Netbooks anyone?

[Coop]

It seems these things are popping up everywhere these days, so when my ancient IBM Thinkpad T23 died last week, I decided to give the netbook thing a try.

After a bit of research I decided to buy a MSI Wind U100. And after a lot more research I found a shop that had the black version I wanted in stock. A 1 hour drive later, I was the owner of this great little machine.

I pretty much expected to get a Windows XP based machine with PDA on steroids performance, but I was in for a very nice surprise when it turned out to be very much a scaled down notebook with pretty decent performance. It even outperforms my old Thinkpad.
While it's definately no replacement for a desktop or high performance laptop, it pretty much does what I want from it. Providing me with a computer for basic tasks on the go.

Office, a bit of basic photo editing, mapping software, internet browsing, chatting and even some light gaming are all well within the capabilities of this machine. I love it, I love it enough to not care about the lack of an optical drive, I love it enough to deal with the seriously small amount of screen realestate on the 10" 1024x600 screen, I just love it!!!


So, is there anyone else here that's using a Netbook??

 

[ks_physicist]

My wife and I will very likely acquire one in the next year or so, although we will strongly prefer to get one with Linux.

 

[Gimpy00Wang]

I've been very tempted a few times, but my 13" MacBook is small enough most of the time.

I actually use an MSI Wind PC which is quite similar to your MSI netbook. It makes a very good low power server for home. It easily handles a mishmash of services for me including: recursive DNS, NTP, Cacti, Nagios, and of course MySQL and Apache. I've got it doing at least something 24/7 and since it doesn't require much power I don't feel bad about having it on all the time.

Enjoy your netbook!

- Chris

 

[bobisculous]

I have a Asus Eee 701 right now and love it. I am thinking about upgrading to a Eee 1000 soon. I have my desktop that I must have and can't live without so all I needed was a simple laptop to get me online around town and school.

-C

 

[SnWnMe]

I have an Acer Aspire One. 9" screen, 1GB RAM, 120GB HD, Windows XP (thank goodness it's not retarded Vista). 3 lb weight. 12"X8" form factor. It's an EDC laptop.

 

[mwaldron]

I also have the AspireOne XP version. While I don't use it much for flashlights it has proven invaluable for radio programming in the field and I use it to store/search PDF versions of all my hardcover gaming books (let me think 2lb netbook or 20lb of hardcover books in a backpack...) when I'm gaming. It fits great in my county-comm bail out bag that I carry to work (bags with lots of pockets > briefcase) perfectly so I almost always have it within arms reach for an email or a quick round of Starcraft.

It's also a great size for patching into the punch panels in the closet to make sure things are working. I really do love the size of it. I was considering an XPS1330 but I'm glad I got the Acer. It's not as high performance, and I doubt it is as durable or will last as long but I really believe I'm getting way more use out of it.

It certainly beats carrying around my XPS 1730...

 

[bobisculous]

I have a Asus Eee 701 right now and love it. I am thinking about upgrading to a Eee 1000 soon. I have my desktop that I must have and can't live without so all I needed was a simple laptop to get me online around town and school.

-C

I have indeed pushed the upgrade button and have the Eee 1000HA on the way.

I really am going to like the larger keyboard. Many classify this as a sub NOTEbook rather than netbook due to the size. Thats fine with me as long as its small. If it is supposed to be portable, it needs to be portable. A larger netbook will certainly be that.

Did a lot of research on it and decided I wanted the higher amounts of storage over the SSD too. The Eee tend to have dual SSDs. One 8GB and a 32GB. The 8GB tends to be fairly quick with the larger one being strictly for storage and slower. So it kind of cancels the idea out. Sure it is more durable to shock, but whats really neat about the Eee 1000 is that the HDD is easily changed to a SSD of my liking if I wished later on. So I like that.

The only other option I had was to add bluetooth and wireless N for an extra $50. Wireless N I find kind of useless right now. Bluetooth would be neat for hooking up to a phone, but you can pick up a compact USB adapter for $13.

It will come with Windows XP Home installed. As a Linux user, I will certainly add some distribution on it. But I must say, the ~20 second start up time of Windows is impressive, so I will do a dual boot. Battery life also tends to be a bit better in Windows, or so they report.

Couple of other features are looking good too. Multitouch pad is one. I am really looking forward to getting this laptop. I shall make a review once I get it.

-Cameron

 

[fieldops]

Did a lot of research on it and decided I wanted the higher amounts of storage over the SSD too. The Eee tend to have dual SSDs. One 8GB and a 32GB. The 8GB tends to be fairly quick with the larger one being strictly for storage and slower. So it kind of cancels the idea out. Sure it is more durable to shock, but whats really neat about the Eee 1000 is that the HDD is easily changed to a SSD of my liking if I wished later on. So I like that.

I agree completely with the HDD. I simply prefer the large capacity. as far as the shock issue. I just keep a second cloned 160GB drive for safe keeping and keep recent docs on a 16GB flashy. That way i can swap out a bad drive fast, if needed.

 

[bobisculous]

Exactly, AND the Eee 1000 series comes with 10GB online storage too. Potentially put a clone of my Linux OS on there no problem. But more for documents and what not. Obviously 10 GB aint much, but I think its like Dropbox where its simply a synced folder with your Eee and their servers.

 

[gallagho]

Hiya,

I have just bought an Asus 901(XP) very pleased so far.

There is a very good and knowledgeable forum

 

[electromage]

I bought a low-end notebook (Acer Extensa) about a year ago for business, and it works just fine. It cost me around $700 at the time, and it does what I need quickly. It's about 5lbs, so definitely not a "netbook", but still a good value.

I've also got something even smaller than a netbook that I EDC in a Maxped bag, a Nokia N800. It's a small "internet tablet" device, sort of a precursor to the "MID". It's got a 4" 800x480 touchscreen, 400MHz ARM processor, 128MB of DDR memory, and two SDHC slots. It's a very capable device, with great battery life, and it runs the same OS as all of my other computers so there are no compatibility issues. Not to mention it was an absolute STEAL at $200.

N800:

Full-screen web browser:

 

[bobisculous]

I got my new Asus Eee 1000HA earlier today. Thus far I am absolutely loving it. Came with Windows XP on it, which is alright. Again I will certainly be loading some Linux soonlike. I messed around with Ubuntu Eee, or Netbook Remix if you prefer and it ran really well. However with a larger screen like this, I feel it is more set up for a full blown OS like regular Ubuntu or the like. I like the menu system of Netbook Remix, but for a smaller screen size like that on the 701.

The keyboard on this is just outstanding. I could not be happier with it. Its still a really small laptop, but the keyboard acts like a much larger one. I am able to type at full speeds that I can on my desktop. The 701 never did allow that.

The touch pad is great IMO. Some have complained about it, but I find it very usable. Specially the multi touch functions. I rarely am using the actual buttons below the trackpad.

Quick start up times of XP is great too. Overall, certainly worth the money.