Even six months ago if you had asked me if I would be willing to trade in my desktop computer for exclusive use of a laptop I would have said you were nuts. Sure I would have loved to have a laptop as an extra machine to be able to sit out on our tiny patio and enjoy the sun - but give up the machine sitting on my desktop with dual monitors - never.
But that was six months ago and even in that short period of things have changed. I no longer do any real development work which pretty well dictated the need for that powerhouse that has become an almost permanent fixture in my office. Now I find myself spending most of my time doing things related to the web; whether it be hacking away my themes or reading and writing about technology on my blogs.
Heck I’m not even a big game player although it would be really nice to have the best in video and power to be able to play them but those things are no longer the end all be all of having a powerhouse of a machine. Mind you the one really big thing that would be hurtful in moving away from a desktop monstrosity is my dual monitor (with dreams of having three) because they have become a real work / time saver for me.
The fact is though that if the little things like dual monitors and game quality specs could be found in a laptop that I could afford (ya .. okay so we’re still dreaming here) I could easily see taking the two desktop machines I have and with a bit up hard drive upgrading making a good media center for my wife and a good server machine to deal with the rest.
Yes I do believe the time is coming when I could with a few tears easily say good bye to being tied down to my desk in front of a machine whose time really is numbered.
As Mark Evans said in a post today
Think about it this way: With 3G, Wi-Fi, cloud computing, the growing popularity of smart devices such as the iPhone and Blackberry, more people want their computing devices to be with them at all times. By being able to connect to the Internet, there’s less of a need to be fixed in one place and, as a result, less of a need to buy a desktop unless you’re a business looking for cheap computers that can’t easily escape from the office.
While a lot of this thought process is really nothing more than glorified window shopping it is nice to think of not being tied to an inside desk doing what I love when I could be doing the same thing sitting outside with a cup of coffee and enjoying watching my dog basking in the sun.
Oh well it is nice to daydream - as long as it doesn’t involve a MacBook Pro 
