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Advice on Netbooks

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4wd:
Wouldn't need XP. Quite happy with Linux. Weight, usability, battery life are the most critical factors. Long start up times could be a problem.-Dormouse (July 02, 2009, 05:42 AM)
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Well, as far as the AAO goes, the standard 3-cell battery in the AOA-110-Ab lasts 2-2.5 hours, weight is ~980g and I find the screen resolution, (1024x600), fine and particularly sharp and clear on the 8.9" screen, better than most 19" LCDs I've seen.

My version of XP Pro boots in around 45 seconds, with the original Linpus booting in 15 seconds.  These times are for AC powered.

The keyboard is 89% full size and I think it's fine, I don't find myself hitting two keys at once.

All-in-all, I find myself using it more than my 15.4" laptop.

Dormouse:
That sounds pretty good.
I'm not looking for myself (atm anyway), so the next stage will be to go and try how they work & feel physically & then think about it. We could try a laptop, but I think they are likely to be too heavy & battery life too short for the main need; the size of a laptop is both a + (bigger screen and keyboard) and a - (leaves little room on a small table/desk).

40hz:
Nice introductory review-type article on various OS options for a Netbook. Nowhere near as in-depth as I would have liked, but still a good starting point. You might even be surprised at some of their findings.

And what the heck is Jolicloud ? (Read page 6 to find out.) That was a new one even for me! ;D

Products covered in the article:


* Windows XP
* Windows 7
* Ubuntu for Netbooks Remix
* Moblin
* Slax
* Jolicloud
That shiny new netbook is light and portable, plays music and movies, and cost less than an iPhone (with service). Problem is: you might be ready to chuck it off a bridge. Running the Intel Atom processor at only 1.60GHz, netbooks are a bit on the clunky side when it comes to actual data processing. No one is going to play World of Warcraft on one of these thin machines, but it sure would be great if OpenOffice, a music player, and Mozilla Firefox could run a little faster.

The answer to the netbook dilemma is: find an alternative operating system. Of course, this is a time-consuming proposition, considering you have to download the OS, burn it to a CD or USB key, load the OS, and then configure it. To find out which OS will actually add pep to your Sony P – or any number of low-cost, Atom-based netbooks – we loaded six different options on the same machine and performed a series of tests – looking at the interface, networking features, the browser and built-in apps, and how much customization you can do and ended up picking a clear winner.
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Link to full article: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/windows_7_vs_linux_whats_best_os_your_netbook?page=0%2C0

 :)

wraith808:
Link to full article: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/windows_7_vs_linux_whats_best_os_your_netbook?page=0%2C0
-40hz (July 02, 2009, 10:51 AM)
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Seems like in the end, they still picked XP by default.  :huh:

Oh, and I waffled again- I canceled the order from Tiger Direct, and am looking for a 6 cell version of the 10" Acer.  Tiger Direct does have a program that looks good on paper though- you pay a premium and for up to 2 years, you can sell it back to them for a guaranteed 65% of the purchase price.

mrainey:
I'm not a gamer and I wouldn't want to use my Acer as my main computer, but like I said previously, it's fast enough for most things when using a combination of XP with a hard drive.

Just as important, everything worked properly the first time.  When you look at all the posts on the Aspire forum, the vast majority of complaints and problems relate to non-XP units or those with SSD's.

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