agreed. i think the big loser here is going to be linux and linux development. alternative systems generally are driven by end user dissatisfaction with the primary product. apple people (a growing segment but not a real market force numbers wise), will always be apple people. people try linux for a lot of reasons. i look after more than a few linux servers but bottom line, its a license /cost issue for the most part rather than a determination to go another way for ideology's sake. ( i will grant them their passion too, even if i dont join them). linux will serve you well on a desktop so long as you don't want it to do anything special, then it's a crap shoot.

the mobile computing market takeoff i personally find strange. when vista came along i tried dual booting vista with ubuntu just to get routine tasks done without studying for the law school admissions test while waiting for word to open. while a successful experiment, linux today still leaves me cold, laptops need to connect, and supported cards did not mean that you could do that easily or consistantly. a laptop that cannot perform reliably is called a brick.

not only will windows 7 (barring crapware from the manufacturers) not only bring laptops into an acceptable performance envelope, but will breath life into the laptops that have been forced on end users with vista preloaded.

my first question though, considering capability and cost, to a new client is what do you want a laptop for? desktops are considerably more capable machines, more adaptable and cheaper for a given performance spec. how many of the laps actually function in a mobile environment? still, numbers say that is the trend and if you build them, they will buy them.

Well said.

I especially like the last addition - I cannot for the life of me understand why so many people want laptops when they don't use a good variety of the functions of a laptop - mobile based computing.

I know one girl that has a laptop in her dorm room, always plugged in, never taken to class, she didn't even know it had its own battery. When I asked her why she got it the answer was "Oh, so I can use it on my bed or on the floor, and when I go home it is not so big and heavy to carry!"

And she goes home once a year.