The big thing in notebooks right now are netbooks. They’re cheap, more than powerful enough for day-to-day tasks, and small enough to actually carry around without anyone even noticing you’re carrying one (not a bad thing in some parts of the world). However, they also receive a lot of criticism, such as cramped keyboards and displays that are too small. So, at Kaiwai’s suggestion, here’s a question for you all: how do you use your netbook?
Over the past several years, people have begun buying laptops as their main computer instead of desktops. They take up less space, can be moved more easily, and these days, aren’t that much more expensive than desktops, while still offering more than enough power to do what people want to do with computers.
However, most common laptops today aren’t exactly very portable. Computer makers latched on to the idea that a laptop is generally not used as a portable device, but more as something that stays inside the house, and as such, there’s really no need to focus too much on making it actually portable. Of course, you can spend a little bit more and get a laptop that does work well as a portable device. Personally, I believe Apple’s laptops are the best bang for your buck in this segment.
Getting a really portable laptop became a rather expensive affair. Most manufacturers had higher-quality, lightweight laptops in their product portfolio, but they were often prohibitively expensive. That is – until the netbook came around. Suddenly we had truly portable machines with enough grunt to get the job done, for very, very affordable prices. However, being truly portable, these machines come with limitations. People often find the keyboards cramped, and the displays too small.
Still, netbooks are selling like bananas. So, the interesting question is: how do you use your netbook? Is it a supplement to a desktop machine? Is it a supplement to your laptop (where the laptop is your main machine no desktop involved)? Or do you have both a desktop and a laptop, but have the netbook as a supplement?
On top of that, what do you do with your netbook? What tasks do you perform? What operating system are you running? What software are you using? Comment away!
I use my netbook mostly in same way I use a regular laptop. I run Windows 7, TrueCrypt with FDE, Office 2007, Opera, Eclipse, PuTTY, Cygwin, Media Player Classic, and Pidgin.
The only thing I don’t do is virtualization – I haven’t tried because I doubted it would perform well, but there have been a few situations where it would be useful.
I don’t use my other laptop at all; even though it is much more powerful and gets better battery life, it weighs twice as much (4.5 lbs vs. 2.2 lbs)
If I had a need for more power in a laptop, I’d probably consider the Latitude E4200 first (2.3 lbs, close in weight to most 10″ netbooks, but with 12″ WXGA, a Core 2 Duo, up to 5 GB RAM, and a more powerful Intel G45-based GPU)
Agreed … mostly the same usage as a regular laptop.
I run Kubuntu 9.04 (but with KDE 4.3), OpenOffice 3.1, Firefox 3.5, Kate/Qt Creator/Python, Konsole/ssh, VLC or SMPlayer (I have both installed, as the odd video which doesn’t play in one may be OK in the other), Amarok, Kontact, digikam (with kipi plugins), Okular, Gwenview and Dolphin.
GIMP isn’t very useable on a netbook.
The “Cygwin” equivalent would be Wine but I don’t run Wine, as there is no need.
I use the Firefox browser most of the time. That would be the primary use for the netbook. When I want to read something (as opposed to just browsing and hopping about from place to place) I use the F11 full-screen function, which makes best use of the limited screen size.
If I have several apps running, I find it less of a clutter if I put just one application on each desktop. I have the meta key + left and right arrows mapped to spin the desktop cube.
It is pretty useable, but the Intel graphics drivers in their current state leave a bit to be desired. There should however be a very welcome performance improvement when I upgrade to Kubuntu Karmic early in November.
Having said all that … because of their low power uasge, with a bit of imagination one can use a netbook in utterly different roles if one wishes:
I leave a bit of functionality up to my always-on home server, which runs OpenWrt http://openwrt.org/ and it serves:
—– Home LAN-facing:
– Samba
http://www.samba.org/
– CUPS
http://www.cups.org/
– PHPXmail
http://phpxmail.sourceforge.net/
—– Internet-facing:
– the Cherokee web server
http://www.cherokee-project.com/
– CMSimple
http://www.cmsimple.org/
– Libretto. Web download manager
http://libretto.sourceforge.net/
– Qdig – Quick Digital Image Gallery
http://qdig.sourceforge.net/
– IlohaMail webmail
http://blog.ilohamail.org/
– XMail
http://www.xmailserver.org/
Although I run all of the latter on a dedicated low-power server,
http://www.cnet.com.au/asus-wl-700ge-storage-router-339287386.htm
there is no reason why one couldn’t press a Linux-based netbook (or smartbook) into service in this role, running all of the above. A 7″ screen model would be fine for this role, and one can pick up one of those very cheaply indeed.
Edited 2009-08-20 14:01 UTC
You honestly use a netbook for Eclipse? On a 1024×700 screen? Personally, I think that a 1280×1024 screen is already quite tight for Eclipse.
I have replaced my main laptop for an Eee PC 901 (20GB model) model and have never looked back. I have upgraded the SSD to 32GB and have replaced Xandros with Ubuntu 9.04.
I use this for ruby on rails programming, surfing, writing letters, finances, email, IM, IRC, listening to music, youtube and iplayer. I have to admit the keyboard was a little cramped at first, but I am now use to it and it doesn’t cause any problems.
The screen resolution (1024×700) is perfect for what I use it for and the N270 intel atom processor doesn’t seem that under powered to me compared to my old laptop that had a Celeron M processor (1.4Ghz).
I never bought the netbook with the intention of it replacing my laptop, but it has worked so well for me that and is so portable that there was just no reason to keep my laptop anymore.
I have FreeBSD running on my EEE 701 8GB ssd that I run as the primary OS for simple tasks such as taking notes in class and web surfing. It is much lighter than my 15″ laptop and fits in much smaller bags, so it is ideal for class use. It is a great little machine.
Everything on the 701 is supported under FreeBSD except the webcam, but the model I have did not come with a webcam. The wireless and wired lan cards work, but the wireless card required a kernel recompile before it would work.
Previously running Ubuntu 8.10 on my Acer Aspire One 150 (the Windows version) I used it as a replacement for my day to-day tasks running Apache, mysql and the development tools needed.
It even got better after I installed Ubuntu 9.04 with its decreased boot time and slick interface (GNOME). Lately I replaced GNOME with Openbox and it serves me well.
