Netbook advice
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Anyone uses a netbook?
They seem like a good and cheap alternative to a laptop if you only need to go online.
Are they good to watch movies online? (pr0n!)
Are they exclusively WiFi or do they have an ethernet socket?
If your OS fucks up, how do you reinstall XP? USB key?
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on July 8th, 2009 at 3:00 PM
Pay a bit more for a Netbook if you don't want shit (though that applies to anything really)
Can you live with a shitlow screen resolution that can't display most webpages without a horizontal scroll bar?
Movies can be a bit jerky if the CPU needs to do loads of calculations (resizing due to low screen resolution, etc). Should be fine though. Your average YouPorn flash video-based porn site should be okay.
Be prepared to make your USB key your best friend (you'd better have a big one), or consider investing in a USB DVD-RW/CD-RW reader/burner combo thing.
XP is usually in a recovery partition on the drive (even less disk space for you; not like you get a lot in the first place ;-;)
Also, you'd better make sure to turn all XP eye-candy off, because you'll be fighting for every last pixel of screen real estate you can get.
Not sure about whether they have a LAN port (been a while since I've last had the "joy" of using one), but USB LAN adapters don't cost the world these days if you really need one.
PS: Be sure to get a Twitter account so you can fit in with the other hipsters who use these things while sitting at Starbucks. ;)
on July 8th, 2009 at 6:58 PM
Fuck twitter though.
on July 9th, 2009 at 1:17 AM
Gawd, I feel like such an old fuck when people talk about Twitter, though. I don't know why such a pissant website raises my ire.
I've been interested in getting a netbook myself, but yeah, I think Anon pretty much covered everything on the topic.
on July 9th, 2009 at 5:18 AM
Most I've looked at hat a LAN Socket / RJ45.
The main thing to look for is the screen and if you can type on it. I would not get anything below 8-10".
If you only need it for internet, there would be nothing wrong with a linux install as its usualy a bit faster then the windows stuff. Also check out for "windows 7" offers, some vendors allready offer upgrades if you buy a XP Netbook now.
I've recently re-set up a Acer Aspire One 150 for a friend who uses linux, and its a neat toy. Watching youtube videos works fine, so does skype for linux and other stuff.
As she is a beginner with computers, the slim linux that was included was a good start, else I'dd use some other distro or windows if you need it.
I used a USB Thumb Drive to install the system, though you could also use any usb<>ide/sata converter or a complete external CD/DVD drive…
External USB CD drives cost less then 20 bucks, even the bus powered DVD drives get cheaper and cheaper.
on July 9th, 2009 at 1:02 PM
Well, if everything works fine with a thumb drive, I don't think there's any need for a disc drive then.
on July 10th, 2009 at 7:02 PM
I second what Schorhr said about considering a Linux netbook (Aspire or Dell ones are usually decent). Even if your prefer Windows on a regular PC/laptop, it's not really suited to netbooks. I'm typing this on an Eee PC 701, just about the oldest and lowest-spec netbook and it's still snappy with Linux. You'll probably save yourself some pocket lint too.
Oh, and I'd recommend one with a solid state disk. Admittedly you get less storage but they're a lot harder to break and usually faster to boot (no pun intended).
on July 11th, 2009 at 3:51 AM
Careful with solid state drives (SSD).
They are extremely fast at first, but when they get low on disk space they can be unusably slow.
on July 13th, 2009 at 7:21 PM
Hello. I own a lightly modified ASUS Eee PC 900. The stock SSD is too slow to use for Windows. I put in a Super Talent SSD card. The model I chose is the fastest on the market. This makes it suitable to run Windows XP professional, or Windows 7. It is extremely fast booting, as well as browsing the web, or playing halflife. You can install an operating system using an external cd or dvd drive via USB.
on July 13th, 2009 at 8:02 PM
Also, most netbooks include ethernet. Usually just 10/100 MB connection. I haven't seen any with gigabit yet. Video performace isn't bad. You can watch divx videos, or if you attach a dvd drive, dvds. Most models do not include much in the way of expansion slots. I've seen an HP with an expresscard slot, but that's about it.
It handles browsing just fine. In fact, I am posting on my netbook right now.
on July 16th, 2009 at 1:12 PM
Yeah, I checked the netbooks at Office Depot and they all seemed to have an ethernet port.