At least you wouldn't consider hari-kari if you accidentally left one behind at a hotel.
We had a car broken into in Kansas City. An X-Cube was stolen. Miraculously, the KC police recovered it along with a lot of other things stolen from vehicles that night as the Nobel Lauriate that stole the stuff had it in the trunk of a stolen car he was tooling around in.
Turns out Linux is a pretty good thing to have on a computer. The guy never got in and we got it back with some rap DVD (CD-ROM drive) in it which of course he couldn't play (even if it were a DVD drive).
As for competitors, I keep nothing sensitive with me on the road. I chat with my wife via IRC, check personal email and things of that nature.