Is that really the only place you use your computer?
I'm a consultant, working part time at an office, and I am doing a masters and generally just enjoy coding as a hobby. My use case is something like:
I develop on my couch, I develop at home, I develop on the train, I develop in the dining room, I develop in my own room, I sometimes write some quick code while on the bus during my commute, and I write code at my university. I also bring this same computer to work and use it to develop there.
Oh, and I also sometimes enjoy gaming with my friends at their place, with the same computer.
Why on earth would I restrict myself to a stationary computer when I can have a portable one that I can take everywhere I want with no hassle?
In my circles the only people that have a stationary computer are people that use it for gaming, and even then they still have a laptop on which they do everything else.
The risk / reward ratio is just too high.
EDIT: Of course, I'll acknowledge that not everyone can be in the position of dictating what they use for work and requirements my force you to.
I don't see this mentioned often but the ergonomics of a laptop are rather poor, you'll end up with RSI much quicker that with a desktop. And this can become quite debilitating.
I don't think this is an issue for a couple of hours usage a day, but I would not want to spend all my computer time on a cramped keyboard with my head down.
The head down thing though is valid. It can be mitigated by having a stand or a monitor. I mostly deal with it by just taking a small break every now and then, although that's more related to sitting down than my head position.
A couple of reasons come to mind.
1) Price and value. With the exception of all-in-ones and the 2013 Mac Pro, desktop computers can be upgraded, repaired, and you get a lot more for what you pay than a laptop. Also a desktop machine usually lasts a lot longer than a laptop.
2) Flexibility. Laptops are now more than ever closed systems with soldered parts. Which means that (like an iPad) you don't usually have many options available.
3) Power. This is an obvious one, but to get performance you still need a huge laptop or a desktop.
I recon none of these points will make much sense if you absolutely need mobility, but as someone that has both a desktop and laptop I see value in both form factors.
At my desk I use a dock to connect 3 high resolution monitors to my laptop via a single USB-C port, which works really well as a replacement for a desktop PC, then I can disconnect it, go to a coffee shop or a conference and continue working without even having to close my IDE.
Now we are at the point where your laptop can confortably drive a couple of monitors when you want it to, but can also be portable and light with good battery life when you want it to, you don't need a desktop PC.
Also, if you work in multiple places, you can have a couple of screens and a keyboard/mouse on your desk in each place, rock up with your laptop, and plug in.
For a good portion of work a laptop can do everything a "desktop" can, including big monitors and additional keyboard/mouse. And it has the added benefit of taking it anywhere. It's a desktop when you want it, and a laptop when you want it.
Sure, there are plenty of resource intensive applications that would be better suited for a desktop, but i highly value the mobility. And i work in a very strict 9-5, (nearly) no work is taken home past clock-out. Barring freak outages of course (i have yet to see one in my time here, \o/)
edit: Fighting my comma demon.
Can you explain this part? What's the mobility getting you that's worth maybe halving your RAM (for example) for?
Sure, ram is always nice, but i am able to do my work and take my laptop (which i also code for fun on) wherever i am. Hotels/couch/offices/etc.
I'm not stuck to a single spot, in a single room, in a single building. It's a really, really important feature to me. Even just at my house i move around the house frequently.
Sure, that makes sense - from the way you said you only worked 9-5 I took that to mean you were talking about a work computer.
I know that technically breaks the rule of "strictly 9-5", but i think nearly all jobs have people on explicit or implicit pager duty. Even if you don't have to do anything 12 months out of the year, it might happen, you might need to respond.
/shrug
Keep in mind this has never happened for me. Nor do any of my home plans change because i like to be available. And even at my last employer (for example), i liked to be available despite us having a planned & paid for pager duty rotation. Why would my employer pay me extra for not doing anything at nights 365 days/y? I like to be potentially available, it's my choice :)
If you have meaningful ownership (not just a handful of probably-worthless stock options) then by all means work as much as you like. But if you're an employee then it's not as simple as just being your choice, you're forcing your colleagues into a race to the bottom. There's a good reason we have laws about e.g. unpaid overtime.
I don't really need heavy compute in front of me - all that's done up in AWS, GCP, etc.
