop should have.

* A fanless Chromebook with decent screen for travel use

* An Intel NUC that is hooked to a big monitor, which is also the device I'm typing this on

* A beefy Ryzen desktop that sits in the corner of my balcony, which I usually connect via ssh and perform all the heavy tasks

To me I'm getting all the benefits of each computer, and the combined cost is still less than a so-called macbook pro :)

I switched back to desktops when the 1st gen Ryzen 8-cores came out and haven't regretted it for a second. Bigger screens, beefy specs, more connectivity, and all of it is incredible value given the price of some 13-14 inch laptops!

I can go actually as light as I would like on my laptop now, even something ARM so that's a plus too, if you don't need mobility and beefy specs at the same time.

https://hypertexthero.com/pc/

Two problems, it has: Weight/portability for when I do need to take it somewhere, and that it runs Windows and I prefer Mac OS. I keep my MacBook Pro because of these but am thinking of making the PC a dual-boot Hackintosh.

I've tried VNC and other remote desktop solutions but the but the performance has always been abysmal, it's a niche idea and obviously comes with the network requirement, but I think it would give the best of both worlds when you need the portability of a laptop around the house, with the power of a desktop.

I guess plan9 tried this approach....

I recently stepped up the game a bit and built a homelab.

I don't care if most people move on to using dumb devices that limit what they can do: they are probably not the people who were really using computers anyway.

Everyone who wants a good PC will have one, nothing is threatening the existence of PCs and the esports industry will keep them alive.

As for a brick and mortar computer store? If you're lucky you live near a microcenter or something.

A couple months ago I got full ATX case with the 16 core AMD CPU, the best GPU out there and it runs cool, quiet and I just RPD to it when needed (prob less than twice a year)

When I'm not in my computer room I dont want to be using a computer anyway, so theres no downside for me.

Those three things taken together, with a well-targeted government intervention, could turn the internet into a walled garden, in the name of stopping scams/terrorism/child porn/piracy for the first few years, obviously.

A desktop would definitely be faster. My wife has a low-end desktop that blows my top-end laptop out of the water.

But I don’t play games, and need to take my system on the road, occasionally, so I need the laptop.

I do have a couple of screamingly fast external USC-C SSD drives. They work nicely, and are teeny.

The best camera is the one you have with you.

The best computer is the one you have with you.

But, I am annoyed heavily that I can't play some great games due to lack of graphic cards, and would like to investigate the whole usb-c/thunderbolt plug in video card thing.

That said, pretty much every point of WalterBright also applies.

I personally don’t care what boot stuff is under the hood if it can boot Linux.

Cloud eating everything on the other hand does worry me. Busy building a home server to get away from that a little

Because personally I hate to do 'research' with my phone. Of course on the go, or for a quick lookup that's perfectly fine.

1. 104-key is in my muscle memory and i'm much more efficient.

2. Laptop plus keyboard plus power supply = desktop.

3. By being flexible, I can use only secondhand hardware.

/linux laptop owner who paid up

It’s great!

I also had fun researching how to get the best deal ~$2,000.

I do use a laptop when necessary, on a plane, etc...

/linux laptop owner who paid up

mine laptop (T520) was released 9.5 years ago and I have no issues with performance after upograding SSD hard drive and adding RAM

Something like a Mac cheese grater is probably more power efficient than my custom built PC, but you lose a lot of the value going with a prebuilt system.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PCI_passthrough_via_OVM...

Unlike the author I do use recent Laptops with Linux. Like the author I like to actually own my machine.

I would never trade this for a "gadget" running Android, ChromeOS, or IOS - other than my phone that is.

Today I have multi-GigaHertz machines that I can't build the simple projects that I could use with my Amigas because I have no way to interface directly to the buss.

The latency of what present computer supplies is horrible.

None of this is news but it definitely makes the development experience so much nicer, and I can play any game with max settings on it too. Building desktops is also just a lot nicer than it used to be. There are tons of quality of life improvements in the cases, PSUs with detachable cables, silent fans and cooling solutions, etc.

