In my last job I was a Linux/Unix Systems Administrator for a Fortune 100 logistics services company where we used RHEL and Solaris mostly. Our team had a large variety of preferences as far as our desktops and home server setups go. A lot of them favored Debian based distros, and we even had a diehard SuSe zealot (for both desktop and server), but one thing I can definitely say is not a one of us ever argued the value of Red Hat's Enterprise Support Services. With literally hundreds of thousands of dollars of business on the line every day, a near 100% up time was critical. We had some pretty talented SysAdmins, but there were several instances where RH support paid for itself many times over on each occasion. They continue to thrive even in this recession because of that rock solid support. I love the Open Source Community and love using totally free alternatives at home and even at work where I can. When it comes to mission critical IT infrastructure though, where every second of downtime counts, that level of support is a life line and in my humble opinion... priceless. That IS the reason for using Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and why years ago they split the distro branches like they did. If you don't need that level of support though, feel free to use whatever works best for you. It all boils down to what level of support do you need?

I own a small IT shop in which we do everything from PC repair, custom builds, networking, even on-site PC and server support for a few of our business customers. By far the most common day to day jobs are PC repairs though, and although I've seen a definite surge in how many laptops are brought in (as in the number of folk who use a notebook/netbook for their portable and/or primary usage), surprisingly I've seen very little drop in the amount of replacement parts I've ordered this past couple of years compared to four or five years back. Even that small bit could just as easily be attributed to the dip in the economy as most folk don't have as much money to throw at upgrades when their existing system does just fine and living expenses continue to climb. Notebook/netbooks I believe are definitely becoming more common as they've become cheaper and can definitely be more convenient at times. I myself have a laptop, but when it comes to my preferred system to work or play on when I'm at the shop or at home, I definitely sit down at my custom desktop rig when I don't need the portability of my laptop. Even with their rise in numbers, I seriously doubt NewEgg will have any shortage of component orders anytime soon... other than economy related. In a few more years though, who knows. Anyone in IT can tell you things change fast!