Anybody have a netbook

[clifp]

It is Aug, which means its time for my annual gadget purchase.

I am thinking about getting a netbook. The $300-$400 2.5-3lb mini notebooks.

Just curious if anybody has one and if you have them to be a decent substitute for regular sized notebook while traveling?

 

[Martha]

I have a netbook, an Asus eee PC 900. I can put it in my purse and take it most anywhere. It holds a charge for quite a while (sorry, I am not more accurate than that). Some have a bit of trouble typing on the smaller keyboard but I do ok, I have small hands. Pretty sweet little machine.

 

[Rustic23]

I have a Asus eee 1000 HE. It is a super little computer. I get 8 hours of battery time easy. I run Office Home and School, Microsoft Expressions Web, FireFox, and several other problems. I would not recommend it for games. But for email and web work it can't be beat. However, you might consider either ATT or Sprint. Both have netbooks for $200, with a sign up for their web service. I think it is about $39 a month. If you don't need that type of constant connection I would just go with the Asus. However, get the 1000HE there are several 1000 out there. The HE came out in Feb, I think this year. New keyboard and other upgrades. Also you can get a 2 gig memory chip for it cheap. Easy to self install.

 

[Rambler]

I have an Asus eee 1000 HD, my wife has the 900. Same memory, same processor, but hers boots faster because it is on an SSD instead of a HD. However, the SSD is so small that storage is a problem. Typing is difficult unless you are ok with 2 finger typing. I like my 1000, even thouggh it is slower than my laptop. I'm getting a new Dell E4200 laptop for work. It is much faster, very light, and runs on an 80gb SSD. But, it runs around 1700, compared to 300-400 for the netbook. For that price difference and for private use, I can deal with an extra second or two to load a web page, when I am just vacationing.

Battery life for DWs 900 is about 7 hours. For my 1000HD it is about 5 hours (due to the HD spinning and the larger screen.

Hope that helps.

R

 

[Rustic23]

For reference the HD has a smaller battery than the HE.

 

[Goonie]

I have an Asus Eee PC (one of the older ones)...I've had it now for almost 2 years. It's absolutely wonderful for traveling! I can check my email & surf the 'net, and generally goof off and waste time. It's tiny and lightweight, which is why I got it. As far as using it day to day....umm, nah! I have rather large hands and fingers, and using the tiny little keyboard isn't the easiest for me....but for a couple of weeks at a time while on vacations, or a few days here and there, it's great! And it being about the size of a hard-cover book, it's super easy and convenient to pack & carry! Mine is running LINUX, with Firefox and Open Office (both of which is what I use all the time anyway), and besides POP email, my ISP also offers webmail, so I use that when I'm on the road instead of my normal email program which doesn't have a LINUX version.

I prefer my Acer Travelmate wide-screen for day to day stuff, if I'm away from my desktop PC. The Acer is quite a bit heavier and bulkier.....but with my over-sized paws, it's much easier!!!

 

[Achiever51]

I also have the Asus EEE 1000HD and I love it. The keyboard is something like 90% the size of a full size laptop's and after a short period of adjusting to it, it's no problem for touch typing. Battery life is excellent -- about 7 hours for most uses on a full charge; and I find it more than adequate for e-mail, web surfing, MS Office apps, and most photo editing tasks. The screen at 10.2" is too small for most Excel spreadsheets, and I've hooked the EEE to an external monitor and wireless keyboard when I need to do "bigger" jobs.

I use it everyday...more often than my desktop as I keep the netbook on the desk in the kitchen or grab it to use at the library or coffee shop. I would buy another in an instant...worth every penny.

 

[Goonie]

....The screen at 10.2" is too small for most Excel spreadsheets.....

WOW!!! Compared to my old Eee's 7" screen, yours is like the screen at a drive-in theater!!!

I would buy another in an instant...worth every penny.

I would too! It's been sooooo convenient for taking on trips!!!

