A desktop ergonomically identical to a laptop on your kitchen table
A laptop in your lap in a library on an university campus surrounded by people to ask for advice
A desktop with multiple screens at adjustable heights and a super ergonomic seating solution unlikely to be available where you wanted to use the laptop and a superior pointing device that can’t be moved around easily.
Basically, shitty laptop and desktop setups are basically identical, but they can take advantage of very different types of upgrades:
A laptop can be brought to different environments that enable productivity on different things, and can also be used at times you’d otherwise just be waiting.
A desktop can be upgraded to be much more powerful, and can be hooked up to superior (expensive and bulky) input and output devices.
Either way, ergonomics matter greatly and are easy to get wrong. A desktop has some powerful advantages in setting up a good ergonomic environment, but more importantly since that environment is stationary anyway you can’t get the benefits of both it and the laptop at once. On the other hand, some of the environments the laptop can be moved to might include a better ergonomic setup than you could afford yourself.
This problem is underspecified, consider:
A laptop on your kitchen table
A desktop ergonomically identical to a laptop on your kitchen table
A laptop in your lap in a library on an university campus surrounded by people to ask for advice
A desktop with multiple screens at adjustable heights and a super ergonomic seating solution unlikely to be available where you wanted to use the laptop and a superior pointing device that can’t be moved around easily.
Basically, shitty laptop and desktop setups are basically identical, but they can take advantage of very different types of upgrades:
A laptop can be brought to different environments that enable productivity on different things, and can also be used at times you’d otherwise just be waiting.
A desktop can be upgraded to be much more powerful, and can be hooked up to superior (expensive and bulky) input and output devices.
Either way, ergonomics matter greatly and are easy to get wrong. A desktop has some powerful advantages in setting up a good ergonomic environment, but more importantly since that environment is stationary anyway you can’t get the benefits of both it and the laptop at once. On the other hand, some of the environments the laptop can be moved to might include a better ergonomic setup than you could afford yourself.