I realized I hadn't taken my main MacBook off the dock in 9 months. When I go out, I have an older one that I'm happy to use away from my desk. Since it's acting like a desktop now, I though maybe I'd replace it with a higher-spec mac desktop. But a high end mac mini isn't much different than a high-end MacBook.

It seems if you want a high-performance mac but don't want to spend 6k+ on a mac pro, a specced-out 16" MacBook is the best choice. Is that correct?

It was awful on all dimensions, even the portability as the thing I choose at the time was not light, I used it at home only once.

Not worth it.

Whilst it wasn't portable, it was _fast_. Granted not in single threaded performance (they are all old hat nowadays)

But I could run a bunch of containers, VMs if I wanted and run slack and chrome (although I use firefox mostly)

New work has given me a fancy macbook. Which is fine, but I miss the extra resolution of the 4k screen (which I suspect is perceived rather than actual. I have very small fonts)

I also miss linux as a local dev environment.

My new Dell XPS 13 came with Ubuntu pre-installed (which I replaced with Void Linux) and for the most part allows for a lot of tweaking. When I'm at home, I connect to my eGPU unit with one cable, allowing me to use my secondary monitor, a proper mouse, and external hard drives (although internal is already 1TB SSD). The eGPU unit is a Razer Core V2 with a GTX 1060, which is good enough for VR games, which play well on Linux these days surprisingly. Then a lot of my stuff is self-hosted in the cloud anyway, like a media server, backups, servers for development, even an IRC bouncer. I also run my own smart home software on a raspberry pi.

So while at the moment this might not be typical for an average consumer, the trend towards edge computing will really make the laptop into an "internet appliance" as the author says, and the browser an OS. Hell, with 5G, cloud gaming for VR may even be viable, and then we're back to the equivalent of terminals and mainframes.

The only real issue then is the ownership of these services — I don't agree with the author that everything will become a SaaS and no more open hardware will exist. It will always exist as long as there's a demand for it, you just have to accept that it'll be more expensive and less consumer-friendly. E.g. I have to accept that I can't hotplug my eGPU on Linux like you can on Windows, and I need to pay for my servers. Spotify and Netflix will always be cheaper than any legal means of acquiring media otherwise specifically because of their size.

Totally done with laptops, honestly.

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if we see a resurgence in desktop computers since all the places a laptop shines: coffee shop, train commute, working on a plane, aren’t all that important anymore.

From all features of pre 2012-NOW laptops the REAL KEYBOARD is what I miss the most.

I really hoped that Lenovo will make something more from its 25th Anniversary Edition ThinkPad (some name id T25) but from what I know only 5000 pieces were made and finito. Or ar least that Lenovo will PERMANENTLY provice a classic/retro ThinkPad with every new generation with REAL KEYBOARD.

That is why I still use 2011 ThinkPad W520 and ThinkPad X220 - to have REAL USABLE KEYBOARD with REAL PGUP/PGDN HOME/END INS/DEL keys block in the top right space.

Future looks very dark since years in the laptop space.

The more I look into laptop computing (and often computing in general) the more only single word stands out.

D I S S A P O I N T E D

I know I'm probably a dinosaur. I run a lot of desktop applications for work, and run most my models locally. I use the shell to automate tasks, and rarely use the "cloud" and try to limit browser tasks.

What's funny about this post is that I'm actually in the market for a new laptop, and am quite paralyzed in the process. I can't get myself to spend $1500 on some mediocre machine where everything is soldered on the mobo, I can't replace the battery, and that will become garbage in 2 years.

I too have been considering going 'back' to desktop recently, but it's to do with the pandemic. Laptop died last may, I got a new one, and... it's still reasonably good. However, I've been far less mobile in the last few months, and that will likely stay that way for a long time.

I've been primarily on laptops for the past 12-13 years or so. Much of my work involves traveling and meeting clients, sometimes doing some work on their premises. This was not an every day thing, but it was enough that I considered the laptop the primary tool. And I would typically get the higher-powered laptop models when I'd get new ones, as it's the main day to day tool.