Running Eclipse Galileo, Jajuk, OpenOffice.org, Firefox 3.5, Thunderbird 3 beta 3, XMind (through Eclipse though since there is some trouble to get the standalone version working), and in the near future I will attempt to run Tomcat as well.
With ease can I replace my desktop if I can learn the patience for some of the tasks that might chow at the CPU.
Since I’m not that big a gamer, I can start to live without Counterstrike and other games. It’s meant for productivity, not entertainment although I can watch movies using MPlayer.
Edited 2009-08-20 13:18 UTC
I have two netbooks—
eee701:
Cramped, slow and have installed I-don’t-recall number of linux distros trying to find one that works. The resolution really works against it as a browsing-device.
eee901-Go:
The Go edition has a 16GB SSD, no bluetooth but 3G integrated. I use this as a highly portable laptop for my main job of going house to house fixing PCs. I use it to look up problems on Google, order parts and generally anywhere where I need an Internet connection. I also carry about 5 GB of various softwares for fixing computers and sync this to an SD card so I can download updates and make changes to this toolset on the move. Its certainly helped to make my job much easier and to pass time whilst I’m waiting for yet-another-chkdsk/r.
I don’t use it much beyond that though—the keyboard is too cramped, and I don’t find the screen bright enough. Even with an extended 8800mA battery, It still isn’t confident enough with getting a day’s work done.
I’m rewriting my website to provide an online CMS so I can hopefully also use my netbook to blog more often, but really I hark for a 10-12″ netbook with 12+ hours battery. Hopefully these will come soon enough.
You should take a look at the msi wind u123-003. It has a 9 cell battery. I have no idea what the actual battery life is in terms of hours, but its the largest battery i’ve ever seen on any netbook or laptop.
I use it for everything I used to work with my laptop. I always do carry it with me and its size and weight are more than welcome. Sure I’d like a bigger display, but it should be in the same size (extensible display and keyboard ?) …
And I use computers since I was 7, I’m now 22, so when I say primary and only machine, I mean I really do EVERYTHING. Of course, no HD video or 3d graphics, but I don’t need any of the two. And of course I’m a “memory savvy” user, something I think is the kew to use netbooks comfortably.
I do not find any issue with the keyboard (I have particularly slim fingers though, so can’t really blame everyone who has issues) or the size of the screen. 1024×600 on a 8,9″ is just fine.
Oh, the netbook is an Acer Aspire One L110 (8 Gb SD) and I use Xubuntu, with the proper customizations. The system boots in something like 15 seconds, from power-on to usable desktop.
Only real complain? The SLUGGISHNESS of the internal SD. My next netbook must have a faster SSD drive.
Cheers!
Edited 2009-08-20 13:40 UTC
I don’t like current gen notebooks, especially as they have become ever larger, heavier, more complex “desktop replacementsâ€. I prefer a desktop machine for heavy lifting (compiling, MM, virtualization, gaming) because I find them generally more reliable, they are still much more powerful than all but the most ridiculously expensive desktop replacement notebooks and they are far more serviceable.
As such, netbooks really fit the bill for me as a portable machine. My Samsung NC 10, (N270) with 1GB of RAM and 160GB HDD, runs Win7 Ultimate RTM just fine (along with Office 2007). For e-mail, browsing, and even light gaming (think older games) this machine is a nifty and truly mobile compliment to my desktop machines. Additionally, because (at least for the moment) netbook hardware is so standardized and simple, mine has proven very reliable (current uptime for my netbook is 2wks 3days 12hrs). Throw in that my NC 10 has a great keyboard, bright display and gets about 6:30 of real, honest to god, battery life and it’s easy to understand why my Lenovo T60p and Toshiba M400 are collecting dust.
Very rarely, but once in a while, the saying “less is more†turns out to be true. It certainly is the case with my NC10. I love this little machine.
On mt EEE PC 900, I play Heroes of Might & Magic 2 & 3, Fallout 1 & 2 – they run incredibly well!
It’s sometimes very cozy to lie in bed your belly up and surf a bit, play a bit. The notebook is very light on weigth.
I use my Acer Aspire One ZG5 with Ubuntu NBR 9.04 as a desktop replacement. I do half of my work on it (I’m a lawyer), I code on it (python), I browse internet.
I use two more computers:
1. my office desktop (noname with Ubuntu 9.04) I am forced to use due to the corporate policy of data security.
2. My home PC (Dell Inspiron 1721 with Arch Linux 2009.08) for torrents and video encoding. In fact I use it as home server / advanced DVD-Recorder.
I use my netbook more frequently and I would use it almost exclusively if I wasn’t forced to use a corporate desktop.
I was one of the “beta testers ” of the Eeepc series, you know the poor sods that bought the wannabe Jesus Laptop onto hear Jerry Sheng announce the 901 two months after.
I still have my baby and I’m still happy with it. Keyboarda is a pain after an hour of typing and I spensd half of the time correcting the faults I made with my big hands ( 192 cm tall , you pay that all your life long).
Other thing that is really painful is having to scroll texts horizontally when on a web page ( we once did REALLY live with 800*60 resolution??)
What do I do? What in fact I have been doing on the main PC for a life long, I write documents, I surf, I look pictures, I read texts.
I run the basic Linux that was provided because I never found a distro that booted faster ( things are gonna change though, I really cannot stand it a second more) but was VERY unsatisfied from it from the first two seconds.
Using the baby I was able to write while going and coming back from work and in every situation a portable machine is supposed to work like in a bar or a street.
I’m very satisfied with the netbook experience and will keep on using it, even if I will have to pay for a Vista licence for the privilege of choosing Linux as main OS.
I got an Eee 701 too. The value for money was nowhere near what modern netbooks offer but still very good compared to the other options out there.
Mine has survived all sorts of bumps and drops. I’m running Mandriva 2009 Spring on it with KDE4 desktop – having upgraded to 2GB of RAM because I was getting out-of-memory crashes. It’s really slick with 2GB installed, desktop effects look great and are somewhat useful on the tiny screen.
I use it to SSH to my desktop where I keep my real work, to watch TV off BBC iPlayer, to read stuff out in the garden and to display recipes in the kitchen. The use as an SSH and NX client really comes into its own when I’m travelling. I also stick stuff I need to read and videos I’d like to watch onto an 8GB SSD card when travelling.
I have used it on planes in the past but have had trouble getting the wireless kill switch to work, so I usually don’t.
