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Netbooks will continue. Have a Samsung UMPC that lasted about 2 years, then started to fail. replaced with netbook, and am more than glad. This 1000HE is everything I need, is small enough to take everywhere, has all day battery life, and is much more functional than a blackberry. Screen size and keyboard are perfect compromise. Doesnt matter if full sized laptops drop in price, as the netbook form factor is key, so is here to stay. There may be some who buy them and are disappointed, but all those I know who buy netbooks are more than pleased with them.
The special thing about it that makes me happy is that it's small and so handy. I don't need to play games or do lots of complicated things on the street. But this one is just 100% what i need and i will never give it up.
However, the current fad clearly represents a demand for the form factor, even if not the limited capability. In all honesty, they're nothing but upsized PDAs minus the stylus.
The problem is, as a form factor alone, the device is incredibly limiting. Even to simply do a little web browsing, you're forced to set the thing down on a reasonably level surface and open it like a clamshell, not like a book. The downsized keyboard made text entry easier, but again, you're forced to set it down on something, practically eliminating its use as a truly portable device. It's only real advantage has been its extra-low price from the outset, since in all other aspects, it's no different from any other notebook - only smaller. Newer ones have lost the toy-like appearance, but it only makes me wonder if they haven't lost the toy-like ruggedness the original OLPC had in mind as well.
Yes, they can serve a limited purpose and for those who expected no more from them, they're probably great! But any photographer, writer or contractor who needs to have functionality at hand and one-hand useable, the concept of Netbook falls flat.
The problem is, as a form factor alone, the device is incredibly limiting. Even to simply do a little web browsing, you're forced to set the thing down on a reasonably level surface and open it like a clamshell, not like a book. The downsized keyboard made text entry easier, but again, you're forced to set it down on something, practically eliminating its use as a truly portable device. It's only real advantage has been its extra-low price from the outset, since in all other aspects, it's no different from any other notebook - only smaller. Newer ones have lost the toy-like appearance, but it only makes me wonder if they haven't lost the toy-like ruggedness the original OLPC had in mind as well.
Yes, they can serve a limited purpose and for those who expected no more from them, they're probably great! But any photographer, writer or contractor who needs to have functionality at hand and one-hand useable, the concept of Netbook falls flat.
I have a nice 10 inch netbook and I can write on it as fast as on a normal sized keyboard.
I don't see you problems, but it seems that you don't want it in the first place.
I don't see you problems, but it seems that you don't want it in the first place.
If you don't see the problem, your hands must be tiny. I have problems typing on my laptop; the netbooks that I have tried in the stores remind me of the chicklet keyboards of the 80s and 90s.
It might work for a hunt and peck typist, but a touch typist will be tripping over his/her own fingers half the time.
It might work for a hunt and peck typist, but a touch typist will be tripping over his/her own fingers half the time.
I do abit of webdevelopment on my netbook which is a Toshiba NB200 with 2 Gb RAM and I have installed Xampp on it for the Web Server (for PHP).
I also run dreamweaver, photoshop and fireworks for when i need to quickly edit some images or code on the job.
All of this runs fine for me, Also I use Windows 7 on it.
It obviously will not work for big CAD applications but from my experience either will most notebooks.
I also run dreamweaver, photoshop and fireworks for when i need to quickly edit some images or code on the job.
All of this runs fine for me, Also I use Windows 7 on it.
It obviously will not work for big CAD applications but from my experience either will most notebooks.
I bought a Dell Mini 9 in 2008 and have never regretted it. It?s small enough to carry in my purse, boots up quick, and maybe it?s because I have small fingers, but the size of the keyboard has never been an issue.
That said, it is not my main PC, nor would I ever try to make it such. I bought it to browse the internet and do some light word processing - the heaviest lifting I have ever asked it to do is stream movies across my wireless home network - and it has always performed flawlessly.
I look forward to using it for many years to come.
That said, it is not my main PC, nor would I ever try to make it such. I bought it to browse the internet and do some light word processing - the heaviest lifting I have ever asked it to do is stream movies across my wireless home network - and it has always performed flawlessly.
I look forward to using it for many years to come.
Jason--
I bought a netbook for my wife, and then a couple of months later one for myself. We had each been using regular notebook PCs. Those were given away and we've moved totally to the netbook platform. I'm using mine with an upgraded 500 GB hard drive that dual-boots WinXP Home and Win7 Pro. Hers is still single-booting WinXP Home.
From my perspective, the netbook experience has been nothing but positive. It will take some major accomplishments on the part of notebook manufacturers to get me to give up 6 hour battery life and 3 pound carry weight. There are compromises that must be made, but you know what? I've discovered that I'm willing to make them, and I haven't suffered for it.