The last 6+ months have changed most of my movements. I haven't met a client in person this year. I don't expect I will for at least another year. If it's sooner, it's sooner, but probably not. Being forced in to being non-mobile, my thoughts are turning back to desktops. I'll still want a laptop, but price/performance, I know I can get some more from desktop, and I'm considering switching to desktop as 'primary work tool' in the next couple of months. I'll keep current laptop (18 months old now) and it will serve fine as a secondary tool.

I'm curious how covid will impact other peoples' decisions in this area. I can't be the only one in this situation thinking about this decision.

Have set up three USB-C "workstations" with montior, keyboard and mouse (USB via Logitech Unify) in the house: One cable dock for any of the household laptops. There has been some toothing pain, but with USB-C reaching corporate machines, these are quickly becoming a non-issue.

Have been moving the SO and kids to USB-C laptops over the last couple of years (used Thinkpad X's are great value -- and tend to get full teen approval).

... You can put a big disk on a laptop, USB3 hub, etc etc

I think main thing missing for me is a beefy GPU and maybe a bit more RAM.

1: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0838WTFD1

In my case a mouse slows me down. I have to take my hands off the keyboard and reach for the mouse. The touchpad is right there where my hands are. My touchpad also have three physical buttons, which are very useful instead of tapping the touchpad (I disabled that.)

I really need a mouse only for playing (which I stopped doing on my laptop since many years ago) or to try out some very rare sites linked to HN. It doesn't happen every year.

This is probably the only ergonomics pro of a laptop (except that I carry it with me, of course). Just in case I'll need a separate keyboard again, does anybody know of a good full size one with a touchpad under the space bar and physical buttons? I googled and found many keyboards with a touchpad in place of the number pad or further to the right. By the way, the number pad is not important for me. I'd love not to have it on my 15" laptop. I can keep it there on an external keyboard, but it's extra travel for my right hand if I really have to use a mouse and I never use it anyway.

13. I'd like to work on some spreadsheets from my couch.

Damn...guess I'll buy a laptop again.

You can buy fairly powerful desktops configured with just the on chip graphics or inexpensive business class graphics cards.

I'll add a '13' to your list.

13. Bluetooth is evil, and any desktop I have seen with Bluetooth had it on a mini-pcie card, and could be yanked. My desktop is always cabled via 1Gb Ethernet, so if yanking the BT also loses the WiFi, I don't really care.

If you are using wireless keyboards/mice, I don't know if the logitech adapters are more or less secure than BT. That could be an entire separate thread.

4. The size of the drive isn't an issue; you can fit big drives just as easily in a laptop. The only difference is that a desktop PC can fit more than two drives.

I've come to really like the convenience of being able to pick up my workstation and take it with me.

To me, there's only one really, really big disadvantage to laptops: the noise. If I put together a desktop, it's as quiet as possible. Powerful laptops apparently can't be quiet.

Your points are all good but this one gave me pause for thought. We're all working from home and using our microphones and cameras more than ever. I'm using my regular laptop with plug-in microphone and webcam. Are laptop makers thinking in terms of upping the specs on the microphone and webcams in their upcoming models?

You can connect an external display to your laptop. That's what I'm doing right now. Similarly for 2 through 6.

> 7. The desktop has lots of USB ports and they're all in use.

The external monitor will give you more.

I think reasons 8, 9, and 10 are all legit. I don't think there are any intrinsic benefits to going one way or the other. It all boils down whether you feel the time you spend building your rig is worth the money you save.

Out of curiosity, what do you use instead? I'm wondering what the best options are for workstation-type desktops.

You can, until Apple integrates all the suppliers into their supply chain.

> 1. I like big, big monitors.

I've realized that I find it uncomfortable to use more than one screen, so I just use one 27″ 4K screen. But occasionally I open my laptop and put it on a stand to show some extra windows.

> 2. I prefer a full size keyboard.

My favorite keyboard is the older version of the Apple Wireless Keyboard powered by AA batteries. It feels really nice to type on it (maybe because I'm used to it.) I recently bought a brand new Apple keyboard because I thought it would be better (and I could recharge it over USB), but it's much worse.

> 3. I prefer a separate mouse.

