My laptop is 1 year old now and I can still play the newest games at 1920x1080. Maybe a desktop would last longer, but I'm paying a bit more anyday for the mobility. The keyboard is 17" so it looks just like my regular desktop keyboard.

I see the high end Clevos as a desktop replacement - as in, it's not fair to compare to lighter laptops that don't match the spec; the Clevo is to replace my desktop, not a lighter laptop (for which I have a separate more portable one). They're lighter and quieter than desktops. I guess for people who prefer to work at a desk most the time, there isn't much point. But if you want something to sit around the house, a laptop wins. Note that these days, the NVIDIA ones come with Optimus so the GPU only kicks in when required (though as noted, this may not be supported on Linux so well).

In general I prefer to have a powerful desktop and a lightweight ultrabook style laptop, and it will cost you the same or less as one of those ridiculous desktop replacement laptops. Naturally, we just ordered one of those ridiculous desktop replacement laptops at work: an Alienware comfortably north of $3,000.

Alienware are known for being expensive. I spent around £1400 (which is around $2100, but remember also that comparing UK to US doesn't work well, as US tends to be cheaper for technology). The thing is, if I bought a more normal 17" laptop, it would easily cost over £1000 (at least when I looked for) if you got a decent spec, even without the high end GPU.

(It costs more than a desktop, certainly - for me, I saved money on the ultra-portable by getting one of the Atom based ones, but to be honest, I'd gladly pay the extra to get the best for what I use every day, especially as I don't have lots of space in my house:))

Don't get me wrong, until last year, I did stick with a desktop+laptop combination, rather than the 2 laptops I have now. I don't think there's a perfect solution.

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That being said, the only reason I need 16GB of RAM is to run Parallels without and hickups, and I would happily switch to one of the new i7 ultrabooks (Asus or Lenovo) if PC laptop manufacturers could come even close to the MacBook trackpad experience.

My Samsung trackpad is great, FWIW (one shouldn't lump all PC manufacturers together - Apple are one make of laptops, among several). What was the problem with the Clevo one? Mine seems okay (although I don't think even all Clevos are the same - even comparing two from the same Clevo manufacturer, I've seen different kinds of keyboards/cases). Plus personally I like the physical buttons, so Apple don't come even close to the experience of other trackpads, for me

To begin with it's glass and very smooth. It's also much larger than any "PC" laptop I've used and the drivers are far superior to anything in the PC world.

And for demos and presentations (yeah its part of developers life!) a laptops perhaps. I also hope that tablets replace laptops just like CRT was replaced by LCD/LED.

CRT was replaced by LCD/LED because LCD/LED was better. You can't replace laptops with tablets becase they can't replace laptops. You can't type in the same way, they're smaller so you can't cram the same hardware into them, etc. So it's apples and oranges.

multi-core laptop + wireless keyboard and mouse, + HDMI connection to TV
with desktop + CUDA card and older cpu
under used android tablet

connected to network with file sharing active. The environment is all the same space, so to develop GPU programs I might use the desktop, however its louder and the CPU is older so I prefer the laptop for anything that does not require the best graphics. Still ... most of the time I don't do any development, in fact when I do use the computer I usually watch videos or surf information sites, I try to develop every week but I am not planning on creating my own triple A title for the xbox one. I also try to use blender sometimes, and am thinking about getting a graphics tablet to make clicking easier.

seating arrangement is currently the floor, with the screens at coffee table height, not sitting cross legged as I don't want to have to take hip replacement surgery in later life.

And for demos and presentations (yeah its part of developers life!) a laptops perhaps. I also hope that tablets replace laptops just like CRT was replaced by LCD/LED.

CRT was replaced by LCD/LED because LCD/LED was better. You can't replace laptops with tablets becase they can't replace laptops. You can't type in the same way, they're smaller so you can't cram the same hardware into them, etc. So it's apples and oranges.

Are you joking?

The only advantage LCDs had for close to a decade of consumer availability was weight/size. It took a long time for LCD tech to actually produce a decent picture.

Initially yes. But tablets and laptops are designed to solve different problems. LCDs were designed to ultimatly replace CRT. A tablet can't replace a laptop because they're not used to solve the same problems.