I have an Asus 1000H with 160G HD – Love it – I have the original WinXP on it – Ubuntu 9.01 (installed with wubi) – Mandriva 2010 (Cooker) and Mac OSX 10.6 (iDeneb) – all working like a charm. This is a great little machine to “toy about” with different OSs and travel with.
I’ve got an Asus Eee 1000H running WinXP (currently in the repair shop for an out-of-whack motherboard). I’ve been using it for embedded programming (Arduino, AVR) and some mobile development (Palm Pre). It runs the Pre emulator using VirtualBox fine, although I’d not want to run a more hardcore VM on it.
I’ve also got a 8.9″ screen Dell Mini 9 which has Ubuntu on it. It’s mainly used as a guest machine and as a portable server. I taught a class on embedded device access to Twitter using it running an instance of identi.ca.
Edited 2009-08-20 13:52 UTC
Bed computing?
and I’m sure I speak for most guys when I say it.
pr0ns
.. Oh, and youtube, ssh, and mobile computing. It’s nice to have a backup system when you’re messing around with your main one (or you need to ssh into it to kill a process)
I have the 1000HE. Supposedly 9.5h batt life (though I’ve never away from a plug-in for that long to test it), wireless N, bluetooth, 160GB, and a well spaced keyboard with chicklett keys. It’s a great accomplice
Edited 2009-08-20 13:59 UTC
Exec. summary: like a normal, but lighter notebook.
I have XP/Ubuntu 9.04 installed on my aspire one 150.
My three main usage are: morning news and email and electronic book reader at home, and audio station at work.
For web browsing and e-mail, firefox is the candidates in whatever OS happens to be booted at the time (sleep/hibernation are working like a charm in both OS).
For reading, I use whatever software that matches the media at hand (.txt, pdf, comic, etc.) in the OS at hand, for listening to music, I use winamp on XP.
Other less frequent, but regular use are:
– taking notes and various proceedings in school board meeting and suchlike (OpenOffice/MsOffice).
– portable recording stations for choir rehearsals (audacity)
– digital photo frame
Notable exception: no game and HD video, for which the diminutive beast is not powerfull enough.
I have an Acer Aspire One A110. Originally it came with that horrible Linpus thing on the world’s crappiest SSD, but after some serious internal modification, it’s now a pretty sweet deal. I made room for a 30GB 1.8″ iPod drive, and upped the RAM from 512MB to 1.5GB.
I run Windows 7 on it to great satisfaction, and use it mostly… In bed. Before I go to sleep, I use it to manage OSNews and watch television series stored on my media centre, and in the morning again to manage OSNews.
It replaced my laptop, a 15″ 1.25Ghz G4 PowerBook, completely. My main machine is a desktop.
I have an Asus 1000HE. It dual-boots XP and Eeebuntu. For a while, I used it all the time, because I take night classes that last 3-4 hours. I got tired of looking for A/C outlets to plug in a laptop.
However, over time, I grew weary of having to use reading glasses to use it (I am 51), so I went to bobjohnson.com and bought a used Thinkpad T41 with a 14.1 1024×768 screen for $279. It expands to 2GB ram, is fairly light, and I put a 9-cell battery in it so it lasts 6 hours. Eugenia has previously mentioned that a lot of people would be better servered with a 3-4 year-old lightweight laptop with a good screen, and I agree with her.
I still use the netbook, but it is our “coffee table” laptop now. I keep both laptops in the living room and my wife, I, and my son take turns with them during the night. I stick with the Thinkpad for my eyes. My son boots into XP on the netbook, as it gets 2-3 hours better battery life than Eeebuntu despite all my tweaking efforts with ACPI scripts and powertop. When I ran Fedora or Moblin it did get much better battery life.
Funny question. I actually bought a netbook to find out what I would use it for, since I had no particular idea in mind.
So…
I use it for toilet computing, bed computing, getting online when out and about (it’s much lighter than my Dell D630 or 13″ Alu MacBook). The battery also lasts for ages, and two of them let me watch movies/South Park/Family Guy for the entire flight from Amsterdam to Washington Dulles.
As for platform, I had OSX on my mini 9, but I’m fast approaching being completely sick of the maintenance involved with hackintoshing– so after the 10.5.7 upgrade rendered it unbootable, I loaded it up with Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs (basically a stripped-down XP). It boots in around 25 seconds and runs pretty much everything lighting-fast!
I have a Samsung NC10 that I use as my main machine. I do everything with it except gaming, I have a deskop PC and a PS3 for that.
Currently running Fedora 11 on my Aspire A150. Though I thinking of install Jolicloud and only have Fedora/Ubuntu as second grub-choice.
I rsync photos and documents with my main computer and when I’m going anywhere, I almost always have it in the car just in case someone wants to see some photos, I want to access a document or I need to surf a little more than is convenient on my SonyEricsson (also have a 3g-modem in the bag).
Also using it as a bedcomputer (surf/watching videocasts)
Can also say that this question caused me to create a OSNews-account though I frequentky read the site for probably ten years or something. Since the days of BeOS anyway… 🙂
Wow
Eeepc 1000HE
It’s used almost exclusively for travel while in hotels. It’s lightweight, small, and inexpensive so perfect for hauling through airports or on cross-country road trips. Occasionally it’s used at the office too, with a real keyboard and monitor attached.
Software: Windows XP. Office 2000 (Word and Excel). Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird. Skype. Zone Alarm and AVG.
Specific tasks: Data entry. E-mail for receiving travel instructions, sending data files, etc. Internet browsing – most US hotels have free service (not in Australia though – cheap jerks).
To assist in these tasks I’ve disabled the thumbpad (to avoid hitting it while typing), added a USB mouse, and for data entry I use a USB number pad.
The perfect accessory so far, an old laptop case. It’s too small for many new laptops but it’s perfect for an Eeepc, mouse, number pad, and cables.
A couple of things I would like to add before the next trip: A network cable tossed in the bag. Some simple games, maybe text-based adventure games, for motel entertainment. An astronomy program, to learn Southern Hemisphere constellations. A US-Metric conversion program.
I’d also like to add a USB CD/DVD drive. Probably wouldn’t take it along traveling, but it would greatly simplify software installations.
One critical accessory I should have mentioned earlier, USB flash drives. It’s the fastest and most reliable method to move data to and from the EeePC.