 

[RunningBum]

I have the same one as Goonie, most likely. It's great for travel. I got a mini USB mouse. I kind of like not having a hard drive, it makes it better to haul around, IMO. On my 3 week Europe vacation I stored pdfs of all the train schedules I might need, word docs for itineraries and other trip info, and I had enough room to store pictures too, though I offloaded most of those to a thumb drive, and I bookmarked all of the web pages I planned to use.

The screen and keyboard are small, so I wouldn't use it every day, but it's a lot better than squinting at an ipod touch.

 

[Goonie]

On my 3 week Europe vacation I stored pdfs of all the train schedules I might need, word docs for itineraries and other trip info, and I had enough room to store pictures too, though I offloaded most of those to a thumb drive, and I bookmarked all of the web pages I planned to use.

Yep, same here! I have lists of where I want to go and what I want to see, while I'm on a trip. Also PDFs of menus of restaurants I might want to try. Public transit schedules and routes.....plus addresses of bookstores & Krispy Kremes. I also keep everything backed-up on thumb drives too....including up-to-date "bookmarks" for Foxfire from my desktop.

 

[GoodSense]

I am typing on an Asus EEE 1000HE right now. I've had it since April and I love it. It's more than enough for word process and casual web browsing. However, for videos it will depend on the resolution. For example, Youtube is never a problem, but sometimes hulu is a bit choppy. I also upgraded to 2 GB memory. The hard drive is huge - 160 GB. Battery is excellent at 7 hours or so. It has a 10-inch monitor and almost full-sized keyboard.

For spreadsheets, though, I would still use my desktop.

Overall, great product and very convenient for 90% of my computer needs.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

I have an Eee 900 HD ($250). 1G memory, 160G hard drive, 3 USB ports, 9" screen, XP. Excellent travelling computer, handles my spreadsheets OK, good for travel documents, watching movies, listening to music, email, etc. I carry a small external speaker for movies and music. I would not use this as my main computer (fat fingers on a small keyboard, small screen), but fine for backup or travel.

 

[Westernskies]

tried a netbook recently, my hands are way too big. Decided that carrying a bigger machine was less hassle than typing on a dwarf keyboard. But, that's just me...

 

[Danny]

I have the ASUS EEEeee! 1000HE 1gb 10" screen. It's a sweet little thing that does everything I want, has no problems, boots quickly, uses XP and Intel Atom, has a ton of storage, weighs little, has a small profile, screen size takes some adjustment, battery goes on all day, keyboard is quite good, and handily fits in my man bag.

My electrician who looks like Homer Simpson and never fails to get shocked and burned whenever he does a job here, saw it and said "That there is the future". I agree and think it will continue to get better. Maybe Apple should be worried?

 

[clifp]

Thanks for the comments. I have heard much in the way of buyers regret so I picked one up at Costco. As always Costco has terrific deals, An Acer 10" with 160 GB hard drive, 1 Gig Ram, faster Intel processor, plus an external CD/DVD burner, wireless mouse, and bag, all for $379.

So far the keyboard is fine, weight is terrific, and screen requires some adjustments.
The acid test is can I play some old games on it and what will movies look like.

 

[ziggy29]

I bought a 1000HE back around March. I've set it to dual boot XP and the release candidate of Windows 7 on the hard drive and have a USB stick from which I can run Linux. Yeah, I'm a geek.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

I bought a 1000HE back around March. I've set it to dual boot XP and the release candidate of Windows 7 on the hard drive and have a USB stick from which I can run Linux. Yeah, I'm a geek.

Ziggy are you running mostly open source apps on the Linux side? Any suggestions for good, solid basic programs for Linux? I have been tempted to run it on an old laptop I own which is underpowered for Windows but might do fine with basic linux apps.

Preferred browser, word processor, spread sheet?

 

[ziggy29]

Ziggy are you running mostly open source apps on the Linux side? Any suggestions for good, solid basic programs for Linux? I have been tempted to run it on an old laptop I own which is underpowered for Windows but might do fine with basic linux apps.