I could in theory get away with a Chromebook with a really decent term: I'd ssh into a VPS and tmux in there, and do my workflow would be over there. I have a colleague who has this setup and he's able to successfully work on nothing more than an iPad Pro if he needs to, including with remote pairing with another developer, talking to each other via various voice call apps on his phone. It works surprisingly well.
As to form factor, being able to take my code into meetings is frequently useful, being able to move desks to pair side by side with somebody in another part of the building, that is all useful.
A powerful desktop would be interesting for me if I wanted to do more compute in front of me, and might even be cost effective if the right sort of kit was priced at the right level.
For 3D animators/CAD types, I imagine it's essential.
There is something tactile about a laptop that a desktop is missing. It's a thing I can carry around, it becomes an extension of my body in a way. This thing is mine. Whereas a desktop - that's my company's computer, or that's my home office computer - it's not mine. It's not a work-life balance thing, I just like carrying my tools around.
I'm curious how that works, and what brings you to do that?
Unless it's some sort of especially heinous open-office setup, and the only way to grab any sort of privacy and peace is to post up in one of the stalls.
Data point: I have a MacBook Pro and my previous laptop was also a MBP. My next laptop wont be.
BTW: I'm one of those weirdo Windows developers so I don't have the any Linux concerns. I don't use my laptop for games but I want a decent GPU for graphics now and machine learning in the future.
And the work/life balance is definitely not screwed if you spend half the week working from home, like I always aim to.
Working at home is still work.
Using my laptop and occasionally iPad, I've worked from at least 4 different homes, a casino, 3 short term rental houses, a couple of client offices, and a beach in Thailand over the last ~7 years.
Having said that, I've also used a Thai 4G sim to tether (and allow colleagues to tether) for data while in Melbourne and while in California.
I appreciate the flexibility of being able to work from just about anywhere (though the practical limitations of working through a VPN mean that it's not "just about anywhere"), but I also wish sometimes I wasn't able to do "just one more thing" from wherever I happen to be at the time.
Really, I'd just prefer to have a desktop running Ubuntu, so I could match my production environment that I code for. But for some reason that's just not allowed.
We have policies on our laptops for encryption, anti-virus, etc. Those policies extend to which devices can even connect to the VPN.
So to connect to the VPN, to interact with the company when we're travelling on business, or to be available for support calls after a product release... the only computer that works is the one that can connect to the VPN.
Which means that the only computer that works is the one that is owned by the company, meets all policy requirements, has the VPN access, and we carry with us (except when we go to gigs, in such scenarios the offices have really big safes).
For us, it's security. No computer is left out, they're with us or in a safe at any moment.
There are no exceptions. The security policies are followed by all.
On personal side projects: I enjoy working in cafes & libraries.
Obviously, there are ways around all of those situations. I can email my slides to the presentation machines in the conference rooms, etc. But they don't really beat the convenience of just grabbing the computer I used to make the ppt and knowing that everything will work. Sometimes I get quite jealous of colleagues with laptops.
And then, of course, there are the aforementioned cases of travel or wanting to work from home instead of coming in.
Do you mind telling what industry you work in, that you a) use a desktop and b) aren't afforded a laptop as well?
Sure developer gets nicer than average desktop, but generally something in line of what you can have on a laptop and they are generally stuck with that config until the next company refresh. So the choice becomes a desktop or a laptop with exactly the same configuration and the same effective extensibility. Why would you not take the laptop, which also allows you to work from home, carry at meetings, ... ?
Beyond that, the 16gb ram limitation is sometimes an irritation... All upgradability is locked out, which is sad. Prior to around 2011, I would always buy at the midrange and upgrade ram/hd a year in. I miss that option, but they want that extra $$$ from you.
Is the ability to have an easily expanded computer that necessary?
Even for a lot of "pro" use that is hardware intensive, like music production, is pretty well-facilitated on a laptop these days. I don't work with video, so maybe that's another story.
Ugh no. Just having mobility around the office (to grab your laptop and walk over to someone to show them something) is a huge use case for me, not to mention conference rooms, kitchen area, etc.
Yes, a laptop is vital.