Recently saw another post on twitter of a dev complaining about laptop maintenance issues. I had those pains myself and have been a happy desktop user since then. Going to talk about why I think everyone working with their computer should have a desktop.
My experience
I owned two laptop to this day, from toshiba and samsung. I’ve always used them heavily and they lasted about 2 years each before going to the graveyard. Here’s what I learned owning them
👎🏻 Serious repair is not possible since it costs as much as a new device
👎🏻Repair shops can “fix it“ for you but it’s likely the fix won’t last
👎🏻I missed having more graphics power
👎🏻Not much room for hardware expansion
👍🏻 I could use them in the couch
Then after these two babies I built my first PC, with an intel i7 skylake processor. Let’s look at the bullet points above from the desktop point of view:
👍🏻Serious repair is simple and you just buy the part that broke
👍🏻Repair shops can actually help you, but you don’t need them
👍🏻I can have as much graphics power as I can pay for
👍🏻I can add more hardware than I need
👎🏻 Can’t actually use in the couch
As you can see, the only downside the desktop has is that you can’t watch netflix on it while laying on your side in bed, but it nails all the other pain points. To be completely honest: the only time I thought my desktop was a pain was when I moved.
My two cents
Desktop excels in everything that really matters:
powerful
expansible
can easily be fixed
last a long time
cheaper and high return on $ spent
customizable
With a laptop you have all those as limitations. Your only net gain is that you can carry it around. Now consider this:
The only people that strictly need laptops are on a nomadic lifestyle.
I cannot think of any other type of person that has a no-brainer need for mobility of their computer. On the other hand, every single tech pro I know, either works from home, or from an office. My opinion is that you can have a desktop in these places where you’ll be working from.
Unless your workplace or your home changes weekly, you have no hard need for a laptop.
Now to address the need of an apple computer. If you really need an apple computer for work (which is really rare), their desktops can be very expensive, which leaves you with the macbook products that are cheaper. My opinion is simple:
If you really need a macbook, take on a loan to buy one. It should pay itself.
If you think a loan to buy a macbook sounds crazy, then I’m sorry to inform you do not need one.
That’s it
People, the list of benefits of a desktop goes on, I’m being nice here. Did I mention you can buy any screen you want for your desktop? The reason most people buy laptops is marketing alone. This drives me crazy. Unless your workplace or your home changes weekly, you have no hard need for a laptop.
I’d buy a laptop again to be honest, if I had the money to burn on a macbook. Would not buy pc again, I think they lose value much more quickly. I also admit it’s nice to have your computer on top of the table while you cook some random recipe on the weekend.
I hope this post encourages you to look at your options in buying a new computer in a new light.
Peace out people, see you in the next post 💻