Do You Still Have A 'Desktop' PC/Mac @ Home ?

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan When I bought my MacBook Air in January I also bought a Belkin Thunderbolt 2 dock which is permanently connected to my big monitor, ethernet cable to the router plus 4 USB devices. This means I only have 1 cable plus power to attach to turn it into a desktop look-alike. (I also have a full size keyboard and mouse at my computer desk) I haven't had a desktop for at least 8 years. I also have a 3.5 year old iPad and an iPhone. The new MacBook is so light and just as fast waking up or booting from scratch as the iPad that I don't see me replacing the iPad. (The MacBook has an SSD instead of an HDD hence the speed waking up and booting) A good test will be over the next 6 months when I plan on traveling only with the iPhone and MacBook.

Your dock/monitor/keyboard/mouse setup does make a desktop unnecessary. Traveling with only your phone and Macbook shouldn't be too bad. You'll probably miss the big monitor though.

I usually bring my phone, iPad, and Macbook when we travel. But Dw says I can only take the iPad or laptop on our next 2 trips. I may try to do them with only phone and iPad. Hopefully I can survive with an iPad and no computer for a couple of weeks here and there. Or maybe Macbook and no iPad.

In your experience, would England/Ireland be better with an iPad or laptop? Or no difference?

[Aerides]

Yes, because video games.

[Alan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronstar Your dock/monitor/keyboard/mouse setup does make a desktop unnecessary. Traveling with only your phone and Macbook shouldn't be too bad. You'll probably miss the big monitor though. I usually bring my phone, iPad, and Macbook when we travel. But Dw says I can only take the iPad or laptop on our next 2 trips. I may try to do them with only phone and iPad. Hopefully I can survive with an iPad and no computer for a couple of weeks here and there. Or maybe Macbook and no iPad. In your experience, would England/Ireland be better with an iPad or laptop? Or no difference?

I don't think you'll find a difffernce if you are not looking to use spreadsheets and such. The reason I want to take the laptop this time is because it is 6 months and I really want to use spreadsheets. I have a spreadsheet app for the iPad and have done long trips twice with it but it is very limiting. By long trips I mean 5 months or more. DW takes her laptop on these trips for when I've needed the extra functionality.

I carry a thunderbolt to HDMI cable so can use a TV as a monitor which is my plan for the coming 6 months in the house we are renting in England.

[target2019]

This thread sounds very familiar.

In my home office there are four desktops. There are two large monitors - 25 and 26. Also, two notebooks, one 10" nexus tablet, android phone, iphone.

[explanade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronstar Your dock/monitor/keyboard/mouse setup does make a desktop unnecessary. Traveling with only your phone and Macbook shouldn't be too bad. You'll probably miss the big monitor though. I usually bring my phone, iPad, and Macbook when we travel. But Dw says I can only take the iPad or laptop on our next 2 trips. I may try to do them with only phone and iPad. Hopefully I can survive with an iPad and no computer for a couple of weeks here and there. Or maybe Macbook and no iPad. In your experience, would England/Ireland be better with an iPad or laptop? Or no difference?

What do you do with your photos? Both your permanent library at home and backing up the photos you take during a trip?

[jim584672]

I built my own a few years ago.
Intel i5 2500K 4 core, 8GB DDR3, 250 SSD (Ubuntu 14.04 LTS), 120 SSD (Win 10), 120 SSD (Win XP), Nvidia 460 graphics. I use a Sony 40" TV for the monitor.

I love a speedy Desktop, can't stand tablets/phones.

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by explanade What do you do with your photos? Both your permanent library at home and backing up the photos you take during a trip?

I keep them on an external drive that I access from both laptop and desktop. And I take the external drive on trips where I take the laptop. For laptop free trips, I just stockpile the photos on memory cards until I get home. My camera has dual card slots, and I have one card as a copy of the other for backup.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

[Fedup]

I still have 2 desktops, my husband uses my daughter's old laptop, I have an iPad. I will always have one desktop because it's a lot cheaper. I'm thinking of a new iPad, but no laptop for me.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

[explanade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronstar I keep them on an external drive that I access from both laptop and desktop. And I take the external drive on trips where I take the laptop. For laptop free trips, I just stockpile the photos on memory cards until I get home. My camera has dual card slots, and I have one card as a copy of the other for backup. Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

That's a good setup but I have an SSD on my laptop and a fusion drive on my desktop and an external drive would be noticeably slower for loading photos, editing them.