I frankly think you're wrong when you say that the netbook is dead. Its influence on notebooks can't be denied, though. Let me put it this way--a netbook is a whole lot more useful than a "smartphone" when it comes to doing a lot of mobile work. I'm just about ready for a return to a simple phone for myself, and an even lighter-weight "netbook" device as its "smart" accompaniment.
I bought a netbook for my wife, and then a couple of months later one for myself. We had each been using regular notebook PCs. Those were given away and we've moved totally to the netbook platform. I'm using mine with an upgraded 500 GB hard drive that dual-boots WinXP Home and Win7 Pro. Hers is still single-booting WinXP Home.
From my perspective, the netbook experience has been nothing but positive. It will take some major accomplishments on the part of notebook manufacturers to get me to give up 6 hour battery life and 3 pound carry weight. There are compromises that must be made, but you know what? I've discovered that I'm willing to make them, and I haven't suffered for it.
I frankly think you're wrong when you say that the netbook is dead. Its influence on notebooks can't be denied, though. Let me put it this way--a netbook is a whole lot more useful than a "smartphone" when it comes to doing a lot of mobile work. I'm just about ready for a return to a simple phone for myself, and an even lighter-weight "netbook" device as its "smart" accompaniment.
I love it! Lenovo S10, 10.1" screen. It runs all my usual apps well, including a digital data logger and analysis program that involves extensive Chebyshev filtering of about 6000 samples per test run. It fits my shoulder bag, goes into the field with me, and I have not found the keyboard to be an issue. It is 91% of the size of my desktop keyboard.
Yes, a larger screen would be nice, maybe 1024x768, but not if it adds more than 4 ounces.
Yes, a larger screen would be nice, maybe 1024x768, but not if it adds more than 4 ounces.
I agree. I believe it should be kept as an option for consumer. I understand of course big player do not care much to provide the service, main objective is make money, right?
There still many people on low budget. Now remember processor for these devices were initially built and oriented to browse the Internet, if they keep the performance for such tasks, why should they be gone.
There still many people on low budget. Now remember processor for these devices were initially built and oriented to browse the Internet, if they keep the performance for such tasks, why should they be gone.
You say that netbooks are not good for "older folks," well as one of the chronologically challenged, I find that my Acer Aspire One, running Ubuntu Netbook Remix, on a 24GB SSD, with 1.5GB RAM is fine for my use. The occasional document, browsing the web, and such are fine. And yes, my "old" eyes do not suffer any more than a full fledged PC with a high resolution screen!
As a network tech, it is a great tool for diagnosing problems on my network, both wired and wireless. The free Linux tools that can be installed, are far superior to the Windows tools that are available, for the same price. It's small size make it a perfect fit for my tool bag, and I don't have to carry around a much heavier laptop.
Maybe a niche market for me, but I would never be without my netbook.
As a network tech, it is a great tool for diagnosing problems on my network, both wired and wireless. The free Linux tools that can be installed, are far superior to the Windows tools that are available, for the same price. It's small size make it a perfect fit for my tool bag, and I don't have to carry around a much heavier laptop.
Maybe a niche market for me, but I would never be without my netbook.
A few months ago I picked up a Toshiba NB205 netbook and I love it. I am taking a few college classes and the desks are so tiny and my laptop so heavy that lugging/using laptop and textbooks to/in class was impossible. Now, I don't leave home without it. My laptop which is only about a year old has been transformed into some kind of desktop computer that only gets taken out for walks occasionally. True, my netbook is not very helpful for telecommuting--its more like a purse Pomeranian rather than a working dog--but it was nice to have the option to find the dog of just right the size.
I primarily use MS Office on my notebook and have been quite satisfied though, yes, I adjusted all the views on the document to like 125% just so I did not have to work so hard. I also started tweaking some of my database forms to be a little more notebook friendly. I find the keyboard comfortable enough to use for a long time so I plug it into a monitor for lengthier projects.
I would never have paid $500+ for a laptop of the same size, even if the weight was the same and the hardware better. As handy as my netbook is, it is never going to be my primary computer because even with great eyesight now, bigger is better when it comes to viewing work on computers.
I primarily use MS Office on my notebook and have been quite satisfied though, yes, I adjusted all the views on the document to like 125% just so I did not have to work so hard. I also started tweaking some of my database forms to be a little more notebook friendly. I find the keyboard comfortable enough to use for a long time so I plug it into a monitor for lengthier projects.
I would never have paid $500+ for a laptop of the same size, even if the weight was the same and the hardware better. As handy as my netbook is, it is never going to be my primary computer because even with great eyesight now, bigger is better when it comes to viewing work on computers.
As an over-50 tech worker and writer, I don't fully agree with your assertion that the "netbook is dead" any more than the "handheld is dead" scree heard just before the iPhone came and blew away the competition.