I use an Apple trackpad, and I love it. I only go back to a mouse if I'm playing a game.

> 4. I prefer big freaking disk drives installed.

I have a 2 TB SSD, which is more than enough for me.

> 5. I put the desktop under my desk, and with a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse, there is much less of a snarl on my desk.

I like to put my laptop on the desk, and I only plug in a single Thunderbolt 3 cable for charging, gigabit ethernet, and my monitor. I really love my CalDigit TS3 Plus dock [2].

It's really nice that I can unplug a single cable and take my laptop to any cafe or co-working space. (Before/after the pandemic.)

> 6. The desktop has an optical drive I still use.

I haven't used an optical drive for about 5 years, and I don't own any optical disks.

> 7. The desktop has lots of USB ports and they're all in use.

My dock has a lot of USB-A and USB-C ports, and it's in a very convenient location.

> 8. I can replace/alter parts of the machine without buying a new one.

That's a great point, and it's one of the major downsides of using an Apple laptop. I do have AppleCare, and Apple's support is really amazing.

> 9. Desktops are cheap.

That's very true! But I was using a 2012 MacBook for 8 years before I upgraded it, and I think I'll probably continue using my current laptop for another 8-10 years. It's expensive, but it's a very high quality machine and I think it will last for a very long time.

> 10. I can build what I want with parts from newegg. Premade powerful computers are always "gaming machines" and I don't want a gaming machine that comes with a graphics adapter that sounds like a 747 taking off.

I certainly can't do that for any kind of laptop (either Apple or other brands.)

> 11. I want an all-metal case because a machine caught fire once.

Nothing to worry about there

> Edit: 12. My desktop doesn't have a microphone or camera, so they cannot be surreptitiously turned on remotely.

MacBooks have a hardware light that turns on when the camera is active, and I haven't heard any reports about hackers being able to disable it. Although one disadvantage with the newest MacBook is that you can't attach a sliding camera cover anymore, because it will crack the screen when you close it.

The microphone can be surreptitiously turned on, but it's not something I'm too worried about.

[1] https://imgur.com/a/soE6TMJ

[2] https://www.caldigit.com/ts3-plus/

>6. The desktop has an optical drive I still use.

for what? You're probably better off (in terms of both convenience and IO performance) to store it on a hdd/ssd as an iso and mount it.

In the Windows land the only hope seems to be AMD while Apple has me hoping for the A14 performance.

From 2012 until present, computers have been produced that run any EFI binary you want. Why not buy one of those? It's no different than sticking with pre-2012 machines, except you aren't attached to cruft from the 1980s anymore.

Overall though, I would be happier if manufacturers were clear on what you are getting. While I do some real work on my laptop, I tend to offload most of my work onto a desktop. This means that I look for a handful of key features and don't care about the rest. Unfortunately, my last laptop purchasing experience was a nightmare. Researching a couple of laptops took more time than deciding upon parts for a desktop build and, of course, you have to look at more than a couple of laptops to find something that is acceptable in terms of features, performance, and price.

I'm still running an i7 6700. Initially it was one of the fastest components in my system, but has become the bottleneck as I've upgraded the parts around it (added a discrete gpu and nvme ssd, affecting the bottleneck for gaming and compiling, respectively). But honestly, it's still good enough most of the time, and I'm in no hurry to replace it.

Also/especially, while the initial build is not that much cheaper, the cost over time is — both the longer expected lifetime of the parts and the ability to upgrade piecemeal instead of replacing the whole thing.

Maybe I'm nitpicking, but I feel like this is a bit much of an exaggeration. I just measured my Pixel 3 (at its thickest point, the camera lens) and a 2011 Macbook Pro (including the rubber bumper, admittedly, but those were super slim at the time), and the MBP is only ~2mm thinner than the Pixel. The race for ultra-thin laptops seems like a relatively recent thing to me.

No need. You still buy CDs, you're old enough that we can wait.

;-)

(I still buy them, too.)

When I'm at my cabin with 10/2 Mbps internet it's like I'm at home, except when I forget myself and start watching YouTube, then I notice the reduced quality of the video (RDP selectively encodes fast-updating regions to lowish bitrate h264 or similar).

