I have an Acer Aspire One with 1GB ram 120GB hdd 1.6GHz Atom and a 6 cell battery.

Perfect for browsing the web and chatting in IM.

But for pretty much anything else it is useless. Not all 720P videos play on it, gaming anything more resent than about 10 years is often a bad idea.

I wish the keyboard layout were a bit more thought out and that there was a nice n easy way to scroll.

I just picked up the 120gb Acer Aspire One with Windows XP. I’ve owned many PDAs and many laptops, and have always gotten frustrated with the lack of capability of the PDAs (and lack of useful keyboard), but have always hated the size of laptops.

The Acer netbook has been perfect for me, although the 3-cell battery’s lifespan is a little frustrating. The size is perfect for what I do, and running all of the apps I use on my desktop XP machine is very convenient. So far, I’m in love with the machine, and plan on picking up a larger capacity battery in the near future.

techcrunch trolling? Say it ain’t so!

I owned an original 4gb 7″ Asus Eee from January to July of ’08. I used it during my spring semester of school for taking notes and mostly staying connected to the web while on campus (under the wifi blanked) without lugging around my 14.1″ HP. Sure, 14.1″ is on the smaller side for a laptop, but the Eee was exponentially easier to haul around and did everything I needed it to do while on campus.

Now that I have a Blackberry Curve, I can do basic browsing and all of my web communication just about as easily, but in more places. However, I miss having a very portable PC for some mid-level gaming (Quake 3, Starcraft, Worms, etc) since I have neither my Eee or my HP, so I am looking at the Asus n10j or possibly an n20 (if you can call it a netbook). I also considered putting one on my car with an external laptop hard drive and using Winamp for easy-to-use car audio selection, but I never followed through with the project. Plus, now that I have the curve, I could tether my netbook and get internet on a device with a more usable keyboard virtually everywhere that I regularly go.

I bought my wife a EEEPC 1000HD (with XP on it though) and she loves it. She reads email, web browses, and plays casual games like Bejewelled and Puzzle Quest on it. It’s a netbook and she uses it as such.

She likes the fact she can just take it with her to appointments to pass the time in waiting rooms without being a power lifter and it’s going to last longer than 2 hours on battery.

Techcrunch sound like they’re just trying to stir the pot to see what comes up. “The debate about netbooks?” As they point out, the little ‘puters are selling quite well. I wouldn’t be too bullish about predicting future sales (re: all previous bubbles that have burst in the last 8 years) but the existing sales figures don’t lie. There might be a debate about how big netbooks will get, but they’ve already gone from nonexistent to selling quite well. The question isn’t whether they’re popular – the question is how big they’ll get. Techcrunch seems to think we’re just waiting for a slightly larger iTouch to spring from Job’s noble brow, so we can ditch all our wee little keyboards, but the fun of netbooks is as eliot said above – they’re cheap enough to hack, and since you’re hopefully running linux, you’re going to learn a few new things along the way if you’ve never run it before. If you’re not in it for the tinkering, you have a 2-3 pound computer. Win-win.

And the keyboards aren’t much better than a Blackberry’s? What does TechCrunch wake up and smoke? Focus on a device that only runs a browser? I’m sorry, but the most fun I have with my EEE is either messing around with the OS or with the programs I can put on it, now that I have Ubuntu eee installed. I’m in school for computer science with an interest in network security, so I’ve been messing around on my home network with software like Wireshark and the Aircrack suite. My eee is great for this, and as my first Linux box (got a 701 4G about 10 months ago) it’s been very good practice getting familiar with Unix.

And right now I’ve got the eee hooked up to a giant keyboard, mouse, and a 19 inch Dell monitor. Not a bad faux desktop, really. I can’t run any games, but for most of my needs, it works just fine.

At least the big TC linked to someone critical of them. Too bad they don’t have a link here for the amalgamation, or to BoingBoing for the sass.

I use my Aspire one as a car pc… Perfect for the frontend, small size, easy portability and cheap! – Just perfect

I had to give up reading at “You have to use the keyboard or trackpad to scroll down, and it means taking your eyes off the screen,” as I can’t laugh without waking someone. The idiocy of not being able to find the trackpad or the arrow keys without looking is just too humorous. A very hit-seeking troll post.

I’ve had two ultra-portables (not netbooks as the price when new was well over $1000) a Libretto 100CT and P1120, which were both under powered for 2007 (when I got them cheaply used). Both had there uses.

I got the Asus EEE PC 701 shortly after it came out, as I had killed the P1120 at that point. The small res and size of the screen was the main issue I had, particularly going from a 8.9″ 1024×600 screen on the P1120. Still decently OK at surfing the net at lunch. I sold it to my roommate during finals last year, as he was borrowing it so much anyway.