While I might agree that the 7" units are just a bit too tiny to use meaningfully, the 8.9" and 10" models are here to stay. My ASUS 10" netbook dual-booting WinXP and Ubuntu is invaluable for it's easy transportability as well as its usability. The keyboard, while slightly smaller, is still just fine for me to type entire articles as well as emails while away in hotel rooms, and the screen works fine for both documents as well as watching streaming videos. I also have an Acer 15" laptop running Mint Linux and Win7 that's quite thin and light, but almost always stays home - not because it doesn't work just fine, but because it's just so much more bulky to transport. The little ASUS gets tossed into my bag with its neoprene sleeve along with lots of other items I now have room for, and no more laptop bag over the shoulder.
And hey, at my "advanced" age, having less to carry is good for my old bones. Now where did I leave that con-sarned walker? ;-P
While I might agree that the 7" units are just a bit too tiny to use meaningfully, the 8.9" and 10" models are here to stay. My ASUS 10" netbook dual-booting WinXP and Ubuntu is invaluable for it's easy transportability as well as its usability. The keyboard, while slightly smaller, is still just fine for me to type entire articles as well as emails while away in hotel rooms, and the screen works fine for both documents as well as watching streaming videos. I also have an Acer 15" laptop running Mint Linux and Win7 that's quite thin and light, but almost always stays home - not because it doesn't work just fine, but because it's just so much more bulky to transport. The little ASUS gets tossed into my bag with its neoprene sleeve along with lots of other items I now have room for, and no more laptop bag over the shoulder.
And hey, at my "advanced" age, having less to carry is good for my old bones. Now where did I leave that con-sarned walker? ;-P
I bought mine due to travel restrictions imposed by the airlines on a trip to Australia in 2008 and love it. I use a regular laptop/notebook as my main computer at home but it is too big and heavy to travel with. The Netbook allows me to use almost all my programs, some engineering, spreadsheets, topographic maps and GPS routings. I even use it at home with my wireless network, sometimes in bed at night while reading books on exploring Utah so I can see the topographic maps and the satellite pictures of the area. No it doesn't replace the desktop notebook but darn near.
I bought one for surfing/email only for my significant other who is very non-techie (had a 9-year-old Gateway laptop I kept threatening to run over in the driveway). My mom (also very non-techie) liked it so much she went out the next day to get one for herself. Now I have two people in my family on computers that can do just what they need for a low price, and don't need my support (wooHOO!).
A netbook would not fit my needs as I need to run graphic design and web management programs on the road, so I need the speed and space; but I think they work quite well in the niche they were designed for. Call it a small notebook if you want, I'm not picky on the terminology. My next "notebook" will be the smallest possible form factor with the same performance I am used to and hopefully then some.
A netbook would not fit my needs as I need to run graphic design and web management programs on the road, so I need the speed and space; but I think they work quite well in the niche they were designed for. Call it a small notebook if you want, I'm not picky on the terminology. My next "notebook" will be the smallest possible form factor with the same performance I am used to and hopefully then some.
First, I am a linux user. I got a Dell Mini 9 with linux on it. The thing screams. I bought it to read online books, do some edits in Open Office, and its been far more functional than I had dreamed. I love taking it with me to view photos right when I've taken them. My 3 inch LCD on my camera isn't the same as the larger screen. I've even run power point presentations on it in Cisco Telepresence meetings. I never expected it to do that at all.
I liked it so much my husband got a mini 10 to take to meetings instead of his 17 inch laptop. He also uses linux. We both upgraded to a current version of linux and couldn't be happier with it.
My mother had surgery a few months back and we got her an Asus eeePC 901 from woot for $150.00. We put a current version of ubuntu on it, upgraded the RAM and the SSD and again, she is quite happy with it. She got to check her email and keep the family updated on facebook with it.
I never bought my mini to be a replacement to my desktop and it never could. It meets my needs perfectly but I knew what I wanted and why I wanted it. But...I now have an Android phone and find that I'm using that more than my mini.
I liked it so much my husband got a mini 10 to take to meetings instead of his 17 inch laptop. He also uses linux. We both upgraded to a current version of linux and couldn't be happier with it.
My mother had surgery a few months back and we got her an Asus eeePC 901 from woot for $150.00. We put a current version of ubuntu on it, upgraded the RAM and the SSD and again, she is quite happy with it. She got to check her email and keep the family updated on facebook with it.
I never bought my mini to be a replacement to my desktop and it never could. It meets my needs perfectly but I knew what I wanted and why I wanted it. But...I now have an Android phone and find that I'm using that more than my mini.
I have a Dell mini10 with HD display, 6 cell battery and Windows 7. I am very happy with it. Used it for managing our wireless and VPN networks and light web browsering. Light weight yet very usable wins my vote. I also have a Gdium netbook with Mandriva installed. Will use it for MIPS Assembly Language teaching.
