🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4283400a_1@news.iprimus.com.au>, info@petermount.au.com 
says...
> Hi
> 
> With anybody trying to start up a small business using
> J2EE and chasing clients is it a good idea to spend
> extra and buy a laptop instead of a desktop? I've had
> differing opinions on this.

Depends on your audience.
If you take a high end laptop along for a demo you can impress them.
You can achieve a similar effect with a memory stick nowadays too.

I have both.

My laptop is the fastest I could buy with 2Gb of RAM, an 80Gb hard drive 
and an extra high capacity battery. It blows the socks of most of the 
hardware my clients have installed and will run all day without the need 
for external power. It impresses people. Thats important sometimes.

I also have the JRE installer on a USB memory stick, along with a 
collection of .jar files and sample data that make up various 
applications. I stick it in *their* hardware and do a demonstration that 
impresses. With this method the question of whether it will run in their 
environment never arises. A suitable USB memory stick costs less than a 
hundred dollars.

Anything that can't read a memory stick shouldn't be running J2EE apps 
anyway but I have a floppy disk with W98 drivers for the memory stick in 
my kit so that isn't a problem either. W95 users and below are living in 
the stone age and need more than my help.

So, by all means buy yourself a $5k laptop *if you want one*.
But if money is tight a hundred dollar memory stick stick will do the 
trick too.

David Moss
personal opinion only