We live in an incredible age. We all carry the '90s equivalent of supercomputers in our pockets. Computers have never been faster, but it doesn't feel that way, does it? It's not you. The act of computing has been deteriorating in various subtle ways. Note that I don't say computers are getting worse; it's the act of using a computer that's declining.
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Not too long ago, about 15 years ago when I began my career in web development, most people conducted their computing on workstations — desktop computers with separate monitors, keyboards, and mice. Artists, programmers, designers, video editors, musicians, educational YouTubers, producers, and creators of all kinds relied on these setups. Laptops simply didn't pack enough power for tasks like graphics design, video editing, or handling large programming projects. They were reserved for simpler, portable tasks like browsing the web and writing notes during lectures. The understanding was that serious work often demanded a desktop.
Then, a calamity struck the world of computing. Laptops suddenly became just powerful enough to handle nearly every task. If one were to pinpoint a watershed moment, it would likely be the release of Intel Atom in 2008, marking the beginning of the end. Laptop performance and battery life hovered slightly above mediocre. Combined with most applications being offloaded to remote servers accessed via browsers, laptops surged in popularity. Hardware manufacturers swiftly pivoted their focus almost entirely toward this now-preferred form factor.
Today, little has changed in the realm of desktops. Workstation machines still eclipse laptops in terms of power. Just ask any PC gamer—the performance disparity remains evident. Desktop performance hasn't stagnated; it has continued to progress. While laptop performance has undeniably increased, we've simply diverted our attention away from it. Both have seen improvements, yet desktops persist in maintaining their enormous lead.
With a desktop, you still receive significantly more value for your money. Despite innovations in portable computing power, physics presents a challenge. The miniaturization of components to fit into a sleek, lightweight laptop isn't without compromise. Heat becomes a significant problem in this scenario.
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Transcript summary generated with youtubetranscript.com. This transcript was given to ChatGPT 3.5 to fix formatting issues on copy. It also rephrased some sentences for better reading comprehension.
This video seems to explain very well how I feel about desktops vs laptops.
I don't need a powerful portable machine if I can't really make use of the portability. I don't like working with a small keyboard and small screen. So in any case, I always plugged my laptop into the outlet, connected external keyboard and mouse and screen. So for the money that I would pay for a powerful laptop, I could get a nice wireless keyboard + mouse, a good screen and still buy a more powerful machine which only lacks in portability. As long as the mainboard is not too old, this machine will also be easily upgradable in the future.
What is your view on this?
Do you use a laptop or a desktop machine as your daily driver? Why?
Btw, do you even say desktop? Most of the times, these machines don't really sit on top of desks. So if we want to sound intellectually pedantic, we should call them "deskdowns".
Laptop60.6%
Desktop39.4%
33 votes \ poll ended
With a desktop, you still receive significantly more [computing value and zero portability value] for your money.
I'm writing this from my laptop, stationed on my lap, which is how I use it at home because my rental is 600sqft and lacks a desk. At work, I plug it into a monitor with a proper keyboard and mouse. When I'm doing SNL, I bring it to the show so that I can see what I'm talking about when my cohost is gyrating and looking for dank memes. When I travel, I bring it so I can work in the airport or my hotel room or in a coffee shop. If my computer is portable so is my work.
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I have a small home also, but find an external mouse, keyboard, and large monitor really help my productivity and pay for itself quickly.
This is the style I use, but I made it myself through trial and error. Take care of your back, hands, and eyes, @k00b I want SN to stick around for a long time!
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600 sq ft? Tiny home?
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No just an old home. Tiny homes are more like 200 sqft I’d guess
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when my cohost is gyrating and looking for dank memes
Shots fired
or in a coffee shop
I tried this but I always got some form of homesickness when using a laptop while I'm not at home which made me feel frustrated while using the laptop. Using a laptop always felt like having spotty internet: Just enough to get something done, but bad enough to get very frustrated while doing it. (Writing this makes me aware that it might be a very personal issue, lol)
However, I have to admit that I still own multiple laptops and I don't want to miss them.
I think it's very handy to have a laptop at hand. But I try to avoid using one as much as I can. The ones I have are very cheap Thinkpads that I bought used from eBay for less than €100. They can't do much but that fits exactly my use case for them: I am not even trying to do much with them, lol
If my computer is portable so is my work.
Mhh, makes sense. Sounds like different lifestyles. But the question might be if your laptop is adapting to you or if you're adapting to your laptop. At least that's what I always wonder when I notice the impact some technologies have on me. Smartphones are the best example.
@ekzyis do check out framework laptops. They might partially change your stance.
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Yeah, if you have the space, go for a desktop.
But for many big cities, space is incredibly expensive, so I don't want to use my expensive space with a box.
Much nicer to have a sleek screen with everything built-in.
Also you can just grab it and go somewhere else if you can't work there for any reason.
Portability of the laptop is more of a backup and space savings these days.
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Portability and cloud computing are king. I can code on the toilet, in a car, in bed, at a coffee shop.. anywhere. If I need to run an intensive AI workflow I can spin up some Google/Microsoft compute and pay pennies for it.
I did watch that video, and he makes great content, and I AGREE with him. But laptops are amazing. My laptop is also more powerful than I need 95% of the time anyways... I can also dock it for a more traditional setup (although with the same thermal limitations, etc)
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I use a Laptop as it is more mobile ready because in my work I have to always be on a move.
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I use a desktop as my daily driver, at work I used to use a laptop with an external monitor and keyboard.