As long as you know netbook's limitations and don't expect them to do heavy lifting jobs, you'll have fun.
As long as you know netbook's limitations and don't expect them to do heavy lifting jobs, you'll have fun.
Net books are thankfully not e-readers. Now if you could dish out 250 dollars for a Kindle2, a great mouth watering e-reader, why not a net book at a 150+ something you could carry around easily.
My daughter is a TV celebrity in India and like many Indian girls, is very petite, her love is her purple little Acer one.
It does everything she wants, particularly now that we have fast thumb -drive type internet high speed connectors and at her age, she has no problems with sight!
For her, it is freedom from the desk, which she also uses at home for all her serious hard work. She then uploads all her immediate work on to the net book and is free and easy with it in her hand bag. I wish they would make a low weight charger, that would really make it light. Her tools,the net book and a powerful thumb drive can do anything she requires.
Why buy expensive convergence phones etc, use a net book with a fast internet connection and carry as little as you would like to. If you fly often, two to three times a week, then it will tell. Carrying less weight is always a great feeling.
As for Daddy, for me, the net book sits comfortably on my chest, in bed, to read or watch.
It is not a tool for speed, but for pleasure and comfort. The intel atom works fine, a large hard disk hold most needs and tell me are you really so far from a big comp at any time that you must carry it with you all the time?
Some little items offer freedom, like a ball- point- pen are really useful. Imagine carrying special ink for a Mont Blanc or some such, fountain pen, just because you want to look rich!
My daughter is a TV celebrity in India and like many Indian girls, is very petite, her love is her purple little Acer one.
It does everything she wants, particularly now that we have fast thumb -drive type internet high speed connectors and at her age, she has no problems with sight!
For her, it is freedom from the desk, which she also uses at home for all her serious hard work. She then uploads all her immediate work on to the net book and is free and easy with it in her hand bag. I wish they would make a low weight charger, that would really make it light. Her tools,the net book and a powerful thumb drive can do anything she requires.
Why buy expensive convergence phones etc, use a net book with a fast internet connection and carry as little as you would like to. If you fly often, two to three times a week, then it will tell. Carrying less weight is always a great feeling.
As for Daddy, for me, the net book sits comfortably on my chest, in bed, to read or watch.
It is not a tool for speed, but for pleasure and comfort. The intel atom works fine, a large hard disk hold most needs and tell me are you really so far from a big comp at any time that you must carry it with you all the time?
Some little items offer freedom, like a ball- point- pen are really useful. Imagine carrying special ink for a Mont Blanc or some such, fountain pen, just because you want to look rich!
I have a Toshiba laptop with a nice big 17" screen and plenty of computing power that I keep in my home office. It's great for when I'm really working, but kind of a pain when I want to relocate to the family room for some fun internet surfing. (Battery life isn't great so I have to unplug it and replug it, etc. - I know, I'm just lazy.) Anyway, the netbook has such great battery life that I rarely plug it in so it's ideal for casual use and passing it around to others in the room when I've found something that they just HAVE to see. I really enjoy mine.
But not in a corporate network. One of our managers bought one because he liked the size and the price. He expected me to be able to make it run all of our company apps. It didn't take long to make him realize that was not going to happen. They are good for what they were designed for, but some consumers expect them to be able to do more. That is why we should keep the term "Netbook" around so consumers can differentiate them from true notebooks. Consumers should also be educated to not expect more from these devices than they can realistically provide.
These machines can easily be added to a corporate network. If they run XP Pro, Vista Business or Ultimate or 7 Pro or Ultimate, adding them to an AD is a snap!
Now, whether they are capable of running all of the applications required is another issue.
We have 5 netbooks in our office for an audio conversion project. This is a one-off for a customer, so we didn't want to invest a ton of money. Therefore, we cobbled together a solution using netbooks (running Windows 7 Pro, by the way) and tape recorders hooked up via the line-in port.
Sure, the netbooks aren't workhorses, but they perform VERY admirably for the task to which we've assigned them. When we're done, we'll probably sell 3 of them and my boss and I will keep 1 apiece for tinkering and playing.
We have another netbook (10" screen on this one) that we use with a wireless connection to basically be our "Telxon" gun for inventory tracking around the office.
Sure, I can't run Visual Studio or AutoCAD on these machines (or at least not well), but there is a TON of lighter-weight software that these machines can run very, very well.
By the way, the 10" netbook we have runs its own copy of SQL Server and does so with pretty darn good speed.
About the only issue I have with netbooks comes down to the keyboard. If netbook manufacturers had slightly larger screens (11"?) or maybe rearranged some of the keys, they wouldn't have to make so many standard keys "hide" as Fn key combos of other keys.
Fix that (with slightly larger keys) and you've got a winner!