I have a 701 4g. It runs EeeBuntu with relative success. Although the netbook remix interface sucks awfully so I removed it.
When I first got it I used it for all sorts of things, even for C++ programming and such. Now that I have a 24″ iMac I just can’t justify staring at that 7″ screen at home, even though it is fun to compute in any position or chair.
So now I just use it for watching movies in bed or while I’m making dinner, and of course for whenever I need to take a little machine with me. My wife and I are heading to europe in a few days, and of course the Eee is the only machine I would think of taking. The other laptops are way too big and fragile, this thing is bombproof and can go anywhere.
I think if I had an iPhone I probably wouldn’t need my 701, but that’s too expensive and I hate paying monthly fees. I still think the 701 has some good points that the later netbooks completely missed out on. I would never buy a netbook without an SSD, or robust design.
I used my Asus EEE PC 4G on holiday for moving pictures from my digital camera to a portable hard disk, my wife/son watched movies on it (I used my iPod Classic) and I used it to check the results of my diving goggles with build-in camera (but no display).
It runs an Ubuntu based distro called OpenGEU.
At home I don’t use it, prefer my iPhone for mobile computing as the EEE is pretty slow and most software is crap.
I forgot in my previous post – another thing I do use it for is to empty the 1GB SD card in my camera whilst I’m on holiday. That way I can take *lots* more photos 😀
I don’t dare take my EOS along, so I use a cheaper camera, but it uses Smart Media cards. You can’t buy them anywhere anymore and the one I have is only 128MB.
So I bought an external portable hard disk and brought a card reader along.
In the SD card slot is a 4GB card, which I started to use as a backup medium after my wife dropped the external disk (@*!&*@&*@) and most movies were damaged (but lucky only one picture!).
I have an Acer Aspire One, 8GB SSD, running Kuki Linux because installing anything on Linpus was a nightmare, let alone updating. Going back, I would have shed the €100 difference for the HDD version and put Windows on it. Or better yet get one of those you can install Mac OS X on.
I use it to read e-mail with Evolution (which I do not like, but have not found anything better –Claws Mail and Thunderbird felt even inferior; I even go with webmail for my Gmail account–), surf with Firefox (the UI of which feels too slow (tinkering with Chromium, which I prefer –or will prefer once it is a bit less broken and can run FF’s extension Rikaichan on it which I need), IM with Pidgin, rarely with Skype (have not used the cam yet) and learn my bloody Japanese Kanji with Anki.
And that’s about it, mainly because it cannot replace my MacBook at everything else I do with it (loving Safari’s and Mail.app’s experience more since I use Linux), either on Software and most of all on quality of experience. I would enjoy being able to run Lightroom on the go, even it it was slow as molasses and had to install Windows, but not on a 8GB SSD thanks, play with learning Cocoa, only that you need X-Code for that. I find Gnome Do totally ridiculous compared to LaunchBar (after trying hard to use the thing finally uninstalled it and went with xfce4-app-search or whatever you call it, which is also ridiculous but at least lighter).
To sum up, I have a netbook which I love having because it allows me flee home and do (som only) stuff on the go. I have a Linux netbook specifically, because I cannot have a Mac OS X netbook, and I feel it that way every second I am using it.
I’ve just completed a book on my MSI Wind. This netbook is well suited for the “writer lifestyle” because it can come with me just about anywhere I go.
I also use it for minor photo work.
Kev
main system’s a desktop, Vaio P is my only ‘laptop’. I’ve always liked tiny PCs, I had a Vaio C1XD Picturebook for years (used to get all sorts of questions in coffee shops). Works very nicely now I’ve got the Poulsbo drivers behaving, and it’s deeply deeply convenient to have a PC you can carry in the inside pocket of a suit jacket…
Are you running Vista, and what’s the performance like? It seemed as the worst feature on the Vaio P was Vista itself.
you forgot who I am?
of course I’m not running Vista. It runs Fedora 11 and does it rather well. Biggest bottleneck is the 4200 RPM hard disk (I didn’t get the SSD model; the SSD’s performance is also rather hampered by the odd design decision to use a PATA interface for it, from what I’ve read).
You have a Vaio P?
I envy you. Seriously. I want one of those *so bad*. Too bad I’m too poor for one.
it was only CAN$1,000. Not really that much for a computer, if you don’t see it through the ‘but a crappily-built netbook is three times cheaper!’ lens. I don’t buy computers as toys, I buy ’em for the long term, I expect to be using this one for a long time to come. I kept the Picturebook for five years.
I had Linux, and I installed over it Windows XP with codecs and DVBViewer. I use it only to watch TV in my bed, basically (ok, sometimes Gmail, but the screen is too small and I dislike the mobile or HTML versions).
do you use a usb tv tuner stick?
i’ve been eying the asus seashell 1005ha-pu1x for a while. My ideal setup would be one of those with a atsc/clearqam usb tuner stick, upgraded with a 320gb hd and 2gb ram, and mythtv.
I currently have a 15in. 1st gen unibody macbook pro, and have really been considering selling it and getting a netbook. I’ve been using macs for a while now, my first was a 1.3ghz 12in. g4 powerbook, but i realized all of the apps i use on os x are foss things that come from linux.
The reason i am hesitant is because of the amount of time I would waste setting everything up the way I like. I love to tinker with stuff, its an addiction. OS X just works, so i actually get real work done instead of playing with stuff.
Another reason i was really hesitant until now, was because most netbooks lack multitouch mouse pads. If there is one thing i love about the unibody mbp it is the giant multitouch mouse pad. The asus seashell is one of the first i’ve seen to include one. But i wonder how useful they are in linux. OS X has some nice features that exploit a multitouch pad well.
I have an EeePC 901 running WinXP, and I can do almost everything that I was able to do before with a full laptop. My old laptop’s battery died, so it is now hooked up to my television full time.
Applications:
– Browser: Chromium, occasionally Chrome and IE8
– Development tools: Notepad++, Paint.NET, TortoiseHg, misc compilers & interpreters
– Multimedia: K-Lite Mega, QT-Lite
– Networking: Hamachi, OpenVPN, Google Talk, TightVNC
– Security: AVG, Spybot S&D
– Virtualization: Nothing local, only remote-operated stuff
– Everything else: PortableApps.com running on an 8GB SD card.
