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For those of you with 2 or more laptops...

jamesryanbell

jamesryanbell

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Mar 17, 2009
2,171
93
What do you use them for? Why not just one laptop and one desktop?

Just curious.

I have a black macbook that I use solely for running live music sequences and editing music. I've never had a single problem with it (at least none that weren't caused by me....lol). My uMBP is my personal computer.
 
Portability is probably answer numero uno.

The second answer is that the person owned a notebook and bought another one a couple of years later. The reason is that they travel significantly and need the portability and wanted the extra power. And for whatever reason opted not to sell the other computer.
 
I still have my first Mac, an old G4 iBook, which I barely use and will never sell and keep as a back up.

Last year I bought my first Intel Mac notebook, a white MacBook, with which I was not satisfied enough, so five months later I bought a 15" uMBP, which was since then my primary machine, and I kept the 13" solely as a backup, in case I needed to fix the 15".
Now the 15" is gone (stolen from work) and I got myself the 17", and both Intel notebooks are currently used to help me digitize hundreds of digital video cassettes.
 
I have my 13" MBP for portability and I use I for work. I have a Gateway 17" gaming laptop and a Mini as my home media streaming machine.
 
I have a desktop... very good one ;)

As well as a new 15" 2.93Ghz MacBook Pro, for when I want to do work away from the office.

Also have a HP2140 10" Atom 1.6, 64 SSD, Windows 7 RC1, (nicest, most mac looking netbook) for when I just want to surf the net, go away without worrying that I'm going to damage / stolen my macbook pro.
 
I have a macbook air and an aspire one netbook. I much prefer the MBA (for obvious reasons) and bought it after the aspire, but its still nice to be able to throw the aspire into my bag and take it anywhere and not have to worry about it like I would worry about my MBA. I did have a MBP (2 years old) but I sold that after getting the MBA
signature_silverapple.jpg
 
replaced my acer ferrari w, a mbp,
now the ferrari is a media server/player in my room.
 
I have three laptops but I only use the MBP. Looking on ebay it's not worth selling the other two(a PB G4 and a Sony Vaio).

They might as well sit in the corner rotting until I can think of a use for them.

I was actually thinking of using the Sony laptop for some very long term time lapse photography. It wouldn't eat much in 12 months with the screen off and the HDD stopped 99% of the time.
 
My combination of a MBP and Mac Mini involves me using the MBP for everyday tasks, and using the Mini as a file server/media center/seedbox. My one and a half year old MBP (2.4GHz) is still more powerful than my < a month old Mini (upgraded from 1.83GHz to 2.23GHz).
 
I currently use:

15" uMBP (most of the time)

Asus EeePC with windows XP (rarely use it, regret buying it)

Ubuntu 9.04 desktop I built from random computer parts lying around. I use it as a home server to stream HD movies to the TV, it runs Transmission 24/7, and it's also a "networked storage device" for photo archiving.
 
I still have my PowerBook 520c with System 7. [Obviously] I don't use it but I'll never sell it... I do need a power adapter for it, however. I had forgotten all about it until now. Perhaps I'll have to try to find one. :)
 
Never made sense to me to have to go where the data is.

Never made sense to me to have to stay next to the juice.

Don't need the extra power and peripheral capability of a desktop.

Love having spare machines in case one of them acts up.
 
I've got a whitebook 2.4, and my uMBP 17" - I've also got a pair of Dell desktops.... I use the desktops frequently, but for very short periods...
 
We have too many computers in my house! I have a MBP, Powerbook, iMac, iLamp G4.

The MBP is used daily, the iMac for heavy lifting and for the main photo/itunes library. The Powerbook is 6 years old - I love it and its only worth a couple hundred even though its still quite usable for basic surfing and office tasks. iLamp is for decoration.
 
I use my mbp for home and personal use (more of a desktop use, but not locked into one position around the house, or even inside for that matter).
I use my macbook for work - lighter, smaller, no need for power house apps.
 
I have a dell inspiron 6000 collecting dust at my dads house. I havent touched it since i got my mac. Just a testament to how much i despise windows. i hated windows before i even knew about mac stuff
 
Personally I only have 1 laptop as I travel a lot in my work, and I have to bring all my data with me. So I go around with my 15" MBP, and at home I just plug in my ACD. Best of both worlds :D
 
i got a 13" MBP and a Dell Studio XPS 1640 with a blueray. I alternate between both, i really like the dell, nice computer, but i heart my macbook pro more! thinking about selling the dell.
 
killerrobot said:
And this answers the OP's question how?
Click to expand...

For those of you with 2 or more laptops...

What do you use them for?

Are you really that lost? Apparently i dont use my other laptop. And that would be my second laptop. The question was not "for those of you who USE 2 or more laptops.

BTW great contibuting post for you as well
 
Generally, I run my laptops into the ground.

In this case, because I needed Windows capability, I upgraded to a MBP before my PB died/ran it's course.

So not I use the MBP everyday and the PB for specific tasks such as burning CDs/DVDs or doing Lightscribe burns. I also use my PB for Classic on occasion.
 
I own 5 laptops, But i mainly use my MBP and my power book. My macbook i sometimes take to work if i am not working on a project at home that requires the MBP to be connected

THe other 2 my parents have, one of them i bought back in 04, and one i was given. Sadly there both windows laptops.
 
I've got a P4 Toshiba laptop, 12" iBook G4, early 2009 MacBook White, iPhone 3G and, 4 days ago, iPhone 3GS.

The wife uses the iBook G4 and iPhone. Most surfing is done on the iPhone, unless she wants a larger screen. She emails & IMs from her iBook, as she uses a hotmail account and iPhone mail app doesn't have an option for hotmail. And she prefers a physical keyboard for IM. To be honest, after saying this, I'm thinking of switching her to a Google Mail account just so she'd use the iBook less, as its quite a waste to be treating the iBook as nothing more than a netbook. I used to use it for way more stuff, running Mactheripper, handbrake, gimp, garageband, and even C&C Generals and other games at one point. I occasionally still use mactheripper on it when she's not using it, just to free up my MacBook to run more handbrake jobs.

Now, all that is done on my MacBook White. I also play Eve Online on it. I've decided to do all my emailing on my iPhone 3GS now, including my office email as well. I think the only time I'll fire up Skype on my MacBook now will be for video calls to relatives overseas.

My Toshiba laptop is now used by my 4-year old daughter exclusively to surf her Playhouse Disney website.

If everything goes according to plan, I'll have an 24" iMac by the end of the year, the MacBook White will be handed down to my wife, and the iBook G4 will become a museum piece. I've got a soft spot for the iBook, having upgraded the harddisk and RAM myself and going through lots of stuff together, and don't wanna see it die under my kids' hands... The Toshiba, on the other hand, is totally expendable.

After I changed jobs, I don't travel as often as I used to, so I don't really need a laptop. It would be great to play Eve, watch movies, and do all the fun stuff on a 24" screen instead of 13". All other portable computing needs can be easily met with my iPhone 3GS.

So that's what I'm doing with all my computers.
 
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