I have been using a laptop for years and I can honestly say that I love it. I can take care of things in places where normally it would be inconvenient to have a desktop or couldn't bring a desktop. But honestly, it comes down to your needs. The prices of laptops have dropped dramatically so that you may be able to have the best of both worlds, a desktop and a laptop. (my laptop cost me a little under $700 at BestBuy.com, on sale of course) But if I had to choose only one, it would have to be a desktop because of all the peripherals I need on my machine. As for the cool factor, after awhile, you don't think about it anymore.
One more thing, a wireless network is awesome. I have a 802.11g router and pc card. I can even watch movies over the network.
