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Comment by graeber_28927 | Hacker News Reader

I guess "portable" can mean many things. A laptop is nice to have while traveling, in the car, on the train, or when I just want to sit on the couch or on the terrace while working on hobby stuff.

And a NUC is great when I visit my parents for two weeks but want to keep working remotely. That way I don't have to disassemble my gaming setup (thinking of cable management), or worry that something happens to the PC. It's still a great remote working experience, and cheaper than a capable laptop.

I see the appeal in both. But to be honest, I'm not in need for a high end machine for my work, nor hobbies, so I just use a work laptop for work, and spin up gitpod for my own stuff, which a chromebook could run.

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Thanks for sharing. I feel that this is the point of the article too "if you don't need a high end machine...." but if you do you can't really afford to change your laptop after 10 years when most of the software won't run anymore and no securities updates are circulating for 5+ years.

I find this type of advice (change your laptop only every 10 years to save the world) irresponsible to say the least.

Imagine visiting a medical doctor with obsolte X-Ray technology, lab analysis tools etc. I wouldn't feel comfortable with that regardless of the money they saved or the illusionary "save the world" green footprint.

Of course none of this matter if one doesn't require the latest technology or software (e.g. Adobe etc.).

I've done a lot of med tech, and I can assure you, outside of most large hospitals (and even many of those.) The tech is staggeringly out of date by most standards.

Getting things approved as a medical device, and then updating the software, operating system, etc.. for it is a huge pain in the ass.

I know that wasn't the point, but just wanted to mention it.

> no securities updates are circulating for 5+ years

I don't understand this one. My laptop was born with Ubuntu 14.04 (actually it came with Windows 7, I formatted it with Linux out of the box) and software still runs and I'm still getting security updates. I'm on Ubuntu 20.04 now. Would it be different if I was on Windows? I think I would be on Windows 10 now.

The only problems I could think about are: software needs some new graphic card or more memory that could fit into the laptop. Add the lack of spare parts, but this is another kind of failure.

>I guess "portable" can mean many things.

It really sounds like we need to bring back the term "luggable"

http://www.thepcmuseum.net/details.php?RECORD_KEY%28museum%2...

> In the 1990's the Ergo Brick achieved significant acclaim due to its unique design. Before powerful notebook computers came along, Ergo defined the category "transportable computer" with grace and power. You used a Brick if you wanted portable horsepower (in contrast with wimpy early notebooks).

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