Now, whether they are capable of running all of the applications required is another issue.
We have 5 netbooks in our office for an audio conversion project. This is a one-off for a customer, so we didn't want to invest a ton of money. Therefore, we cobbled together a solution using netbooks (running Windows 7 Pro, by the way) and tape recorders hooked up via the line-in port.
Sure, the netbooks aren't workhorses, but they perform VERY admirably for the task to which we've assigned them. When we're done, we'll probably sell 3 of them and my boss and I will keep 1 apiece for tinkering and playing.
We have another netbook (10" screen on this one) that we use with a wireless connection to basically be our "Telxon" gun for inventory tracking around the office.
Sure, I can't run Visual Studio or AutoCAD on these machines (or at least not well), but there is a TON of lighter-weight software that these machines can run very, very well.
By the way, the 10" netbook we have runs its own copy of SQL Server and does so with pretty darn good speed.
About the only issue I have with netbooks comes down to the keyboard. If netbook manufacturers had slightly larger screens (11"?) or maybe rearranged some of the keys, they wouldn't have to make so many standard keys "hide" as Fn key combos of other keys.
Fix that (with slightly larger keys) and you've got a winner!
One day my wife called me at work (I'm a web developer) and said "I bought a computer for $225 at Meiers" What! you didn't consult me? I thought to myself what cheap piece of junk did she buy now. I was surprised when I examined her Acer netbook. Also I had a problem getting her to use the desktop. Now though she loves her little netbook and won't let me touch it for fear I would mess it up. So I believe these netbooks have introduced a whole new public that was holding back from joining the computer generation.
Is useful in a very short amount of time, very good performance for what I bought it for (web browsing, google docs) and an actual, measured battery life of 6.5 hours. It is so much faster to put into use than my 2 dell laptops (although my Win7 one is close)
Bought one for my wife as she spends alot of time in the living room doing her ebay thing. It worked well and she really liked the size and color (pink).
However, shortly afterward I bought a tablet PC for a song that the original owner practically shredded the wiring harness on, repaired it, and it was taken by the wife as it had a bit larger screen, higher resolution, and a DVD drive.
I still recommend them to people who want only what a netbook can deliver.
However, shortly afterward I bought a tablet PC for a song that the original owner practically shredded the wiring harness on, repaired it, and it was taken by the wife as it had a bit larger screen, higher resolution, and a DVD drive.
I still recommend them to people who want only what a netbook can deliver.
I originally bought the 7" EEE, which had a 4GB SSD and 512MB RAM. It's preloaded Linux OS was very limited and I replaced with PCLinuxOS, which when fully configured, worked OK. Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi (not sure whether it was hardware, Linux or the driver) kept cutting out, had an occasional crash (requiring a restore), had a short battery runtime and screen resolution was too small to comfortably view many websites. After my first week owning it, I only ended up using it on vacation.
My second mini-laptop is the Samsung N120 and I much prefer this over the EEE for a number of reasons: long battery runtime, screen res. high enough to view websites comfortably, better sound quality, more capacity and excellent Wi-Fi performance. I'm happy with the performance of its preloaded XP Home, fully boots in 50 seconds and it certainly boots a lot quicker than most entry level Vista preloaded laptops!
Unlike my previous Eee, I use the 10" Samsung a lot more, especially on long journeys where I don't feel like lugging a full size laptop.
My second mini-laptop is the Samsung N120 and I much prefer this over the EEE for a number of reasons: long battery runtime, screen res. high enough to view websites comfortably, better sound quality, more capacity and excellent Wi-Fi performance. I'm happy with the performance of its preloaded XP Home, fully boots in 50 seconds and it certainly boots a lot quicker than most entry level Vista preloaded laptops!
Unlike my previous Eee, I use the 10" Samsung a lot more, especially on long journeys where I don't feel like lugging a full size laptop.
Just got one for my son, takes about 4 lbs of weight out of his school pack which is already way too heavy with books.
In thirty years he will thank us.
Sure it's not as fast as the laptop he had before but it's more than adequate to do word processing, keep a to-do list, and a few reference tools eg French-English dictionary.
He needs some kind of PC because he has dysgraphia (disorder of written expression, ie cannot do any significant amount of work in handwriting due to visual & symbol processing problems).
In thirty years he will thank us.
Sure it's not as fast as the laptop he had before but it's more than adequate to do word processing, keep a to-do list, and a few reference tools eg French-English dictionary.
He needs some kind of PC because he has dysgraphia (disorder of written expression, ie cannot do any significant amount of work in handwriting due to visual & symbol processing problems).
Now if only schools and publishers could get around to producing all textbooks in digital form, he'd only have to carry around four pounds.
