Laptop or Desktop no Longer a Valid Question? Part 3 of 3

Author: Tony Stockill

Other features of the desktop not completely duplicated in the laptop include expansion devices, such as DVD burners, and bigger and better hard drives. There is room in the larger desktops for these devices, but the laptop must either use an external connection, or use swappable drives, for example a cd/dvd drive can be unplugged, and a floppy drive, or HDD substituted. The standard, in the early days, PCMCIA card (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) later known as the PC card was used for many different kinds of external connections, from network adapters to modems to various drives etc.


The PC card connection has largely disappeared from laptops, being replaced by many of the components being incorporated internally, for example network, both wired and wireless. The serial port, along with the printer, or parallel port, part of the original PC specification were for many years the only suitable interface for making connections, and operating external equipment. These were frequently used to allow the laptop user to visit the location of certain types of equipment, to make adjustments, or retrieve data from a project, or experiment. To some extent this required programming the laptop PC to perform the required function, plus special connecting cables.

Gradually replacing this function, the USB, or Universal Serial Bus, introduced many years ago on laptops, but only taken up by component manufacturers comparatively recently, has made it very easy to attach devices without powering down the computer, a task often fraught with risks in the earlier days of unstable OSs and devices. Now that hardware and software for the USB has finally caught up with the rest of the world, the later laptops have dispensed with several ports it can replace. For example, the serial bus, the printer bus, the ps2, or mouse port, keyboard connector, PC card connector etc. The main problem now, is the lack of USB ports provided on the laptop!

Other possibilities available to the laptop user include the Docking Station. This allows the user to connect external devices such as keyboard, mouse, network, monitor etc. plus power merely by 'docking' the laptop. This is now the equivalent of having the desktop under the desk, where it can be kicked and the cables tangled! When the user wishes to go home, or to a meeting, etc., he merely undocks the laptop and takes it with him.

So what conclusions can we draw to answer our initial question? Is there really any need for a desktop when the laptop has equivalent features, including, now, price? test after test carried out by reputable organisations, reported on our website http://notebook-tests.com show the improved, and improving capabilities of the laptop. A glance at the sales figures shows what people are thinking. Laptops are selling in greater numbers than desktops. Of course there will always be a requirement for a computer which can sit there on the desk, or bench, which can be expanded or adapted at will, and which can control or link to a network. But even this is changing. Already familiar in the service bureau environment, the desktop computer now exists in a drawer, which can be slid out of the cabinet to monitor or operate the bank of servers, or whatever it is attached to.

About the Author:
Tony is a retired computer engineer, now working from home on the internet, he regularly publishes websites, see Notebook Tests.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Laptop or Desktop no Longer a Valid Question? Part 3 of 3