I can see your point and to a degree yes, I think most people will tend to err on the side of laptops over a desktop. However, it will be a long time before gamers/graphics people will move to a laptop over a desktop.

Personally I still use the two, but my iBook gets more use than my iMac.

Big Gorram Line of the Week

"Well… my sister's a ship. We had a complicated childhood."

I want a laptop so's I can be more comfy during 7 hour 'chats'!!

The keyboards are still tiny tho!

Party!

That's ok, so am I!

(I just tried to delete this and put it where it belongs, but i couldn't.

I'm not used to having these things threaded!)

The keyboards have improved a lot though... I actually prefer my old Thinkpad's keyboard to any full-size keyboard I've used, I always use it if I'm working from home. To be honest, the only thing we use the desktop for now is storage, really - of things like photos and itunes - because it's got two 40gb drives in it compared with the piddling (and slow) 20gb drive in the laptop. Also it has USB2 so it connects better with things like cameras and ipods. Virtually everything else I prefer to do on the old laptop, even though (on paper) it's the lesser machine...

Giz has a point of course, I'm not a gamer at all so it doesn't bother me too much that my laptop's graphics are woefully inadequate... that said, are PC games still a big deal? I get the impression most people are moving over to consoles for that kind of thing these days, now that boxes like the 360 and PS3 are pretty much matching PC specs?

On a separate note - Giz, when did you become 100% mac? I never noticed!

Delete! Delete!

I was having a look at that today coincidently. You can get a 500Gb internal desktop hard drive for under £60! Put that together with a cheap external housing, and you've got half a terrabyte of portable storage for under £75 (+p&p)

PCs are still the platform of choice for MMO and 1st Person Shooters so it's still a big market though you are right in saying most are now migrating to consoles, I myself primarily play games on my 360. As for going 100% Mac, it pretty much happened in February when I purchased my iMac but I still used my PC now and then. However that machines motherboard went a month or so ago so I passed it on to Legionary as I didn't see the point in repairing it.

Big Gorram Line of the Week

"Well… my sister's a ship. We had a complicated childhood."

I'm such a gamer I had to just go look up what MMO meant

I can just see we're moving more towards little boxes that excel in particular areas, rather than one big box that does everything, a la the monolithic PCs of old. In a way its the reverse of this convergence we've been hearing about for years; just using the Mac model as an example, you might have an Imac for storage and intensive apps, an Ibook for everyday work & internet, an Apple TV under your set for video entertainment, an ipod in your pocket for music, and maybe a (non-apple) Wii for games, all replacing that one big PC you might have bolted together to meet all those needs in the past.

I suppose the one big change that has driven all this is actually wireless... before I got our router, using the laptop for anything internet was a big pain in the arse compared to the PC with its permanent physical connection in one place, but now it's all connected over the air that's all changed...

Delete! Delete!

I'm definitely with you on wireless, it's made home life and use of laptops etc such an easy thing. In fact I'd say wireless is one of those things that you go 'how did we cope before...?' You've also correctly guessed my usage of my machines though I don't particularly want an Apple TV, Mac mini maybe

Big Gorram Line of the Week

"Well… my sister's a ship. We had a complicated childhood."

This is where the comment "...so am I!" was meant to go, obv!

well, I have a laptop myself, 3,5 years old now and after a little upgrade of RAM I can still use it perfectly for my programming etc : two Netbeans (java IDE) open, one of which running a server, it works perfectly. But I do use a seperate keyboard, an external mouse, and a second screen (with higher resolution) but that just means dual monitor which is great And when I'm not in Ghent I can still just take my laptop and I can work on it without all the exterior stuff here at home (though you always need a mouse ofcourse). The battery of the laptop is completely broken, so I can't just move around whenever I want to, but I can still bring it to work to show my presentation / program on my own machine etc, so I think it still has many advantages. I don't see the need for a PC, I don't game and I don't need a good graphics card.

So I'm pretty sure when this old thing gives up on me (which it will soon enough, even now sometimes the screen won't lit up) I will just buy a new laptop

i love my desktop. but i do play a lot of games (a poorly carpal tunnelley wrist keeps me from playing too many console games) and i constantly use several high-powered programs when i'm working that probably wouldnt do quite as well on a laptop (i can't imagine that i would be able to run Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign all at once on a basic laptop, let alone with email, itunes and several browser open). dont get me wrong.. i'm sure there are some laptops out there that would be able to handle the job and still ask for more, but once you start adding those options in, they're just a little out of my budget.

i don't care no i wouldn't dare to fix the twist in you (Sick Puppies : All The Same)