'The netbook era has come to an end'
Linked by the_randymon on Wed 2nd Jan 2013 22:01 UTC
Hardware, Embedded Systems Asus is the company that shook up the laptop market a couple of years ago with their introduction of the EeePC netbook. And with their announcement that they will no longer be producing netbooks in 2013, Charles Arthur over at the Guardian UK has declared that the netbook era has now come to an end. Sad news for those of us who still love our netbooks! Harry McCracken over at Time Mag thinks they'll be back. Anybody who spends time wiping the smears off their tablet's touchscreen might agree.
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wannabe geek
Member since:
2006-09-27

with a detachable keyboard, a touchscreen and .. oh, wait!

Reply Score: 4

ssokolow Member since:
2010-01-21

with a detachable keyboard, a touchscreen and .. oh, wait!


I see your point and raise you:
- Google, Apple, or Microsoft spying on you if you want full functionality.
- Imperfect support for hardware keyboards and gaming controls.
- A shortage of good, GPLed applications like gVim, Comix, and Brogue with trustable, easy-to-replicate packaging processes. (I like Gentoo and Debian)
- You're paying for GPS and cellular with no hardware kill switch even if you'd sooner fry those chips than unset Airplane Mode to use the WiFi.
- The hassle of detachable hinges breaking or detaching when you don't want them to.
- Closed-source drivers and a GUI which doesn't encourage hacking from the outset.

I think you can see why I'll stick with buying a folding bluetooth keyboard for coding on my OpenPandora or, when I don't need battery life, using a BIOS-based x86 laptop.

(...though my mother would be happy with anything that replicates her 2Ghz Lubuntu-based laptop in a purse-sized package so she can comfortably write stories and articles on the go.)

Reply Parent Score: 2

spinnekopje Member since:
2008-11-29

with a detachable keyboard, a touchscreen and .. oh, wait!


I do use my ASUS transformer a lot and it is almost always docked. We do mail, some browsing, im, irc, .. using the tablet with keyboard.

But when I want to search something on the internet I notice I almost always use the laptop. It is just so much easier and faster. Also for office stuff I always power up the laptop.

I need the size of the transformer and the functionality of a laptop.. oh wait.. it exists, it's called a netbook.
My netbook did everything it needed to do with ubuntu as main os and a virtual xp install. When running the virtual xp it still worked better/faster than another similar netbook running only a clean win 7!

There certainly is a market, only they should add an OS suited for the job, so no blown up win or linux or ..

Reply Parent Score: 2

wannabe geek Member since:
2006-09-27



I need the size of the transformer and the functionality of a laptop.. oh wait.. it exists, it's called a netbook.


Yes, but my point is about the near future.

Take a netbook, make the screen a touchscreen (with no loss of functionality as a regular screen) and make the keyboard detachable (again, with no loss of functionality), what do you get? Now take a tablet, add a detachable keyboard and the ability to install and use any regular PC operating system, what do you get? Same device!

I'm not saying the netbook is gone forever. I'm saying that the distinction between tablets and netbooks might soon be erased.

Reply Parent Score: 2

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