I hate laptops.
Desktops are infinitely serviceable. Need to replace a fan? No problem, pop off two screws, and that's probably enough to get at it. Want to upgrade the video card? No worries, just pop off those same two screws, and there you go. Repeat for just about every component.
Laptops are the opposite. I would argue that they are anti-serviceable: they are not only difficult to work on, I suspect they may actually be working against me when I'm trying to fit my fat fingers into tiny little crevices hunting for yet another screw that I've dropped.
And yet, I'd never give mine up, now that I own one. There's a degree of freedom in having your usual computing experience with you, anywhere, that's very tough to give up. I'm quite convinced that my 17" widescreen was a bit too big to be reasonably portable, but as soon as there's a reasonably-priced 12.1" notebook with a touchscreen (the HP tx2z looks interesting, but note that I said "reasonably priced"), my Inspiron 1721 will be relegated to home desktop duty.
Anyway, today's fun (since I'm feeling like crap and stuck at home anyway) was replacing the CPU fan in my laptop. For the second time. The first time, the laptop was under warranty, so I basically said, "Dell, you fix it". Which they did. Six months later, the fan is dead. AGAIN. Guess who's out of warranty now?
So, I ordered a replacement yesterday, and had it over-nighted to me. I have to give Dell credit here: they processed the order before close of business yesterday, and the delivery guy had a fan in my hands today, which was totally unexpected given the level of service I've received from their support "chat" in the past.
Anyway, I'm grumbling the entire time I'm pulling my laptop completely apart, quite certain that I'm never going to buy another goddamn Dell again because of the obviously terrible components they chose for the construction of this laptop. I finally get down to the fan, remove it...and a wad of dog hair four inches wide and a full inch thick comes out with it, wedged between the heatpipe fins and expanding out into fan inlet.
I think I can forgive Dell for this one. ;-) A note in the box saying, "Dude, your dogs are disgusting" when I got the laptop back last time would have certainly been understandable, after seeing that. Ew.