freelancing with desktop/laptop

I put a post on here the other day regarding buying a macbookpro here in London. i'm working on corporate videos and wanted to be mobile. Recently, my boss has now decided to switch to fcp too. my question is this:
If i opt for a desktop instead, will i be able to work from home by carrying an external Hdrive between the workplace and home and simply plug in the disk between the two locations and pick up from where i left off? This would suit me better than carrying a laptop around(i have a motorbike and no car) and allow me to work from home once i'd loaded up the media at my workplace.
Thanks for your time in advance.
Dom

Absolutely. I do this all the time.

Plus you'd have the added bonus of not having to deal with the annoying small keyboards on portable computers. For editing I need a mouse/stylus and a full-sized keyboard, or I'm slowed to a crawl. Hate that.

Andy

it's odd, ive beenw working on my g4 laptop for, basicly all my edditing life (admitadly like a year), i just got a keyboard and mouse going, theres someting about haveing the trackpad right there under the keyboard that sped me up a tad...but im getting used to it.

it's funny, it's a keyboard made by microsoft for both systems, so i don't have apple keys, but i have a windows key and an alt key, so people who don't know apple well enough get confused, it's funny

but seriusly, a keyboard moue combo isn't that much for starters if you do go for the macbook, ad many many people work in the fashion of, do the work at home,drop it on an external, bring it in, chefck it out there etc.



Amateur Teacher

Yes i quite agree. I've already bought a FCP Logckeyboard to use with whichever machine i end up getting. There's a lot to be said for a G5 as opposed to the laptop option. If i do go for the g5, will it be upgradeable when the new intel processors turn up?
Dom

wow, i use my laptop primarily now except for long projects or when designing in Motion etc and i always carry my mighty mouse with me. It is such a help i don;t know how i'd go back. I have access to Expose and Dashboard instantly, don;t have to control click things, plus the scroll ball allows me to scrub timelines without clicking, even when its playing. When dealing with a small laptop screen, speeding up scrolling is a big help.

But as to the question, one of the first thing my partner and i got after our editing set ups was portable firewire drive, it works perfect and you have the added bonus of having yor media backed up if godforbid something happens...

London huh, North London? Arsenal? I hope they pull through...