Community Newsletter: Q&A: Considering a move to a laptop full time, any advice?

OK for my 80-year old dad

In reply to: Considering a move to a laptop full time, any advice? by Lee Koo (ADMIN) 

I had been building or buying computers for my father for many years. He never really did more than print pictures, browse AOL, and do his finances. He hated all the space and clutter a desktop requires. I suggested a laptop, and it was heaven-sent. He connects it to an all-in-one printer, the phone line, and a parallel printer. He has a USB mouse and keyboard, and his ports are all full, I think. He does not care if he loses all of his data, and the only time it leaves his desk is when I do upgrades and cleanups. He does not even want any external storage for backups, though I think that he should.

However, I read a long time ago, that the "dirty little secret" about laptops is that they drop dead in unexpected ways and are not easy or cheap to fix.

With my desktop, if the motherboard fails, I can go out and buy a new one and have it up and running again in a few hours, sometimes for as little as 50 bucks. Hard drive fails? Got them lying all over the house. Want to add some cool new thing? Just pop it in...and they are not always USB. Need RAM for a new OS? Pop in a couple more. I have three hard drives in the case, a DVD recorder, CD player, a floppy just in case, and USB ports up the ying-yang. Power supply fails? Usually have one or two lying around that were free-after-rebate ready to go. EVERYTHING is cheaper for a desktop, compared to laptop-specific hardware. Keyboard fails? 10 bucks down the street, and I don't have to go price shopping or buying parts off of ebay...they are all readily available locally, within a 10 minute drive. Cannot say that about laptop parts.

Personally, I have both, and then some. I don't use the good laptop too, too often, and hesitate taking it on trips because I don't want to lose it, but it sure comes in handy for a variety of reasons, and with the WIFI and all the wireless equipment we have in the house, I can drag it out to the pool on a hot summer's eve. The whole house is networked with Cat-5 (some of it running up through a hole in the ceiling in the corner of the family room behind a bookcase, going up into the floor of a closet in a spare bedroom, then snaked up into the attic and dropped into one more room, and soon into the bedroom so that we can watch Replay TV and other stuff up there too.

I also have a cheapo old laptop that we take on vacations, more for simple games, some word processing, and to back up pictures from the camera while we are away. I can plug it in or use wifi, as available on cruise ships or at hotels, for Internet access, and use MS Streets and Trips with GPS to see where the heck we are.

All that said, I would keep both, unless your requirements are simple, you don't mind plugging and unplugging all the time, and you do very regular backups and never fail to remember where your laptop is when you are out and about. I even use a locking cable to lock it into the trunk of the car. I would not foil a real thief, but it would help keep honest folks honest.

When I do use my better LT at home, I have an Ethernet cable always at the ready coming out of our router in the living room, there is a USB mouse right there, and the power supply is right by the desk, hanging there for easy access. Too, when it is not in use, I keep it in a neoprene slip cover, just in case a beer gets knocked over on the desk above!

BTW, I often dream of dumping all or some of the desktops and going for laptops, especially for my wife, but they are just too vulnerable to spills, failure and theft. Give me a good, solid desktop any day, for all around computing power in the house.

Cheers,
Cogito