I moved some of the standard OS and applications to the 8GB D: drive from the C: drive, replacing their old directories with junction points to the new (awxLink) – this gives me enough room to install both the current Java and .NET runtimes with no problems.
There’s only 1GB of RAM, and the drives are SSD, so you don’t get a swap file, though virtual memory is turned on. This means that you become acutely aware of how much memory your programs use. This means no Firefox, and I avoid Java apps, though .NET apps can be OK on occasion.
I do most stuff on the SD card so I can transfer my whole environment to another computer if this one dies. A lot of the time I also remote-operate my computers at home, or computers I support or develop for. Digital nomad mode – it doesn’t matter where I go.
I never turn the computer off. Never (well, twice for plane trips). I have it set to suspend when I shut the lid. When I want to go somewhere, I shut the lid and start packing up – the SSD means that I don’t even have to wait for it to suspend before moving it. I can pack things up in 5 minutes and be out the door. It can stay on suspend for 2 days without recharging.
Multimedia is weak. I suspect that software optimized for the CPU would solve the problem, since the CPU has enough horsepower for the work. I desperately want an Atom-optimized build of ffdshow. Audio decoding has latency issues, more than video. Forget about more than SD resolution video. I can scale SD video up to 1080p HD output on an external monitor, though.
Flash is horrible, the absolutely worst thing on the netbook, worse than Silverlight (which works well). I want to write a proper Flash-blocking Chrome extension. You have to wait for videos to buffer fully before watching them, because there isn’t enough horsepower to watch and buffer at the same time, or for that matter do Flash and anything other than a text editor. Flash makes me hate the internet.
If I were to replace this netbook today, I would go with something like an EeePC 1000HE running Windows 7 32bit. I suppose I’d be willing to wait for the computer to suspend (because of the HD instead of the SSD), since Win7 would be too big to fit in 4-16GB – at least I’d get a swap file. I’m keeping an eye on the Ion and the next-gen Atom platforms, to see which does better multimedia for the least cash. ARM is not an option for me, nor is Linux or OS X (I run a couple of Windows-specific apps).
Hey, I’d post more, but I was just on my way out the door to set up the router at a new retail store that one of my customers is opening up… with my Linux netbook.
Edited 2009-08-20 15:57 UTC
I finally outgrew the capabilities of my DELL Axim X51v PDA, and decided a netbook would be a more capable (and cheaper) replacement. I went with the ASUS EeePC 901 XP (some of my apps just don’t run under Linux). The 9″ screen is more than adequate, and the keyboard, though tight, is quite useable.
The applications I leave up all the time are Mozilla Thunderbird/Lightning tied to Google Gmail/Calendar, Skype, and Windows Live Sync (I love being able to share files on the fly between home, work and the netbook). In addition, I run Google Chrome as my primary browser, Foxit and Tomeraider for reading e-Books, VLC and Winamp for my media needs, and various GPS mapping/navigation programs. I also have a collection of scientific/engineering programs, and some board games … backgammon, chess, Go.
All in all, I have been very impressed with this platform. I am not looking for it to be a desktop or laptop replacement. But, for on-the-go connectivity, entertainment and some productivity applications, it has really worked well.
With the AC adapter, GPS, external hard drive, earbuds and various cables/adapters, it all fits very nicely in a Caselogic XNTM-1 Slim Line eSling. There is still enough room to add my cell phone, wallet, keys, passport and tickets/boarding pass, so for airline travel, this is wonderful.
I use it to record some bass lines (via audacity). Some web and email stuff. I bring it when I’m waiting for daughter’s ballet lesson to finish, he he he.
Oh and it’s a good paper weight sometimes
I’ve got a Dell Mini 9, Running OSX Leopard, I keep it tucked under my bed for those times when I need to check my mail late at night, just surf the web a bit, or look up some piece of info, she boots quick, works well and the cramped keyboard isn’t too bad on the 9, I had an eeePC 701 for a while, it was too small for me.
I’ve got a Gateway LT3103u netbook with a 1.2GHz 64-bit proc, 2 GB of RAM, ATI Radeon Graphics of some kind, HD audio, and 250GB HD–I too was surprised when I saw the specs.
I use (it for) Ardour, JACK, Audacity, VirtualBox (for work), Songbird, OpenOffice, Kontact, Firefox, ssh/web development, downloading torrents, Skype, Pidgin.
Which is almost exactly what I would do on a desktop pc.
My MSI-Wind U100 runs Fedora 11. I upgraded the ram to 2GB and the HDD to 320Gb.
For apps, I run DB2, Oracle and Websphere
Most of the time, it is connected to a bigger screen but I can do lots of stuff on the netbook screen.
The only issue was the Wireless but that soon got sorted.
was a netbook; the Acer AspireOne. I was looking for portability mostly. My job requires me to scan and map wireless networks and login using a VPN client.
It’s so nice to hold the netbook up with one hand while working. At night I mostly use it to watch anime.
Some people complain about the small screen size. Hey, I remember when 9″ screens were big (486 and Pentium days). My work PC has two big 22″ screens and I have no problems switching back to the AspireOne.
I have 2 aspire ones. an a110 and a150. Got the first for $250 and the second for $199.
Both are bedroom computers and also travel computers. Having 2 of them, one with SSD another with HD I haven’t decided which one I like better.
The SSD is slower but the HD transfers vibrations through the entire chasse. It may be we replace my wife’s older constantly overheating laptop with the HD one.
First I replaced the crappy Linpus with a “Desktop Linux” and well… then I started using it. Surfing, chatting, emailing, the usual stuff.
It’s also my first webcam, but I’m not a fan of video chat. I tried it and it works great, but in most cases I have no reason and no will to show myself. I like the normal text chat much more, because you think more/longer about what you send.
I have an Eee PC 900A that I use both at home and at work. In addition I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop at home and a corporate XP desktop at work. Basically the 900A has all but replaced my laptop at home – primarily Firefox for Gmail and Google Reader. At work I run MoinMoin on the 900A using Moin’s standalone server and take notes of meetings, takeaways, etc. – a personal wiki. I also run OpenOffice primarily for opening documents from email.
I’ve tried several different distros but have settled on Ubuntu Netbook Remix for the moment. The keyboard took a while to get used to, but I did get used to it. And for serious keyboarding I always go to an editor in terminal so that the touchpad is not an issue, yet I can still use it to go check email.