All textbooks are made in digital form, most textbook manufacturers are just afraid to give them out for fear that people will just distribute the digital copy to everyone instead of buying the stupidly overpriced dead tree version of the book. They have to be in digital form for some special needs students. I have helped the person at my college with some of that stuff and it is like pulling teeth to get textbook manufacturers to allow her to download the digital versions sometimes.
Our school systems have a long way to go and perhaps this is one of the main reasons why so many dropouts these days (besides gender reason which I won't get into). There is so much stuff one has to learn and manage in school nowadays that learning from books should be simply phased out, there is just too much stuff and it's just plain too time consuming to get the proper quote out of a textbook when writing a paper. Anyone who has had to do it knows how much time consuming and wasteful of time this is.
This need for easy information management (it's not for no reason that the French say "Informatique" [the Science of Information] is at the origin of the personal computer revolution and the Internet, and it's high time our education system went digital and towards a freer information exchange system (DRM was a wrong move that will hurt the next generations).
The beauty of digital format is easy to understand: extremely compact size, efficient searchability and non linearity of information transmission (especially when in hypertext format).
Paper books should be relegated to literature, entertainment and other linear, non participatory disciplines.
This need for easy information management (it's not for no reason that the French say "Informatique" [the Science of Information] is at the origin of the personal computer revolution and the Internet, and it's high time our education system went digital and towards a freer information exchange system (DRM was a wrong move that will hurt the next generations).
The beauty of digital format is easy to understand: extremely compact size, efficient searchability and non linearity of information transmission (especially when in hypertext format).
Paper books should be relegated to literature, entertainment and other linear, non participatory disciplines.
I bought an Acer Aspire One in August 2008. Originally I bought it just for web and email, which of course it did very well. Then I started playing - adding Apache and MySQL servers, XEmacs, The GIMP, etc., and started using it for development work while on the road. Soon I ran into too many limitations with Linpus Lite (the factory installed OS), so switched to gNewSense.
Apart from some problems I've had with it not suspending properly, and the headaches with getting the wi-fi adaptor and sound to work properly, it's performed admirably. But these are more Linux issues than directly related to the netbook anyway, I feel.
I'm using my netbook full time right now, doing web development work (overseas). I've become used to the keyboard - the reason I went with the Acer was the salesman's recommendation that it had the best feeling keyboard out of the netbooks on offer at the time. In the last year-and-a-bit, I've had problems with only one website that didn't allow for a screen only 600 pixels high. Presently, I have an external monitor plugged in anyway, so this is not an issue. One thing that does worry me is the amount of heat build-up when using this machine for a full day straight. But so far (after about a month and a half) it has kept going strong! (I also don't think this is any worse than some other full-sized laptops I've used in the past).
Apart from some problems I've had with it not suspending properly, and the headaches with getting the wi-fi adaptor and sound to work properly, it's performed admirably. But these are more Linux issues than directly related to the netbook anyway, I feel.
I'm using my netbook full time right now, doing web development work (overseas). I've become used to the keyboard - the reason I went with the Acer was the salesman's recommendation that it had the best feeling keyboard out of the netbooks on offer at the time. In the last year-and-a-bit, I've had problems with only one website that didn't allow for a screen only 600 pixels high. Presently, I have an external monitor plugged in anyway, so this is not an issue. One thing that does worry me is the amount of heat build-up when using this machine for a full day straight. But so far (after about a month and a half) it has kept going strong! (I also don't think this is any worse than some other full-sized laptops I've used in the past).
It is my primary work machine when I'm on the road. It runs MS Office as fast as my regular boat anchor laptop and the battery lasts at least 4 times longer.
I've watched the trend where manufacturers have been growing netbooks into regular small laptops and it's a mistake IMHO. Besides the light weight and battery life, netbooks are very compact. Mine doesn't fill up my carry on bag. I've looked at the 12in sub-notebooks(? if that's the right term) and while they have a normal laptop-sized keyboard and a standard resolution screen, they are naturally larger and have less battery life. It's a fundamental trade off.
For me I'm happy with my netbook. The advantages definitely outweigh the disadvantages. It has the perfect balance of size, weight, and performance for my ideal traveling work horse.
It's also great for some casual surfing while sitting in front of the TV. I don't have to worry about it burning any hair and it doesn't cut the blood flow to my legs.
I've watched the trend where manufacturers have been growing netbooks into regular small laptops and it's a mistake IMHO. Besides the light weight and battery life, netbooks are very compact. Mine doesn't fill up my carry on bag. I've looked at the 12in sub-notebooks(? if that's the right term) and while they have a normal laptop-sized keyboard and a standard resolution screen, they are naturally larger and have less battery life. It's a fundamental trade off.
For me I'm happy with my netbook. The advantages definitely outweigh the disadvantages. It has the perfect balance of size, weight, and performance for my ideal traveling work horse.
