Laptop Notes

In the past few years, laptops have taken over from desktops. There are many reasons for this, but here are a few of the big ones. Most of these are applicable to everyone, but especially for students using their own laptop.

• Portability - take it to meetings, conferences, home, etc.
• Size - it fits on the table in a coffee shop or airport seat
• Upgrades - laptops are not as upgradable, but this has become less necessary. Two key parts, memory and hard drive, are usually very easy to upgrade in today's laptops
• Personalization - personal settings and files can be mixed with work if it is your own computer

However, laptops have significant disadvantages:

• More expensive for the same hardware
• Use smaller screens (and today's desktops often support dual monitors)
• When the battery dies they are more or less useless

In November 2007, ComputerWorld did an article titled 10 things we hate about laptops:

• 1. Battery life still bombs.
• 2. Laptops get banged up and broken.
• 3. They're tough to fix, and they die young.
• 4. They get lost.
• 5. They're difficult to secure, digitally and physically ...
• 6. ... and security precautions make users nuts.
• 7. Wi-Fi is still the Wild, Wild West.
• 8. Laptops spawn a new breed of uber-entitled user.
• 9. They're too big or too small.
• 10. Software performance just ain't the same.