Another option is to have important data on a special drive that connects to the USB port. Those are small things that you can put into your pocket. It seems an interesting options to show demo application to a client, for instance; or to copy some data.

A laptop is also useful, but because of the prices, perhaps you may want to check some older models, and do more computing-intensive work on your desktop.

Finally, you could have a laptop as your only computer, and connect an external mouse, keyboard and monitor, for convenience, while you are at home.

>My laptop is starting to show it's age. Time for a replacement.
>
>90% of my work could be done on a desktop.
>5% of the time, I do need to go to a client and do some work. A laptop is invaluable for that.
>5% of the time, I want to sit in my underwear and read websites/my email on Sunday morning. A laptop is very nice for that.
>
>So while a laptop is not FREQUENTLY needed, it is IMPORTANT. But, looking at the price of laptops, I wonder if that's the way to go.
>
>I'm wondering about an External Harddrive? Could you have a desktop and a laptop with nothing but the OS on the local drive but all applications and data on the external? I'd then get a new desktop with the external harddrive. On the infrequent times I need to go to a clients, I take the laptop and the external drive with me. Both the laptop and desktop access the external drive.
>
>I could get a new desktop and backup my developlment to the laptop when going to a client, then put it all back when I return, but that seems to be a pain and prone to error.
>
>Any other ideas?