I could probably get used to it but I'm already juggling 3 externals for backups.

[ownyourfuture]

Quote:

Originally Posted by target2019 This thread sounds very familiar. In my home office there are four desktops. There are two large monitors - 25 and 26. Also, two notebooks, one 10" nexus tablet, android phone, iphone.

Was there a similar thread recently ?

[ownyourfuture]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim584672 I built my own a few years ago. Intel i5 2500K 4 core, 8GB DDR3, 250 SSD (Ubuntu 14.04 LTS), 120 SSD (Win 10), 120 SSD (Win XP), Nvidia 460 graphics. I use a Sony 40" TV for the monitor. I love a speedy Desktop, can't stand tablets/phones.

Nice!
Nothing against tablets/phones, but I waste enough time on the Internet with my desktop. No need for it in the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, garage, etc.

[Retch The Grate]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ownyourfuture If so, do you plan to buy another one when that one goes kaput ? If not, do you ever plan to purchase one ? I'll be honest, I'm trying to get my arms around the home desktop market. I own Intel stock, & the slowdown in this segment has held it back for the last 4 or 5 years.

Yes I own a desktop and yes I will replace it in a few years when upgrading it is less worthwhile. It will be getting a new high end graphics card in a month or two when my HTC Vive shows up.

[niven]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stepford Yep, Grandpa loves his Grandpa Box:

Show me someone who can do all their work on phones and tablets and I'll show you someone who can probably be let go.

[ownyourfuture]

Quote:

Originally Posted by niven Show me someone who can do all their work on phones and tablets and I'll show you someone who can probably be let go.

Nice!

[Katsmeow]

Yes, I have a desktop. Yes, I will get another one. Part of it is that I like using dual monitors and I like having the power you can have with a desktop. I did recently replace my SSD drive for one that was larger.

That said, yes, I agree that many people don't use desktop computers or even laptops. I do have an iPad Pro and use it quite a bit for casual stuff online but don't use it for higher productivity stuff. It is fine for web surfing.

I have a blog and I look at the traffic to my blog. Currently, about half my traffic is mobile (I can't imagine reading a blog on a phone, but obviously people do), 1/3 is desktop and the remainder is tablet.

[target2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ownyourfuture Was there a similar thread recently ?

There was a similar thread. Now I get to post the picture again.

It's all good. People seem to have many distinct purposes for these devices. Some users are general purpose. Others require specific apps which are kinda ridiculous on a smaller screen.

Yesterday, brought home work notebook. Burned 1gb of important photos to a DVD. Took that to the 17-inch notebook . Installed and used various photo processing utilities for trial. Then used Picasa to quickly create a distributable contact sheet library in html.

Your toolbox. Flexibility. Happy customer.

[dixonge]

This is an interesting post. I think that the technological trend driving all of this is the separation of data and apps from hardware. Once your data and/or apps are cloud-based then the old paradigms fall away. As a touch-typist w/ a fairly high typing speed I prefer keyboard-centric computing. But I can use a compact bluetooth keyboard with a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop or a desktop PC. Give me a wireless keyboard and a large monitor and I can compute w/ just a smartphone, no desktop PC required. I can either take one piece of hardware with me, or keep separate pieces of hardware for separate purposes.

In practice, I currently do most computing that involves typing on my laptop. The wife does as well. Smartphones and tablets are mostly for reading/consuming and minor communications (texts/status updates/etc.). My only desktop is at work, using dual monitors.

[athena53]

DH has a desktop and I'll probably never wean him away from it, which is OK. He prefers a big screen and a full-size keyboard. I have a "transformer" which can be docked or used as a tablet and I've never been able to get used to the tablet format.

I LOVE my smartphone, though.

[frayne]

Mac mini here with a full size keyboard and 26" monitor. Also have iPads, Macbook Air and I phone. Just prefer to be sitting at a desk with my desktop when I'm at home.

[misanman]

We have a desktop that functions more like a server (4TB of disk). Although it has a monitor I access it almost always using RDP from a laptop. DW has an "all-in-one". She use to have a laptop but it never ever moved so the all-in-one gives her a big screen without taking up a lot of space. There are 5 laptops but only two of them are actively being used. The iPAD mostly collects dust unless the grandkids are over and want to play games. I use a Fire tablet for streaming video (easier to hold than the iPAD). And a Kindle (or the Fire) for ebooks.