Do you own a netbook?

[edDV]

As often as I seem to kill laptops, Mac ones at that, a small, cute netbook is good enough for me. For the same $899 that I can get a refurbed Macbook, I can get three netbooks! Although the two cannot be compared "apples to apples," neither can my wallet continue to buy Macbooks at this rate!

A good new Vista 15" screen laptop can be had for $350-399 if you shop carefully.

[yoda313]

This issue seems to be how much power you need on your portable device.

If you just need email and basic browsing cell phones are probably more than enough for the average joe/jane.

If you need spreadsheet access and more verbose email/surfing ability the smartphone enters the picture.

If you need full blown application processing than a laptop is what is really needed.

It definitely seems like netbooks are in that in between a smartphone and a laptop. It does more than a smartphone - some of them - not all by any means. But it doesn't have a full fledged power structure like a laptop.

I'm sure there is a perfect market out there at a reasonable price. Like some have mentioned if you don't need a full laptop and the weight that comes with it a netbook seems to be an attractive alternative - despite its obvious shortcomings in terms of features and computing power.

[Number Six]

That Picturebook reminds me of the stupid HP Journada (?) I had about 11 years ago. Everyone at work had them - for about a year. Then, as now, I found the display to be pathetically inadequate.

I never had a Jornado, but I still use the old HP200LX at work - the Jornado looks like an updated version of this, but with a color screen - very limited in today's world.

The Picturebook works well for me because I am basically using it as a media player. I have a lot of stuff encoded for use on my Zune, so at that resolution it is a little lacking on it, but I am not going through all the trouble to re-encode everything for this device - YET, maybe at a later time if I ever get the ambition to do it. The nice thing about this device is that it also is a full function mini-laptop with a real OS, HD, and connectivity that can be very useful when necessary. Since it is an older device, it it severely limited in memory capacity, and only has a 600mhz processor. I would love to get a modern Netbook, but I am not willing to pay the price for it because I have no need for it at this time, and I know that sometime in the future I will get a used one at a very low price - I only paid $50 for the Picturebook with the adapter and external DVD drive.

[rumplestiltskin]

Bought the MSI Wind and, except for the absolutely horrible trackpad, the unit worked quite well. I even found the Hacint0sh OSX distribution that works (quite nicely!) on it. However, I did sell it as the trackpad was a joke. It was a Sentelic (not Synaptic as the first units had been) and it did not support scrolling. Worse, the buttons took about 5 pounds of pressure to activate them. Too bad such an otherwise workable machine had to be hobbled by sub-standard hardware. Another $10 for a decent trackpad and I would still have it and be singing about it.

I'll wait for the upcoming Apple "netPod" (or ePod or whatever you want to call it). Apple will get the user interface right and then we'll see Asus, MSI, HP, etc. rush to follow suit. That's a good thing as the competition will help keep the prices down.

[dadrab]

I already have a laptop -- and I use it daily -- but I don't take it anywhere. It hasn't moved off the desk in a year. To be honest, it's a "desktop machine" now.

I question whether people really need to be this connected at all times, in all places.

We got along just fine before Blackberries, TXT messages, laptops, etc. There was this device called the telephone, and it involved flapping your lips and moving your tongue while sounds came out. We communicated pretty well, too! Better, probably, to be honest!

Well, there you have it in a nutshell.

To take it a step further, there're worlds of things to be discovered in solitude. I crave it. Solitude doesn't include picking up email every five minutes OR getting the latest stock download OR hearing from the VP of a company I've been trying to contact for a week OR any of the other shit that can wait until I'm back in my office.

There are many times when I want to shut out the insanity of the world.

Connectivity's OK, but it ain't all it's cracked up to be. It's become an obsession with too many people.

How can we be expected to communicate effectively with others if we have no idea what's going on with ourselves?

I've seen too many examples of husbands or wives or kids who are absolutely cut off from one or more of the people who should be important to them because that person is too damn busy being "connected" with everybody else. I've had people in my house who are more interested in reading their email than they are with the visit at hand.

Where I come from, that ******* rude.

I travel a good bit. My laptop and phone are just fine. AND I can and frequently do turn them off or ignore them. There's nothing written anywhere that I know of that says I HAVE to answer A DAMN THING. My time is just that. I won't have it encroached upon by anyone except my wife or sons.

I'm not schlepping around anything - heavy, light or otherwise - unless I want to be bothered. A phone fits neatly into a pocket and I can be reached there by anyone who matters. Otherwise, I don't care. It'll wait.

If I'm working and it's needed, I take a laptop.

Laptop too heavy? Work out.

end rant

[solarfox]

Wow, I'm not seeing a lot of love for the netbooks in this thread...

I bought one of the Asus EeePC 1000HD netbooks back in December, to replace my aging and increasingly-cranky Dell Latitude-C laptop... and actually, I kind of like it. It fits my particular portable-computing needs pretty well:

(1) I don't play computer games, so I have no need for super-high-performance CPU and graphics, or large screens.

(2) I despise cell phones in general -- and even if I didn't, there's no way I could use a "smart phone" for any serious work. Frankly, I find it astonishing that so many people in this thread seem to think that smartphones, with their 3-inch screens and thumb-driven keypads, are even remotely comparable to something like the 1000HD netbook with a 10" widescreen display and a proper QWERTY keyboard. (And with all respect to you, yoda313, anyone who tries to do spreadsheets on a smartphone is certifiably insane. )

(3) Most of my on-the-go computing is pretty self-contained. The Dell had a CD-R drive, but I hardly ever used it, and so far haven't really missed having one on the Asus. (The only time I really found myself needing it was when I was initially setting the machine up, and needed to install WordPerfect Office 2002 from CD.)

(4) The small size of the netbook means that it's easier to operate comfortably when crammed into a coach-class airline seat, and less likely to get damaged or crushed if the guy sitting in front of you suddenly decides to lean his seat back while the netbook is sitting on the tray table.

(5) The Asus EeePC comes with Windows XP instead of Vista. 'Nuff said.

[yoda313]

(And with all respect to you, yoda313, anyone who tries to do spreadsheets on a smartphone is certifiably insane. )

Hey no problems. I don't own one so I don't know how practical it is. I just assumed it was technically feasible.

[edDV]

Wow, I'm not seeing a lot of love for the netbooks in this thread...

Confirms my observation that the Netbook is an alternative to the BlackBerry or iPhone.

A laptop can be a serious mini-workstation when on the road. This is a video forum and it is video edit/processing and/or photo work that swings the serious mobile user to the laptop. I'd include web browsing, word processing and spreadsheets into the must have category. I remember at least a dozen all-niters editing a presentation or a contract proposal in a hotel room.

So score one point to the Netbook for coach airline use but what happens when you get there? I'd rather have the laptop because real work can get demanding.

[Webster]

Confirms my observation that the Netbook is an alternative to the BlackBerry or iPhone.

Well, I find that a netbook is most useful for powerpoint presentation when you are on the road.
Sometime, you just don't want to give your presentation to other people to mess around with.

[vhelp]

..never mind..

-vhelp 5082

[lordsmurf]

Laptop too heavy? Work out.

Yep.