I’ve been looking for a new portable. I have a five-year old Dell relegated to only playing TV shows and the battery is beyond hope.
I’ve been thinking about maybe a netbook, but probably more on the tablet PC side. I can’t draw on regular paper but I can’t stop using a tablet PC — drawing, writing, etc…
Depending on what Apple makes their tablet be; if it runs like a regular PC, I might get it (if it’s priced right), if it’s just a bigger iPod Touch, I’ll find something else. It’s all still up in the air, but it’s something I’ve wanted for a while now.
I can’t really understand this netbook madness. They are just too small and too slow to be enjoyable.
I really prefer my office notebook. It is a big, bulky and heavy Toshiba, but its Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz is a wonderful CPU and its 3 GB of RAM lets me run XP, OSX in a VM, development tools and a lot of other stuff with no paging file. It’s got a terrible Intel GPU, but of course that’s the office laptop, I don’t use it to play WoW.
For me, I just bought a 13.3″ MacBook Unibody – the previous model, not the current “Pro” – at 20% discount, and once I sell my older black MacBook, I’ll have paid for it less than most netbooks sells for
And it is a perfectly portable machine, with a very good battery, and it CAN play WoW nicely.
At these conditions, which one would have you chosen?
Uh. your math appears to be discounting the price you paid for your old Macbook in the first place to $0, which is a bit silly. Most people don’t have an old Macbook to offset against the price of a new one…
My comment was ironic, you know 🙂
The math is more or less correct. Since my first notebook (2003) I spent about €150/year for them, which is pretty good.
Some interesting math there, are you involved in marketing at all? You can’t compare how much you paid after a trade in of a Macbook against the price of the netbook alone.
Enjoyable for what? That’s the key – they might be too cramped and underpowered for what you might want to do, which is fine. But as a computer to take with you while traveling, they’re hard to beat.
My 9″ Aspire One takes up little room and weighs less than 1kg, and even the much-hyped Macbook Air doesn’t come close to that. And while it’s no good for playing 3d games or doing video editing, it’s perfectly sufficient for email, web browsing, and basic photo editing – exactly the kind of thing you might want to do while traveling around the world…
Sorry, I prefer 1 kg more but more screen real estate 🙂
My machine is Acer Aspire One D150 (10.1 inches screen, 160 GB HDD, 1GB RAM) with XP Home and PCLinuxOS dual booting.
I use it mainly for watching movies while travelling in train (around 1.5 hours journey to my office), playing some small games or reading e-books. Its a big relief in crowded trains of Mumbai as I can simply ignore all the chattering around. At home, I use it for netsurfing and as a download machine.
Edited 2009-08-20 18:02 UTC
I found netbooks to be ideal for DJing. I just purchased the ZaReason Terra A20 that came out last week and am dual-booting Crunchbang Linux and 64 Studio. It travels well with DJ gear and doesn’t take up too much space in the DJ booth.
I use my little Aspire One 8.5″ as an entertainment device.
It works perfectly for Comix, the awesome comicbook reader, as it lets me rotate the screen, so it matches the form factor of a “real” book. It works well as a regular ebook reader too.
Once in a great while I might use it to surf while laying on the couch and other people are using the big screen.
We also use it for Drive-in Movie Night. I hook up a pair of speakers and the projector and point it at the side of the garage. The kids love it.
Lastly we use it for music for our outdoor parties. I can put everything in one large duffle bug, so it is easily transported.
Wiped my Windows XP off and use Ubuntu 9.04.
Several points for effective use:
– Taking notes in the meetings, the thing is least obstructive (If only there were shorthand devices available… In form of PSP)
– Giving presentations
– Reading, revising and editing documents, except for graphics and diagrams
– Taking down personal notes
– Watching Youtube engEdu video channel and Google tech talks, while on the cycle in the gym
– Server monitoring and administration
– Light development in scripting languages
– As a Wolfenstein:ET server at the office LAN parties
Does a really good job!
– Serving hosted application demos at the client side
– Power saving device for torrent downloads
My main machine is a ThinkPad T60, so the IdeaPad S10e is perfect for me. It’s keyboard is just a scaled down version of my main machines, so it was easy to adapt.
Mine gets used for coding (C/C++, ASM, Perl), Web Browsing, text editing (MS Word), excel, email, pretty much everything. OSX recognises the 2.5gb ram. I *WISH* Apple made a 10″ .. I would love to buy it. 85% keyboard is fine, you really get used to it fast.
I use many tools off NetBSD Package source, xmms, meld, wget, screen, irssi, nmap, wireshark and also with a fair bit of fiddling Wine, to run win32 binaries because atom n270 has no VT technology so this kills the idea of using parallels, vmware fusion and sun virtual box. Won’t run. Wine with some trickery will compile under pkgsrc 2009-Q2 on MacOS. Most common application I use is terminal.app. Least used application iLife (I do not think I have ever loaded it).
Love this thing. It actually recognises the full 2.5gb ram if you fiddle the efi boot loader kernel params.
i have brought a clevo tn70m and i use it for a LCARS PADD software i develop as webapplication. ^^ (real lcars like with a database on my mac osx server) based on PHP/Javascript.
why not in c (delphi or or or…) ? simple: the tn70m is the testplatform for it (because of the touchscreen)… and it should work on nearly every OS! so… PHP/JS or Java… since i know php more than java i use this.
beside this i also do some websurfing on it. ^^
i have installed windows xp tablet pc edition/XAMPP
I’ve got an Asus Eee PC 1000HE, running Ubuntu 9.04. Naturally I upgraded the ram from 1 gb to 2, and with the latest eeepc_laptop driver and eee-control I get a full 9 hours of battery life (more than XP or Windows 7 gave me).
Software: Most of the usual suspects. Firefox, Pidgin, Skype, Rhythmbox, gnome-mplayer, Evolution. It’s a great on-the-go computer, and has replaced my Macbook for that purpose while the Macbook is relegated to serving in the role of a desktop.
Accessories: external DVD drive (never know when you might have a use for that), and a Targus sport netbook case which allows me to use the netbook while still inside of the case, so I can basically have it open and ready at any time. This is actually very useful for someone in my situation as, being blind and all that, this netbook serves the role a pencil and paper, or a PDA, might serve for most others. The macbook was too big for that, and I’m just too slow at typing on those phone qwerty keyboards at least most of them. So, in addition to being a great laptop, being able to use it while still carrying it is something I’m not really sure how I did without before.
