For about the same money that you would spend on a midrange-to-high-end 17-inch laptop (or more likely, less), you can get an all-in-one (AIO) computer with a 23-inch or larger display.

When the IBM PC was new, I served as the president of the San Francisco PC User Group for three years. That’s how I met PCMag’s editorial team, who brought me on board in 1986. In the years ...