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btw: Here's the UHH link to the recent MAC versus PC thread that the OP was talking about.

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-497864-1.html

Lots more info on desktop vs. laptops (except with more Mac versus PC comments).

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I'm strongly in the camp that says both are viable... for different work patterns. I'll use what makes sense for the work environment.

From 1994 to 2012, I had a Mac PowerBook or MacBook Pro with me all the time. From 1986 to 2012, I also had a DOS desktop, or Windows PC desktop or laptop. I prefer Mac trackpads, and PC mice. Overall, I use Macs more than PCs. At home, I run Windows 10 along side the MacOS.

In the office, I had access to more powerful desktop Macs and PCs. I ran the digital departments of a portrait lab, where we had well over 75 computers in production (most of them Windows PCs running Kodak's DP2 Digital Print Production Software).

For the last four years I was in the lab, I was a training program developer. I used a fully loaded MacBook Pro running OS X and Windows XP and IBM AS/400 Client Access. It was plenty fast enough for my needs. The only time it really got slow was running video editing and video rendering software. For that, I wished I had a Mac Pro, but I only would have needed that a few days a year. Because I was flying all over the country doing training sessions, I needed the MacBook Pro for presentations and working on the road.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Yep, horses for courses, and the courses change over time!

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

New here. I use both. A laptop for traveling with a 1TB SSD virtually used for backup only. Editing while away detracts from taking photos. At home I use a large desktop (actually a server tower case) with SSD for the OS and 12TB HDD of the revolving kind. There is absolutely no comparison between the performance of a laptop v desktop. My current motherboard/CPU (previously top models) has been in place for about 6 years. The case and PS is now well over 12 years old. The SSDs/HDDs are mounted in plugin SATA trays and upgraded as required. I plan on using the same case for another 10 years as upgrades are so easy with leaving all other devices in place. My monitors are a 32" Dell (4K) with Adobe RGB as standard and a 20" Dell with sRGB used in portrait mode.
I am retired now but previously sold and serviced computers for a living. I had a number of photographers as clients (including my wife who has a setup similar to mine) and a lot of them used laptops as their main PCs. Most of them constantly grumbled about performance and storage issues. Those with MACs even more so. There is a place for laptops depending on how you use them but the desktop will always win for speed and peripherals. A laptop and docking station is a partial solution but performance is still a letdown. Note that docking stations are harder to find now with some few of them now being USB-c attached and don't have the expandability of the older styles.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Well, I can personally agree with all of that, Sir. I resemble the people that you describe, especially those like your good self.

10MPlayer Loc: California

Laptop. When I'm doing serious photography post processing I hook it up to a calibrated 4K 26" monitor. Works for me.

10MPlayer Loc: California

I go with the Wacom tablet when I'm in serious editing mode. Always with the laptop; I don't own a desktop and haven't for several years. As I said in my earlier post, I plug the laptop into the 4K monitor. Then I use the Wacom tablet for the fine touch stuff. It is something that takes some skill so when I havent' used the tablet in a while it's a struggle to get used to it again.

skingfong Loc: Sacramento

I agree with you 100%. Only time I really use a laptop is when I'm out or as a backup. I'm usually on my desktop which gets upgraded or rebuilt as needed.

skingfong Loc: Sacramento

A Mackie mixer is an audio mixer I use for recording and audio monitoring when I'm working with audio. It doesn't have anything to do with photography. I just have it hooked up to my desktop computer.

skingfong Loc: Sacramento

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

I use a laptop exclusively including at work.
I have multiple screens when I dock the laptop so the screen is irrelevant when docked.
I prefer the laptop as it has everything with me no matter where I go. I bring 3 external hard drives with different data on them for different tasks.

When real horsepower is needed I use the cloud to model full realistic animation of designs with full solar and lighting as well as walkthrough etc.
I used to gang 3-4 very powerful desktops but even then it might take a day or two to develop the animation. So it all depends on what needs to be done. But for absolute versatility you can't beat a laptop.

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

One of my previous clients was a TV production studio. Believe me the graphics design guys DID NOT use laptops. They used top spec components for everything and it was still too slow. The video editors use high end HP workstations. Some of my wifes Proshow Gold productions take 45 minutes to produce and I estimate they would take about 3.5-4 hours on either of our laptops. So I can only assume that the average laptop user doesn't attempt high end jobs or they have the patience of Jove. Being a non US citizen I have noticed that the queues at Disneyland with mostly US citizens are very patient so maybe it is a cultural thing. Me, I am interested in the starting minute and the finishing minute and the closer they are together the better.
When I was doing laptop repairs I couldn't believe how accepting the users were of pathetic performance (and these laptops weren't the cheapest models either). An upgrade to a SSD drive resulted in an acknowledgment of how bad they had been putting up with the previous performance.
However I guess whatever works for you is what you do even if sometimes I cannot understand it. It is what it is.

skingfong Loc: Sacramento

I use to work in TV station where they had computers with Zeon processors and huge servers. Video editing takes a ton of processing power, even more so now with High Def. If TV were broadcast in 4K, video editing would be impractical for quick turnaround times for daily news.

Could you imagine trying to edit on a laptop. Serious compression would be necessary.

mikegreenwald Loc: Illinois

The potential for placing a desktop in a controlled environment - read stable light color and intensity - is the real deal maker for me. That being said, I travel a great deal, and the laptop is an essential addition. I find that I generally have to adjust colors in PP when I get back home, even when I've used LR & PS in the laptop on the road. Further, I've never seen a laptop with the screen quality of top quality, dedicated monitors.

pendennis

I was in IT for a long time, and the debate was always performance vs. portability. We had folks who absolutely had to have laptops because of the nature of their jobs. You just couldn't put a desktop in the passenger seat of a test vehicle. And even then, the "standard" laptop models wouldn't hold up. We contracted with a major maker to provide engineers with very sturdy models which would stand the rigors of harsh driving conditions.

The evolution to the notepad in lieu of the laptop makes for even more of a conundrum.