Next I got the EEE PC 900, going back to 8.9″ 1024×600 was a huge help with webbrowsing. I’ve actually used the 900 and P1120 as my primary machine for a week or more using the in-built display, but had to seek out an external display to use with the 701 to use it for more than a couple of hours. The extra storage is nice too.

(For pics of all four, click my name)

Right now, I’m waiting for Netbooks based around the GMA 500 –more-capable, less power-hungry– Atom chipset, before considering getting a replacement for my 900. If I was looking to buy now, the Dell Mini 9 looks awesome (passive cooled is a huge boon for in-bed or other non-flat surface use).

I have a MSI Wind laptop purchased with Ubuntu Linux preinstalled (yes, it’s possible), and I am very happy about it. I needed a small machine as a development front-end (think “a sort of super x-terminal”) and this just fits my needs.

Plus I don’t see the point of buying a $1000 PC to run a bloated Vista when a light-spec machine can run Linux without problem…

People whine when things r not convenient for them n dumb ppl whine even more.

Like Tom said, put ur damn hand on the buttom right of the kb, feel the keys in the up-side-down ‘T’ shape formation? Those r the arrow keys, use em.

Next, they complain toilets dont clean their asses for them.

I have an Eee 901 and love it. Pluses include 7 hour battery life; 2 finger scrolling with the trackpad; and reading ebooks with FBreader under Ubuntu Eee (and yes, all the buttons work).

Keyboard is fine with man-hands, calm down, move along.

i have a EEE 701 and i am about to put a touchscreen in and convert it to a slate

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16124~r.83188615

Price: $37.50 free shipping

and a bluetooth adapter

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11866~r.83188615

Price: $5.08 free shipping

so for under $400au i will have a touchscreen laptop with a SSD

BEET THAT !

I was an early adapter with 7″ Asus Eee. I was really usable and using Linux for the first time I found surprisingly useful.
I now have full spec 17″ HP Laptop for video editing that I love for the power but have been giving thought to another netbook. In my opinion they can’t be beat for mobile use, email, skype, web etc.
The currrent wave with of netbooks with larger (10″) screens, longer battery life and larger drives make them a strong option.
I also own a 3G iphone FYI. Different deals I reckon.

I love how lots of kiddies disown the netbooks because they cant play fallout 3 or watch HD video on it. they declare it “useless”.

yet I’ve been using netbooks for real business for over a year now. They work great. I recently upgraded all the eee’s here to the Acer aspire one because for the same price we get a giant HDD, faster proc, and they happily go up to 2gig in ram. we do on site programming of crestron and Vantage systems with these and they work GREAT. Hell I run dreamweaver and flash 8 on mine for my playing around. and when I boot out of XP and into linux I can do some serious programming on it wherever I want.

Buy just a netbook? that’s silly. Get one to suppliment your laptop. but that netbook is killer for whipping out a patch to an app when you are sitting in the bleachers at half time or in traffic in the carpool. Then as college students discover these they never want to take a full laptop to class again. My wife loves her aspire one running ubuntu. she can do everything in class she needs, she can even use it easily to record the class for later referral and I’m happy because it’s virus and spyware proof.

I do agree netbooks like the early eee’s and others that had only flash ram are really only neato hacking toys.. but the current ones with a decent hard drive and atom processor kick it hard. the LED backlight of my aspire one is brighter on it’s lowest setting than most new laptops are on their highest setting.

If you are some poor kid that thinks $350.00 is a lot of money, no you will not like a netbook. If you are a professional that likes to get stuff done or a student that needs more desk space.. you’ll love them.

I gave my wife an eeePC 401 last Christmas and by February she was nagging me to get one for myself, so she could get to use hers a bit more.

These two things get a lot more use than any other computers in our (festooned with computers) house.

If you need, or want, to cart a laptop around that has the form factor and mass of a gravestone then that’s fine. If you don’t, then there are netbooks.

The bits I really like are the 30 second boot time, and being able to stuff it into a normal 20 litre backpack with my other stuff – No stupid “Targus” labels on it to get you mugged…

It may not be a smart choice for an “only” PC, but they’re cheap enough for many people to not have to be stuck with an “either/or” choice – Have both.

I have an Acer Aspire one that i purchased about 6 months ago and I love it. Even though I could have it for $100 cheaper now, I still don’t regret it. It’s not a blazing fast machine and media on it is pretty poor but that’s all with the std linpus install. I’m planning to upgrade to Ubuntu and I expect things to be even more functional.

I think the reason these get a bad reuptation (if there is indeed one) is because people don’t knwo what they’re buying. They think it’s a cheap little laptop and assume it will be as fast as any other laptop. These things are not fast and are not confortable with windows. Linux is cool but takes some getting used to. Open Office is awesome.

I have absolutely no complaints. The only thing that is slow is video and I’m sure that with a RAM upgrade to 1g along with Ubuntu it should be fine.