Preferred browser, word processor, spread sheet?

Linux is mostly a "toy" for me on this machine, but I run Firefox and OpenOffice on it. If the machine is underpowered for Windows I don't know how well it would run an office suite. Then again it also depends on the Linux distro. Some are rather full and large (and arguably bloated, albeit not like Windows) and some are designed to be more "lightweight" such as Puppy.

 

[Goonie]

Ziggy are you running mostly open source apps on the Linux side? Any suggestions for good, solid basic programs for Linux? I have been tempted to run it on an old laptop I own which is underpowered for Windows but might do fine with basic linux apps.

Preferred browser, word processor, spread sheet?

I've been running Open Office (it's open source) under both Linux and Windows for about 3 years, and it's a great replacement for MS Office....and it's a free download. It works with MS Office docs, spreadsheets, power points, etc., as well as WordPerfect and others. It can also "save" your work in a number of different formats, including the MS formats.

As for a browser, I use Mozilla's Firefox...under both Linux and Windows.

I had an old desktop that ran Windows about as fast as chunk of concrete, so I installed Linux to play with and see what would happen. Linux ran just fine on the old clunker.

 

[Rustic23]

Rich,
I run Ubuntu on a desktop. I have been able to do everything I need. Open Office comes with it, Gimp of graphics, and nine or ten games. I am slowing learning Gimp, but it seems like more than enough for what I need to do with photos. It has been very stable, loads fast, shut down are even faster. I also installed Wine. I can run several windows programs. If you are going to do light word proc., spreadsheets, and surf the web, I highly recommend it.

There are several backup programs for it. Remaster system will back up the entire system to a DVD. I also like the fact that it took less than 15 min to install the whole thing. Longest part was the disk reformat.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

I run Ubuntu on a desktop. I have been able to do everything I need. Open Office comes with it, Gimp of graphics, and nine or ten games. I am slowing learning Gimp, but it seems like more than enough for what I need to do with photos. It has been very stable, loads fast, shut down are even faster. I also installed Wine. I can run several windows programs. If you are going to do light word proc., spreadsheets, and surf the web, I highly recommend it.

Interesting. Rejuvenating an old computer as a nice, stable linux box might be a good idea, I'll check it out. Thanks.

 

[FUEGO]

I might have to try this Ubuntu out on an old desktop. I tried booting from USB drive into Eeebuntu on my new desktop and it worked great right off the USB drive. Any idea if Ubuntu or other linux derivative can run on a 233 Mhz Pentium II machine (192 MB ram I think)? It would be great to get our fifth computer back up and running for daughters' internet surfing and educational game playing.

 

[Rustic23]

I don't currently have it running on a 233 Mhz Pentium, but I have run it on a similar machine. There is also a version called edubuntu (I think) it is loaded with educational software. You load Ubuntu the add the ed. package. If you try one on an older machine let us know how it works for you.

 

[Zoomie]

I have a little Toshiba NB205-213. Got it from Amazon, free shipping, no tax. $399. Added 1 gig of ram for $25, plus a bluetooth mouse (wireless) and bluetooth headset for music (wireless). Really nice, fast, nice chicklet keyboard and I get around 8 hours on the battery. There was a cheaper model but this model had the bluetooth which I really really like. I also have a full-size Toshiba laptop which now seems huge, and the speed is similar. This netbook will go in my checked suitcase instead of a seperate carry on bag. Now I can bring on food and my Zen for movies instead of a stupid computer case.

 

[FUEGO]

I don't currently have it running on a 233 Mhz Pentium, but I have run it on a similar machine. There is also a version called edubuntu (I think) it is loaded with educational software. You load Ubuntu the add the ed. package. If you try one on an older machine let us know how it works for you.

Will do. I remember it taking less than 30 minutes to install eeebuntu on my netbook. It came with Gcompris educational software that was pretty neat and I'd like to get it again for the kids. Sounds like I'll have a little project for this weekend!