I have a 1000HE and a 1000HD. I run Ubuntu and Eeebuntu on them, they do everything my faster desktop computers can do, and the HE is my primary machine.
I develop software, browse the internet, chat, watch movies for over 7 hours straight, listen to music, play games (no not crysis), read books, take notes, and everything that anyone would expect to do on their PC.
I rotate the screen and read my books sideways like a real book, and the battery lasts for more than 10 hours no matter what I’m doing so I can use it all day long. Though I’ve had “portable computers” since the beginning of time (Starting with the Compaq Portable I, unless you count my C64 as portable), it is my first true portable computer.
I highly recommend Eeebuntu (http://www.eeebuntu.org), but I’m biased.
Edited 2009-08-20 22:43 UTC
It’s a bottom-of-the-line 2 GB SSD, but it still works fine for my purposes. It is a secondary machine (have a bigger laptop at home and desktop at work), used mainly for travel, but it is perfect for stowing in random carry-on baggage – no need for a special laptop bag. Wouldn’t want anything heavier or bigger (it’s 2 lbs). Hopefully this small form-factor will continue to be available despite the trend towards bigger, heavier, and more expensive machines.
My usage is probably fairly different from most, as it’s my ‘gig’ PC – which is to say I use it for MP3 playback of music composed on my primary PC which I play along with on Saxophone or EWI. When I go out busking I use a Roland Cube Street which has a ‘stereo aux in’ which you can plug any powered headphone output directly to.
I find the U123 has enough horsepower to handle most of the soft synths I play with my EWI USB – “The Sax Brothers”, the Aria software that comes bundled with the EWI, even some larger scale VST’s like the Roland TTS-1 that comes bundled with Cakewalk Sonar… though actual playback of what I’m playing on the EWI and my backup pieces in Sonar at the same time is just beyond the CPU’s power – so I record them to MP3 on my desktop since MP3 playback takes little to no resources in the modern sense.
The small form factor works out great since I can just toss it into my performance bag next to the amp… It’s a bitch enough hauling around a battery powered amplifier when busking, so anything to lighten my load is quite welcome… It’s part of why I play the EWI more than my Tenor now since it too lightens my load.
Edited 2009-08-20 23:00 UTC
I have a laptop, a desktop and a netbook, and I use them all differently. I am a part time student part time professional researcher. I use my netbook for three things: a quick loading (I have an SSD based netbook) device for accessing the web, taking notes, and playing back multimedia files while travelling. For trips away I decide whether to take the laptop or netbook according to whether I will be just taking notes, or doing some real drafting. The keyboard is too small to be comfortable for drafting longer reports but is fine for quick notes, and the netbook has better battery life.
Anything heavy duty (statistics for example) I do on the desktop.
I think that the drive for greater features in netbooks is in danger of losing the purpose of the device. For me, it is something that I can throw into a bag for basic use as a supplement to the more powerful but less portable machines.
I have an Aspire One 8.9″, 160 GB HD. Windows XP came installed and that’s fine. I use it for email, web surfing, some word processing, I have my digital photos on it as well as iTunes and my iTunes Library. I got it at WalMart for USD 248.00.
To me, this is what the netbook is all about. I don’t care about 3D games or HD playback, I don’t care about anything it was not designed to handle. I can take it anywhere and it’s never a hassle or a problem. Please keep them small, light and inexpensive.
I use it to read netbooks, browse internet, learning, writing small documents, etc.
I use windows 7, openoffice.org, foxit reader, heroes of might and magic III, visual studio 2010 beta (to learning WPF, and similar new technolgies).
I tired the following os-es:
Xandros (pre-installed). Fast, but unuseable.
XP. The boot process is very slow, the os is usuable.
Ubuntu easy-peasy. The speed is same as the XP, but there are problems with video card. Only 800×600 resolution available.
OpenSuse 11. Good. All devices seems useable. Not too slow.
Win7. The speed is similar to opensuse. But I can run windows applications (especially visual studio) without any problem.
I do everything on my little netbook, an Aspire One with 1Gb of memory as it is my only computer. The keyboard has the best size/layout I’ve ever had, not in quality though.
Base system is standard ubuntu jaunty with netbook launcher and custom kernel, but I can also boot XP in a virtual machine. That one even works quite fast, only when there is a lot of disk activity it becomes slow (or when I use the swap).
The only disadvantage for me is that I can’t put the screen on a ergonomic height, so I get an headache when working too long on it.
I also have to admit that my next laptop will most probably be a macbook pro 13″.
I bought a EEE 901 around christmas time as a gift for myself. My plan was to use it as a ebook reader, but that did not work out as smoothly as I’d wanted. Then I tried to use it regular development stuff, but the keyboard is to small to be comfortable.
For me it’s a cool toy, but nothing more.
I have an eeepc 701 with the 8Gb SSD, and 1Gb of Ram.
I run Backtrack3 on it. I have not got around to putting 4 on it yet, but that is a time issue.
I tend to use it for doing simple exploit development and research. I like it because its easy to bring with me to work, or to futz around the house with. That being said most of the work I do on it, I do with out X running. I find that with the limited screen resources any window manager takes up to much space. Even things like ion3.
I used to run ubuntu netbook remixed on it, but found it to be too bloated for the limited storage space on the device.
Edited 2009-08-21 08:47 UTC
So acer one, what can I say: it sucks. I made major mistake when buy that piece of plastic junk. I knew Acer wasn’t best but atleast some other 500 euro laptops I had bought were pretty good.
First mistake was classic, SSD. More like FDD, that thing is so slow that doing anything productive is waste of time. Second mistake was memory, adding more remains me Hot Shot joke where eye operation was needed do thru rectum. Third mistake was “Linux”, if I was Linus I would sue them for calling it Linux.
So firstly I did the eye operation that fixed slowness of “Linux”, then I decided to change OS to Vista. That took 6 hrs to install and after instensive surfing, using my main computer, I found memory hack thing that solved the awful SSD speed. After few months I fixed SSD problem by giving it boot and installing HDD, sanding the ZIF cable reminded me why I sometimes want to kill IT engineers (with barehands). Well that worked fine for few months until HDD gave in. Correction, HDD works fine but apperently the motherboard pins are broken or something because even after changing cable it refuses to work with it. And to get those cables I needed to buy 10 euro IDE converter. Atleast I can use HDD in my desktop or I would unless nail thin piece of plastic that keeps the wretched ZIF cable connect wouldn’t come off.