It's also great for some casual surfing while sitting in front of the TV. I don't have to worry about it burning any hair and it doesn't cut the blood flow to my legs.
I use both of my netbooks all the time. And they do what they need to. I am not a graphic artist, CAD designer, or music producer. I am all three when need be and then I use a machine that will get those jobs done. But, in everyday life the Dell Mini 10v and Mini 9 do just fine. Executives that I support at my day job love them also for meetings and travel. They understand the limitations but also see the benefits. --M
I have been happy with my Acer from the first day I bought it. I have lugged it cross country to many meetings and on vacation. It does what it has to do, and being lightweight is a major advantage when switching planes, especially with those puddle jumpers. For the price, it has more than enough features to get me through the day.
I run a small I.T. Company and I do have a netbook of the 10" variety. I agree the small than 10" are unusable, but the 10" networks work very well. Most of my customers have a server app of some sort that does not require alot of PC power. Add an extra gig to these networks and they work very well, not only the laptop version but the desktop version as well. I have been exclusively using Asus Eee PC's. All of the Eee PC's I use are in production environments and have not had any problems, sure they might be just a little slower than a full desktop but not noticeable. Also in dusty environments, the lower heat and less power helps keep down on the maintenance and power being used. I don't have to blow them out near as often as I do the full destop PC's.
There is my 2 cents.
Thanks,
Shane
There is my 2 cents.
Thanks,
Shane
Traveled from WI to Florida. Used it for email on the trip, I ripped dvd's to it and the kids used it in place of a DVD player, used it and my web-accessible Windows Home Server to upload digital pics from the camera onto my server @ home.
Also, made it into a dual-boot with ubuntu linux, and had a huge repository of free games to keep the kiddies occupied while on the road.
All for less than $300?
I toyed with the idea of selling it once school started this fall, but it never gets cold- its used every day for something and sits ready to go on the coffee table as needed.
Nice quality unit. Show me a $300 laptop that isn't cr@ppy.
Also, made it into a dual-boot with ubuntu linux, and had a huge repository of free games to keep the kiddies occupied while on the road.
All for less than $300?
I toyed with the idea of selling it once school started this fall, but it never gets cold- its used every day for something and sits ready to go on the coffee table as needed.
Nice quality unit. Show me a $300 laptop that isn't cr@ppy.
Have an ASUS 1005 with the N270 chip, a 160GB disk, and 2GB of memory. I am now running Windows 7 pro, Office pro 2007, Adobe Acrobat 8.1, and the Chicago Manual of Style so I can write when I am on the road. The performance is as good as computers that we had 4 or 5 years ago which we productively and happily used. The keyboard is 92% the size of a full size KB which takes a bit to get use to - a small bit. It's the size, weight, and battery longevity (8+ hours) that we bought it for.
I bought the Asus Eee PC but I never expected to use it as my primary notebook. I mean get real. But, It serves me well for portability and long battery life. Carrying a 2 lb netbook from user to user for quick network support or for over night stays when I only need to check servers, email and minor inet browsing is the trick. I think they have a real purpose.
I guess if you're a small person with tiny fingers, or a female - a netbook might suffice, however real men don't use netbooks but find the alternative notebook that is still small, useful, powerful and has more features than their tiny counterparts.
Matter of FACT, laptops are the big old clunky dinosaurs from the 80's - the 90's brought out NOTEbooks, but idiots kept calling them laptops even though they were much, much smaller than the original laptop computer and now there are these little crappy, slow and barely useable NETbooks. Why? One can easily purchase a NOTEbook that is small, light and still has a useable keyboard plus much more computing power & features than the NETbooks have.
Netbooks are the fad that will go away and I for one can't wait until they do!
Matter of FACT, laptops are the big old clunky dinosaurs from the 80's - the 90's brought out NOTEbooks, but idiots kept calling them laptops even though they were much, much smaller than the original laptop computer and now there are these little crappy, slow and barely useable NETbooks. Why? One can easily purchase a NOTEbook that is small, light and still has a useable keyboard plus much more computing power & features than the NETbooks have.
Netbooks are the fad that will go away and I for one can't wait until they do!
We use sledgehammers and beer! Yeah! Those damn thing too small to hit with! Gimme another beer! Yeah!
I use sledgehammers and beer and computers, and netbooks--sometimes all at once!
These threads always attract those with no experience with the topic but yet will tell us how good or bad X product is.
These threads always attract those with no experience with the topic but yet will tell us how good or bad X product is.
Netbooks are very usable and do what they are designed to do very well. I bet you hav'nt even used one, or tried to use one for something they are just not capable of doing, because they where not intended to do so. I can think of many notebooks that are supposed to be powerfull, yet perform much worse than my little netbook.
You are so wrong captain negative haha
You are so wrong captain negative haha
Hope you did not take my post as a serious one. I was merely trying to entertain, based on rather silly comment I was referring to.