I even do my Teams stuff over RDP, bidir sound just works without fiddling.

If it were possible to multitask Excel or Word in Android, that's probably what I would be using right now for a lot of my basic workflow.

https://twitter.com/rootkovska/status/938458875522666497

Just as a PSA for others: Laser printers in particular draw too much inrush current through their fuser drum heater for surge protectors/UPS devices to handle. They (the printers) should be always connected directly to the wall.

If you think of it as a firewall around knowledge, it's basically like this set of rules:

  Deny: all

  Allow: <specific group>

Advice from my wife, a photographer:

- if you're still having picture problems (after setting the camera's anti-flicker to 50Hz/60Hz as appropriate), put diffuse illumination on your face e.g. a full-screen browser window on http://blank.org; or for more control--colour temperature as well as brightness--a cheap LED panel and desktop tripod (from a photo supplies shop).

- turn off any "smoothing" or "beauty"features in the cam's software.

- likewise, don't use any fake background features. Pin up a plain bedsheet behind yourself if you think your place is too messy to be the background.

Anyway, once there is a picture of any kind, in my experience most people care more about the audio being unclear or laggy, so you're well ahead.

Probably less of a concern, but it also moves the heat output.

They have some really cool fanless builds, that if you were using a CPU like the AMD 4750g [1], you would have zero noise, and it'd make for a very decent workstation.

[0] https://www.quietpc.com/systems

[1] https://www.quietpc.com/sys-amd-da2-fanless-z2

This is in contrast to almost anything else you might care to do on a computer, where the iPad equivalent ranges from "basically fine" to "actually better".

But people's perceptions are lagging a few years behind where the platform is at. That's normal.

I didn’t make the distinction between writing code and writing software but I guess it’s an important one.

This reminds me of an old joke: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/46sere/a_p...

Ideally Apple would push out a 2in1 with touch but they are set on pushing iOS for touch - which is just too limited for all intents and purposes. I would gladly buy a premium Lenovo 2in1 or some Ryzen 5xxx series ultra portable windows laptop (they are much better on thermals from what I've seen) but I still need a OSX client from time to time unfortunately. There's just no flexibility with Apple ecosystem - you either fit into their intended use cases or you're stuck with suboptimal tradeoffs.

That 'extreme example' weighs as much as many laptops and it's just a case. Even if you carried a small display, and everything else you need, I doubt most people would take that out if they found themselves with extra time at the airport.

Edit: Found the machine I was thinking of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Portable

2. Failing that, just archive your existing discs and ditch the drive for good. It's the year 2020, and most (all?) software are distributed digitally, so you shouldn't need to get out your drive in the future.

I doubt that.

Beware, you need to regularly maintain it too (hopefully it does a weekly starter test, and it probably needs yearly oil changes). I didn't check mine, and found the battery charger had failed at about 1 am when my wife had a flight out that morning. That was fun.

(We don't have everything on the generator, so it's not as effective as yours, our utility wiring is actually pretty fragile, and our well pump is one of the things not on the generator, buying a portable genrator for that seems to have helped, but I did have to roll it out a week ago)

Hmm. Is this something I can buy at Home Depot or something?

Not any laptop but some do. It even does it while driving its own built-in monitor but I do not really use it.

>"your laptop setup is indistinguishable from a desktop"

you got that part right

>"your setup is even less portable than a desktop"

Nope. When I am out of my main office for whatever reason I unhook said laptop from all the cables and it works off-site including all my development environment. If my stay away is extended (working for a month in ocean side cottage for example I also would take one of those monitors). I just do not run production servers/databases/etc on my laptop ;). Btw my laptop soon transitioning from 32GB RAM to 128GB RAM as to give me more flexibility with the databases.

Worth case I can still access my workstations/servers remotely using SSH or NOMACHINE if SSH does not cut it. Since I have very fat internet pip it works just fine.

>All x86-based Certified For Windows 10 PCs must meet several requirements related to Secure Boot:

> - They must have Secure Boot enabled by default.

