Terry,

for studio work you can have a rack full of stuff (and you will be better off with it too). You typically won't care how much time it takes to boot up, connect together, or select all the patches.

For playing live, especially for short gigs, where you have to get in and out quickly, and must have everything selectable quickly, at the tips of your fingers. You've got a request for a particular song in the middle of playing. How many button presses will it take to select the new rhythm? the sound that go along with it? Can you do it without stopping, so that the people don't start leaving the dance floor?

To me there is a definite value in having an integrated all in one instrument, and I am prepared to pay SOME premium for it. I don't think I am ready to shell out $6000 for it, but a capable laptop with the right software and audio interface will run you at least $2000, and quite likely significantly more; the keyboard controller is $500-800. I would say that all-in-one keyboard would be worth an extra $1000, for a total of about $4000. This is a lot for a keyboard, but I am assuming that you would get all the audio capabilities as you would with the good laptop - very high quiality sounds with loads of polyphony, MP3 and .Kar playback, good graphical sequencer, CD recording, plus the flexible arranger capabilities and microphone/input processing. In addition to all that, you should be able to easily navigate around the system using tactile feedback of buttons (no touchscreen use should be required during live play).

In truth, I don't care whether the instrument use Linux, Windows, or proprietary OS of Yamaha, Korg, or Roland, as long as it gets the job done. The only advantage is that the Linux or Windows instrument is more likely to be supported after sale with enhancement-type features.

Regards,
Alex