My reply was to luvwknd. That is why the dotty liney was under himmy-wimmy not you-wooey. Get it now?
I get it Sir George. I was suspecting this, but just wanted to make sure.
In any case I should concur with your observation as being quite correct.
In any case I should concur with your observation as being quite correct.
Nope this year I am going to buy one that even have inside the Cell Phone integrated and Wi-Fi, my coworkers working with me in the verification Team just love it.
Portable but yet functional and performing well enough for our Excel Sheet and other tools of the trade that is required in my lines of work.
Home is Desktop and Work also, my supervisor have a Laptop and truly wish that "Notebook or even Netbook" become an option available to US.
Real Keyboard, more than truth if compared to an IPhone or Itouch, SSD, USB port, Cell Phone connectivity is now available and "Wi-Fi" in the Hotel Room makes it a plus for us and even wired network for $600 CDN or less.
Portable but yet functional and performing well enough for our Excel Sheet and other tools of the trade that is required in my lines of work.
Home is Desktop and Work also, my supervisor have a Laptop and truly wish that "Notebook or even Netbook" become an option available to US.
Real Keyboard, more than truth if compared to an IPhone or Itouch, SSD, USB port, Cell Phone connectivity is now available and "Wi-Fi" in the Hotel Room makes it a plus for us and even wired network for $600 CDN or less.
Netbooks certainly opened up a previously fairly untapped market, that of the BUDGET ultraportable. My first laptop was indeed an ultraportable with a 6 inch BW screen and it was a joy to use on the road. Of course, it was a Thinkpad so that's no wonder, but it was very pricy as well, costing twice what the average laptop sells for now.
I'd get a netbook for occasional on the road use, but considering their limited functionality compared to laptops, I wouldn't want to spend much more than $200 for one. Puny, coarse screens being the main drawbacks, small keyboards much less so (if well made they can be just as nice if not nicer to use than some full size keyboards). Considering I'm in Canada, where they don't go for much less than $300, I don't see that happening, unless I fall on some closeout sale.
Which is to say I agree with you: they are toys, and they should be cheap as well. But toys with a function.
Which brings us to computer sizes.
The next step IMO is for PDAs to grow in size so as to fit a shirt pocket with edge to edge screen (4" wide, 6" tall and 1/2" thick or something like that) in a water proof package with contact pads for recharge and bluetooth connection...
What is missing, at the other end IMO, is the lack of true desktop replacement "notebooks" (I still call mine a "laptop" because that's how I use it most of the time). The main problem being, the LCD screens that are still too small and too coarse. In this day and age of 10+ megapixel cameras, I simply can't understand why LCD makers insist on pushing their less-than-two-megapixel so called 'high definition' screens!!! Hello?! What's wrong with this picture?!
Isn't it time for the desktops to be fully displaced by the portable workstation notebook using the existing 17" laptop format but with edge-to-edge, 19-inch 1.6 format (anything wider is a heresy IMO), with AT LEAST a wuxga (1920x1200) screen, so as to be able to do true, portable multitasking (a full page document one one side and a picture app on the other, for example)?
Indeed, the real question that should be asked is: "when is the desktop going to die finally?"
But that's for another article, I HOPE!
I'd get a netbook for occasional on the road use, but considering their limited functionality compared to laptops, I wouldn't want to spend much more than $200 for one. Puny, coarse screens being the main drawbacks, small keyboards much less so (if well made they can be just as nice if not nicer to use than some full size keyboards). Considering I'm in Canada, where they don't go for much less than $300, I don't see that happening, unless I fall on some closeout sale.
Which is to say I agree with you: they are toys, and they should be cheap as well. But toys with a function.
Which brings us to computer sizes.
The next step IMO is for PDAs to grow in size so as to fit a shirt pocket with edge to edge screen (4" wide, 6" tall and 1/2" thick or something like that) in a water proof package with contact pads for recharge and bluetooth connection...
What is missing, at the other end IMO, is the lack of true desktop replacement "notebooks" (I still call mine a "laptop" because that's how I use it most of the time). The main problem being, the LCD screens that are still too small and too coarse. In this day and age of 10+ megapixel cameras, I simply can't understand why LCD makers insist on pushing their less-than-two-megapixel so called 'high definition' screens!!! Hello?! What's wrong with this picture?!
Isn't it time for the desktops to be fully displaced by the portable workstation notebook using the existing 17" laptop format but with edge-to-edge, 19-inch 1.6 format (anything wider is a heresy IMO), with AT LEAST a wuxga (1920x1200) screen, so as to be able to do true, portable multitasking (a full page document one one side and a picture app on the other, for example)?
Indeed, the real question that should be asked is: "when is the desktop going to die finally?"
But that's for another article, I HOPE!
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