I’m heading out later today for my first business trip in six months. Seems like a long time between trips after all the travel I did for a bunch of years at Microsoft. It’s a trip long in distance (California) and short on time (leave on Wednesday and return on Friday) so I want to travel light. I’m used to traveling with a carry on bag for my clothing and the like and a backpack for computer stuff. The backpack is the heavy part. I decided I didn’t really want to carry two bags this trip. I thought about not traveling with a computer at all but that seemed extreme. So what to do?
I have a lot of options. I have two regular laptops, a Windows 8 Slate, and a Surface RT. I have an iPad mini as well but have trouble taking it seriously for more than games and light web browsing. I don’t have a keyboard for it and I haven’t paid for an Office subscription (yet?). The laptops are sort of heavy and awkward in confined spaces. The slate is not but I don’t have a keyboard for it and I really need a keyboard for some things. The Surface RT is small, light and has a keyboard. It just doesn’t run all the software I like to use. But I’m bringing it anyway.
I’ll get by without Windows Live Writer for blogging. If I feel the need write anything to I’ll use Word. I’ll get by without running Visual Studio for a couple of days. Everything else? Pretty much there. But I do wish I had those two pieces of software running on the Surface. I’m sort of drooling over the new Surface Pro 3s that were just announced. Seems like having ones cake and eating it too.
I keep a lot of other things in my computer bag besides a computer or two. All sorts of cables, thumb drives, power cords and other supplies. For a different trip, longer or with different type of activities, I’ll probably still bring the bag for all that other stuff. But I like the idea of keeping the computer light.