zeffyr: I don't have a desk, so I'm playing with the laptop on my knees. I need only a power cord, since I don't use an external monitor and I can use a bluetooth mouse.
And it takes less space than with a desktop PC. Period. :)
you are talking about portability. if you did have a desk and you used your bluetooth mouse you would use more space than a desktop computer.
so no. you are using more space. whether its more convenient to use laptop over desktop is not relevant.
timppu: I still have a desktop PC (actually two) as well, and I can't really agree with that. A monitor and a keyboard for my desktop PC does not take less space than my laptop with a mouse (it has the monitor and keyboard integrated into it).
but yes it does...
in my case.
a keyboard is as long as my laptop but its half its width. with monitor they take pretty much exact amount of space.
but:
power cord, mouse cable, headphone cable. they all take space on the desk which would be empty if i was sitting on a desktop.
furthermore: monitor sits at the end of the table. a space which is less useable than front which is easily reachable. So more space to use on your desk
And I don't really see much difference whether the USB cable of the mouse goes to the side of my laptop, or the back of the tower PC on the floor. If anything, the latter is more inconvenient, if the cord gets tangled with the power and monitor cables and you have to crawl under the desk to sort it out.
really?
usb mouse takes around 2cm^2 area on left side of my laptop. this is a lot of space wasted on cable. my headphones with their 5cm long jack are even more annoying. furthermore cable lies across the table instead of gong straight towards the wall. so even more space wasted.
your argument about cables being tangled is invalid. i don't deny laptop has benefits. i deny the fact that its space saver.
Anyway, I mostly use a wireless mouse (and occasionally a keyboard) with my laptop anyway, so...
wireless mouse would solve one of the issues no doubt...
but you also use extra keyboard. how does that prove that laptop takes less space when you have a second keyboard. do you use both keyboards at once or is second keyboard performing a task your laptop keyboard for some reason cant do?
The main advantage of the laptop is not really the space savings on a table either, but that it is far more easier to use it anywhere (coffee table in the living room, kitchen table etc.), and put away completely in the cupboard if needed. A desktop PC permanently occupies one table (and sometimes even a whole room) at your home.
not discussing portability. irrelevant.
a computer occupying a whole room hasn't happened in 50 years. so not sure what you mean by that.
Naturally if you have set up a whole desktop environment for your laptop, with external monitors, docking stations, external hard drives, printers, fax machines, telex machines, tube radios, B&W TVs etc., then there are no space savings either. But even then you can still take the laptop out of the docking station, and continue using it in e.g. the living room or elsewhere.
portability =/= space saving.
zeffyr said that desktop wastes space in comparison to laptop. portability of laptop allows you to shift the space used by computer but it definitely does not take less space than desktop.
