Are laptops a blessing?

Yes and No?   Well, let me explain.  Laptops are built to sell to business people who work and live in perfect climate and dust free rooms for the most part.  This greatly reduces downtime and issues.  Most missionaries live in conditions that are extremely  opposite of that.  120 degree weather in combination to near 100 percent humidity, etc., is not what the manufacturers had in mind when they build them.  (Unless it is the OLPC computer) In fact most  warranties state that when you take a laptop in those conditions their fancy warranties are voided.   Because of this, missionaries laptops have a lifetime expectancy of about 6 months before they need repaired.   Generally I have about 10 laptops per week come in and out of my office.   That is a whole lot of down time for missionaries.   Most missionaries choose to use laptops because of two main reasons…power consumption  (most use solar power)  and portability as they travel in and out of their villages.   Because productivity is so important to the modern missionary, most missionaries carry about 3 or 4 computers with them.  Computers are a huge asset to the missionary life in language learning, bible translation, emailing supporters,  etc.,  There are always exceptions, but in general laptops have an awful track record for reliability and  support and if it were not for those two reasons stated earlier I would choose a desktop over a laptop any day of the week.  There are brands that do better than others…right now, we work on far fewer IBM (now Lenovo) machines than any other machine.