So now its broken and waiting day when I start soldering SATA port in it. Or rather day when I buy real laptop. Netbooks are cheap because they are rubbish, kind a like those cheap asian cars. Small, cheap and makes me want to kill myself, or guy who made it.
Which I think is a rebadged MSI Wind. I use it as my main machine for everything. Which is PuTTY, Pidgin, Firefox and winamp on Windows 7 Ultimate. The keyboard is a little small and I keep hitting enter when I mean to hit the ‘. If I know I’m going to be using it for a while I plug it into my TV and use a wireless keyboard from the sofa.
Since I use 3G as my only internet connection at home, the built in 3G modem is very useful. I use it on the train all the time.
Include:
HP MiniNote 2133 w/ Ubuntu Hardy
Purpose: VPN into the workplace and admin machines. The resolution is great for Terminal Sessions, Cisco console sessions, and rdesktop for the Windoze session. Especially valuable for vacation and remote work when on call.
Dell Mini 9 Hackintosh
Purpose:
Same as the Mininote but as a daily carry around. Mainly a cheap experimental Unit. Has AT&T 3G card built in. Resolution doesn’t fit my taste, so I cannot equate this on the same level as the HP. But it gets the job done. I usually draw the Ire of many mainstream MacBook Pro and iBook owners in Starbucks and on the Train when I sit next to the with my Apple Sticker on the Bezel.
I may purchase the Mini 10 and Ubuntuize it.
I use an HP 2133 too – as my main machine. I triple boot with Kubuntu Intrepid/KDE 4.2 and Kubuntu Jaunty/KDE 4.3 on two hard disk partitions, and Ubuntu 8.04 on an 8 Gb SD card.
I use it for KDE development – C++, C# and Ruby, cross compiling for ARM for several small device projects, along with email, jabber, web surfing and the usual stuff. I chroot the three OS partitions so I can compile stuff in the different environments at the same time.
It works fine even with a slow VIA7 CPU, although it gets hot with C++ compiles. My main problem is that the so called ‘super durable keyboard’ is losing the metallic paint on the most used keys after only 7 months use. The 8.9 inch 1200*768 screen is just slightly too small, and I think the 10 inch one in the new HP 2140 mini-note might make all the difference. But for 300 UK pounds I can’t really complain..
I don’t use mine as my main machine, for gaming or for anything requiring some power. I have a desktop for that. My netbook is for portability, and it does that well.
I use it to take with me on vacation to hold photos from my camera. I take it to work to configure routers and such. I play some Starcraft on it.
I have an eee 900 and it is the perfect size. Screen as big as it can be in a chassis that small. Keyboard smaller than usual but still usable for me.
I hate it how netbooks keep getting bigger. I also hate it how they all have glossy bodies, and sometimes glossy screens now. I don’t want a fingerprint magnet, and I want a screen that shows me what I am working on, not a reflection. There are no models of netbook I would even consider getting right now to replace my 900.
I mostly use mine as others have already described, writing on the move, picture store, the occasional video to watch and little gaming.
Its a great way to show others what you’ve been upto and light enough to be bounded around the room while others contribute.
I also use mine as a ‘show and tell’ box – teaching others about F/OSS and Linux and showing off just a little with the boot time (running Moblin currently)
Its particularly good at work.
The only problem I find with this netbook in particular is that they attached the 2 internal cardreaders directly to the pci bus and I’m not sure whether that’s partly to blame for corrupting my sdhc card when I suspend. Mostly though, its quick enough to just power down and up again whenever I need it.
Also, the SSD can be a pain sometimes, slowing operations that would otherwise be nippy. I mostly just link the offending directories to /dev/shm which speeds things up nicely.
With bookmarking on the web and not needing history, firefox and chromiums need to keep config becomes moot.
I mostly link thumbnail and cache directories.
~/.mozilla
~/.macromedia
~/.thumbnails
~/.adobe
~/.bkl-thumnails – find that kills middle column of myzone – meh.
and a few others..
Edited 2009-08-23 22:17 UTC
My IdeaPad S10 has WinXP Home, Office 07, Google Earth, Photoshop Elements 2.0, and Windows Live as my main tools. I bought it primarily for my PowerPoint lectures in my college classes when I was a part-time teacher last semester; now I still use it to check my e-mail on the POP server side and delete junk on the server so that when I do the actual download of mail on my desktop, only legit mail gets in. I also do more browsing (and all my video chat) with it because for some reason, my desktop (1 GHz Celeron with 1.25 GB RAM) bogs down on browsing and video and I haven’t fixed the problem yet despite my best efforts. I want to use an external hard drive to swap between my two machines so that e-mail and documents can be easily synched between the two. It’s partnered with my Nokia E75 via PC Suite so that my phone’s data is backed up into it. And of course, when I anticipate I’ll be traveling to a place with WiFi, I bring my netbook along with me.
saying that he uses his netbook…
Well like said, firefox, ooo picture viewer, music and video. The normal stuff
Is the OS important? Well al little. XP is pushed to the bounederies of the HDD, instead first there was Kuki-linux. After that Pardus-linux with KDE 4.2.4 (mjammie, but slow starting). Now the same Pardus with XFCE installed and that rocks.
I also use it for presenting on beamers on my school as I am teacher and doing administrative tasks. I’m a little known as “that biology guy with that small thingie in his hand while telling things to us”.
My netbook’s my sole computer at the moment: my mother desperately needed a working PC for her job so I lent her my 15″ Compaq.
Acer Aspire One AO150, 8.9″, 1gb ram, 160gb hdd.
OS: Using the supplied Windows XP, but just partitioned to prepare for MicroXP and a *nix.
At home: connected to 22″ 1680×1050 monitor.
Web browsing with Opera & Firefox.
Online teaching with proprietary Windows software (similar functions to DimDim)
Authoring e-learning activities in Articulate Quizmaker (and Udutu).
Office/admin stuff with OpenOffice.org.
Listening to music with Foobar2000.
Out of home:
Tech support & wizardry for my girlfriend and her colleagues
Classroom: student info & admin in OOo, slides in OOo.