> - They must trust Microsoft’s certificate (and thus any bootloader Microsoft has signed).

> - They must allow the user to configure Secure Boot to trust other bootloaders.

> - They must allow the user to completely disable Secure Boot.

The last two points in particular. It's been this way since SB was introduced.

Note that this requirement does not apply to non-x86 devices. In particular, ARM devices (Windows RT) are explicitly required to disallow SB from being disabled, to meet the certification requirement.

The way to stop this is through legislation and protest, but it's a battle because the state likes locked down computers too.

Right now, today, it has never been easier to just go down to the local mall and buy a general purpose computer, and sure, there are lots of phones, tablets, and consoles on display as well, but there is no less computers as a result.

Multithreaded builds (make -j 24) can really hammer the drive. Read and write interleaved, which uses up cache in both directions.

If Linux didn't already exist it would never have been possible to create since all computing platforms are getting more and more locked down.

My Ryzen board trusted Microsoft out of the box, it has to if they want to pass Windows logo certification. You can check yours here: https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/dashboard/hardware/searc...

The requirements mentioned by grandparent are for setup where without any extra configuration you can approach a computer with Windows 10 install media and it will install properly.

Yes. And as a bonus, I can use my Alienware 17 R4 as a throwing weapon. Or for workout. And the power brick is a perfect cup warmer.

But I like it, nonetheless.

It’s obvious that it’s impossible at the moment to get 3950X performance in a laptop format, but you can get laptops able to keep temps reasonable with 35-50W, and that’s what a lot of laptop SoCs target as total power.

Those SoCs hit (and sustain) their top clocks, whatever those are for that specific SKU.

What I understood from OP is a common complaint for macbooks, that fail consistently to sustain their specified to clocks, because Apple deliberately under specifies their cooling solutions for better ergonomics (and design reasons).

edit: two monitors is still a pain, though.

Microsoft make at least two, the Surface Keyboard [1] and the Ergonomic version [2]. I own several of the standard ones, and they're the best-made keyboards I've ever owned (and the only ones my joints can currently cope with), but the fact that they're Bluetooth instead of USB drives me insane. I'd pay extra for a wired version that just instantly sends the keystroke every time instead of going to sleep after a while (while it's awake it's instant, it just wants to save battery after being idle).

[1] https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/p/surface-keyboard/8r3rqvvfl...

[2] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/surface-ergonomic-keyboard...

not only is that hard, it's hard to find a bluetooth keyboard that isn't laggy as heck and doesn't occasionally freeze for a second or five. Or just give up until you re-pair it.

Maybe one of the next 20 that I try...

> How big, you ask? A wall size retina display! I've wanted one for 40 years.

I have always thought, since Digital Research GEM, that the "desktop" in GUIs should be your desk's top. We're nearly there...

With Thunderbolt/USB-C hubs, this is easily fixed.

At home, I have a similar setup but with a 27" colour-calibrated screen in place of the 34" curved.

When travelling, I use an unpowered four port dock which means I can connect five external drives without needing the powered dock and its power brick. The unpowered dock only struggles if I have more than a couple of platter drives (instead of SSD) connected.

You seem to assume it's the case that heats up to 80C or more, that's not true and also not necessary for NVMe SSDs to go over their limit. Your CPU/GPU has fans moving the heat away, that's a better position to be in...

There are all kinds of vendors / models, who knows what kind of throttling they use?

Back in the day, most CPUs had had a fixed clock, but these days modern Intel and AMD chips simply don't - they all clock opportunistically, which depends on powers, thermals, but also workload (try running an AVX-512 loads for example). How do you characterize "clock" in this context? Base (minimum) and Boost (hard limit, now split to Max Turbo <2C and All Boost MC) seem to be reasonably sensible numbers.

Now we can argue semantics all day, but to bring it back around if you're just going to say "top clocks" is what the SoC was designed for at a specific workload/power envelope (In AMD's PB, that'd be PPT, TDC, and EDC) then every laptops will "hit their top clocks with no issues," but I'd say that argument (statement?) is a bit circular/pointless. ;P

The couch is fine for reading a tablet.