My reason for picking a desktop is to have a cheap computer, mine is a secondhand one so it was even cheaper.
The greatness of laptops is to take your work with you and have a working device in places where a desktop is unfeasible, like an airport for example.
After an accident where I had to stay at home and my work wasn't accessible and had to go to my office (a whole hour of commute 🥲) just to send it to myself and go back home right after, I started to look for a way to fix the issue.
This is when I thought about what I really needed to take with me. It wasn't the computer itself but what I did in it, so I started experimenting with remote development environments (I'm a web developer) and eventually moved my entire workflow to a VPS, now it doesn't matter where I am or what I use, I can work everywhere.
Now my desktop became a thin client for connecting to the VPS, my laptop is gathering dust as a lightweight Chromebook replaced it and occasionally I also use my phone as an on-the-go device.
As I'm upgrading my desk (thanks Santa! 🎅) I'm planning to save some more space by buying an even cheaper computer, probably a mini PC or a raspberry pi 4 (or something similar) as the computing power is not required locally, all I need is a terminal and a browser after all.
Also, no worries of downtimes or losing data, even if everything is on fire. 🔥😎🔥
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This is when I thought about what I really needed to take with me. It wasn't the computer itself but what I did in it, so I started experimenting with remote development environments (I'm a web developer) and eventually moved my entire workflow to a VPS, now it doesn't matter where I am or what I use, I can work everywhere.
Now my desktop became a thin client for connecting to the VPS, my laptop is gathering dust as a lightweight Chromebook replaced it and occasionally I also use my phone as an on-the-go device.
This. I didn't move my workflow to a VPS though. I use a VPS as a (WireGuard) VPN gateway. This means I can connect to any device from any other device and from anywhere. I only need to have a internet connection. The best part is that I can start/stop/restart some services or check why something isn't working from my phone. If it's a simple fix, I can even fix it from my phone using mobile data. It feels like this is how the internet was meant to be used, haha
However, I am still missing the last piece to fully make use of this setup: to actually have a remote development environment. I intend to setup neovim to match my existing VSCode workflow. When I got comfortable with developing in neovim, I should be able to simply SSH into my machine at home and have a native development experience.
I know that VSCode supports remote development using SSH, but I think it would need a better internet connection than just running neovim on the machine I SSH'd into. I didn't test this though, so maybe this is a wrong assumption.
Maybe I just want to learn neovim as a even better version of vim since I really like vim.
As I'm upgrading my desk (thanks Santa! 🎅) I'm planning to save some more space by buying an even cheaper computer, probably a mini PC or a raspberry pi 4 (or something similar) as the computing power is not required locally, all I need is a terminal and a browser after all.
Mhh, that sounds interesting! You would have an extremely portable computer then. The peripherals would take up more space than the actual computer, haha
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I didn't move my workflow to a VPS though. I use a VPS as a (WireGuard) VPN gateway.
At first I used my personal PC as a server over Tailscale, but it was too noisy so I just keep some services I don't want/need to host on a remote server.
If it's a simple fix, I can even fix it from my phone using mobile data. It feels like this is how the internet was meant to be used, haha
I said occasionally, but I actually did quite some work from my phone, since I found writing with the phone's keyboard surprisingly ergonomic with good key bindings through the GBoard on US layout.
When I got comfortable with developing in neovim.
My setup use SSH exclusively, I connect to the server and run a tmux session with just my dev server and editor.
I used neovim daily without much issue even before switching, I never actually used VS Code except for showing an intern how to set things up easily.
Neovim is an amazing editor and you can actually embed in VS Code through a plugin, (not an emulator, the actual neovim core) and I learned to use it in just a week, I simply forced myself to use it exclusively and without having a "backup" I could only learn it.
Nowadays, I use helix, to some it might feel like a downgrade, but the only plugins I used are what helix offers built-in so it's much better to me, I decided to switch because my neovim setup wasn't working on my raspberry pi and phone (locally) without taking too much resources or freezing.
neovim is an amazing editor but it's hard to use due to it's modal nature, helix is the same but it reverse the actions, that means you can "see" what you act on before doing so.
For example, in vim/neovim you change a word like this: ciw, but in helix you first w and on the active selection do the c so it's much more visual.
I recommend helix to beginners to modal editing, you can then switch to neovim later or simply stay with helix, an editor is a personal choice.
I tend to still use both of them without any issues.
The peripherals would take up more space than the actual computer, haha
Yeah. 😅 Luckily, I can mount the mini PC or the raspberry pi directly on the back of the main monitor (on a dual monitor setup) saving even more space, I switched everything possible peripheral to a wireless type and now I just have the power plugs and monitors cables in the way. ✌️
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I use a laptop which has its keyboard detachable. It has the main advantage of being easy to use as a tablet and easy to use as a computer. Also since the keyboard is detachable I can use the laptop as an external screen, and can also use an external mouse with bluetooth. To avoid buying a tablet to read books, this is a good trade off. I think for people who read paper books though a desktop would be definitely better. I had shoulder pain at one time by using a laptop all the time with my upper body position which derives from the height of the screen. This got solved by elevating the screen. So bottom line, to use the screen as an ebook reader, the surface pro or the rog flow z13 I think are good tradeoffs. It has also the advantage of being portable enough to travel and is reusable as a desktop.
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I have a laptop hp victus with an nvidia geforce rtx and an amd processor and it goes very very fast. In a game called warofthunders that is very realistic i put it in maximum quality and it works me fine
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