For me the trick when moving back and forth between the office and home was to have an external drive with everything on it and carry it back and forth. A better approach is probably remote desktop or remote login.

I travel with a cheap laptop loaded with only what I anticipate needing on the trip. It eases my mind to not worry too much about having it stolen, lost, or smashed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzSIfxHppPY&t=375s

Read and learn! And then accept when an initial assumption turns out to be wrong.

The highest spec macbook comes with a 9980HK and starts at 2800 $. A 3900X has approximately twice the performance in multi-threaded workloads and you can easily build an entire quiet workstation with it for less than 1000 $. Half the performance, thrice the price. Great deal.

Yes, there are also "laptops" with a 3900X in them. But even those still have lower performance than a desktop with a 3900X because of thermals.

Specs can never tell the true story, but it's clear that the mobile processor is going to be much slower for anything remotely processor intensive, and probably much more than twice as slow for anything making good use of multithreading.

Having had to go back and forth between a laptop and a desktop for a processor intensive application (AutoCAD) the difference was painful.

Desktops are great.

The most limiting thing is TDP, which in the highest performance laptop processors is still capped at 45W, whereas a maxed out desktop processor can draw 100W or more.

See these tables for i9, for example, compare Coffee-Lake-S (Desktop) with Coffee-Lake-H (Laptop) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_i9_processo...

As a result, your 10 year old desktop is probably 50-100% faster than the most expensive Macbook Pro or Thinkpad. It can be quite astonishing swapping to even an old desktop after using a laptop for a long time.

Time after time, as someone who's been working on his 10 year old desktop (with a replacement ssd + graphics card when the old one died), I meet devs and analysts using laptops who reason more or less: "well it says i7 and it says x GHz and it says ddr3/4 and it's got a gpu with the same marketing number, so laptops perform the same as desktops cause they have the same hardware in them don't they".

Clearly, what they really mean is "I've never worked with and compared with a desktop". I suppose one of the problems is that SOME of them that have 'used desktops' were actually using neutered VMs in a shared corporate environment that run really poorly and are pretty underspec'd in a shared environment.

But every time, it's actually been the case that not only is the desktop faster and cheaper, but things usually remained faster on an X year old desktop hardware vs more modern laptops for any serious workload.

Edit: and in case it needs to be said, I have both desktops and multiple portable devices in my household because the downside of desktops is clearly portability.

More expensive, less performant, and less serviceable with a suite of proprietary bloatware on top.

Laptops being power-conscious, they're usually much closer to the point of maximum efficiency on the power curve. In that sense you get better performance per watt. But that's negated by the increased front cost.

At full load, it depends on the heat dissipation; Dell's Precision 7XX0 dissipates heat well enough to keep the CPUs from throttling, but the 5XX0 does not.

While we're mentioning other minor gotchas, another one is memory latency and bandwidth. While desktop systems commonly have XMP and 1.35V support, very few laptops do (typically running at JEDEC timings at 1.2V). While there's diminishing returns, the difference between JEDEC 2933 CL21 or 3200 CL22 and say 3800 CL16 can actually be noticeable in certain workloads and is often effectively "free" (one-click in the BIOS) extra performance on the desktops.

See: https://evanmccann.net/blog/2020/5/13-inch-macbook-pro-revie...

The larger the diameter of a fan, the lower the RPM it can spin at to move the same amount of air (same cooling capacity) as a small fan. Provided you can put the air where it's needed (e.g. a 1 foot fan can't "focus" air onto a 6 inch radiator) a larger fan will just about always be quieter and more efficient.

Oh, and having a water cooled PC with the radiator and fan inside the PC itself is silly. If you run the pipes outside or into your basement, your PC is almost completely silent, plus the cooling capacity will usually be much, much higher, because not having to cram fans and a radiator into a small enclosure lets you make them bigger and more efficient.

In my case I have a DDC style pump, and its very quiet after I got a car wash sponge and cut a square hole in it and put the pump inside. It looks ghetto but its inside a case so who cares.

At first I was worried about heat, but its lasted 10 years so far.