Worth noting, I also have a Samsung Blackjack with internet. My Acer is so much better than the phone in so many ways it’s silly to suggest that anyone would prefer to use the phone IMO.

me again,

I use my s10 for computing on the go.
that means I don’t try to run Crysis!
I’ve got snesticle for entertainement…

music/video is done via hulu and pandora. so the HD is wide open for Gimp (runs fine), Maxima (great), a latex development environment (runs fine), etc

screen space is a premium, so I got the windows “powertoy” that allows for multiple desktops

I use the most basic Dell Inspiron 9. When I am sitting on the couch watching TV or playing Halo, I find myself grabbing the 9 because it is so darn light. When I need to do some work, I grab my larger, more powerful notebook. It is not worth buying if you need a work laptop, but if you want something that can surf the net, it works great.

My wife loves it more than the large laptop, but we both agree: It is a good supplemental laptop, but not a good primary laptop.

For someone who has lugged 6 lb laptops through airports around the world, the netbook is a godsend. I had an eeePC 701 and now own an Acer Aspire One. The small size and light weight let me take it places where I wouldn’t take the laptop because it was too inconvenient.

The real value of the netbook is that it brings computing power to places that didn’t have it before because a laptop was too heavy and bulky to carry. Will the smartphone take over this function? Probably eventually, but not for some time because the smartphones have a different focus.

I’m writing this from my ASUS eee 900 running eeeUbuntu. This machine is perfect for traveling, trouble shooting, note taking, emailing, and carrying around when the wife is shopping. The keyboard is a bit small but I knew that. It’s still better than a thumb board or cell phone. My only whine is that I should have waited for the 901.

I have an eee 1000h and am the envy of my class.

You are all ignorant in your intelligence- you miss the big picture. Most “normal” people do not care what any of you think or what a tech site thinks or what a bunch of hackers think no matter if you believe they are kiddies or “phreaks or whatever the fuck jargon you want.

What matters to real people is that the kid sitting in front of them is doing exactly the same thing they are- facebook, the internet; watching videos; playing arcade games, flash games, etc… except theirs only weighs three pounds, has 320GB of memory inside it, and can handle five hours of battery life comfortably.

This is what normal people see. They see me pulling out a computer smaller than one of their textbooks, opening it, and they see it boot and reach Winamp in less than two minutes with a library of music bigger than they have on their desktop. And they want it, every time.

The barrier so far has been that average people don’t want to purchase from the interwebbers. Anything less than 500$ is fine with them anyway.

I had originally picked up an Asus EEEpc 1000HD at a local bigbox thinking I could use the XP license and just load linux on it myself until I discovered it came with a 900mhz celie (not the Atom), so that got returned.

I managed to replace it with an Acer Aspire 4530 having an AMD X2 1.9GHz and 2GB ram from the factory. I really wanted to get a netbook for the battery life while sitting on airplanes, but when I found this one on newegg for $450 two weeks back, I jumped at the savings since this would let me use it for more than just travel time.

I like the idea of netbooks, but have been disappointed few are in the $200 price range that was originally targeted.

I bought a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 with Windows, 16gb SSD, and 1gb of ram (swapped out immediately for 2gb)
I’ve had great fun with the little thing.
I’ve been able to experiment with different Windows configurations during my free time at work, and I’ve hacked an internal USB connector into the unused WWAN bay that currently hosts a 16GB flash drive.

It games too, but mostly older stuff and ones that don’t require hardware acceleration.

I’m also a moderator on the mydellmini site, and have picked up enough tips and tricks to make this thing fly just like a “regular” notebook.

Up and atom! :D

I’m planning on getting a netbook to save my laptop from getting damaged when I’m on the go. For getting any real work done I use a laptop or my desktop(which is more of a file server these days). To jump online for a few min to check and reply to a few email I use the netbook. Its also great for pulling up PDF manuals when I’m working on equipment in the field. Also great for jumping online for a chat with friends via msn or IRC. Its also useful for 2 channel audio recording and playback. The other thing is that all I want in it is a small cheap ssd. Hard drives don’t take well to being dropped and banged around. This thing should be cheap enough so that I don’t have to be worried about it on the job. Other uses I can think of is a serial terminal for connecting to the console of routers and switches. Its something small enough to fit in my coat pocket that I can still type on(I hate T9 and thumb keyboards). I don’t find the keyboards too small, tho I had to remap a few keys on my cousins aspire one.

“…the Atom is (a) far underrated CPU.”

That’s very true IMHO.

As the proud owner of an Asus Eee 701. I’m happy to say that the only modifications that are really needed to make the thing perfect for the average user are to install the Full Desktop and install more RAM. Over the summer, I worked in my school’s computer lab and usually had nothing to do. I found out within the first week or so of that job that the Eee 701 will run Starcraft really well from an external harddisk through wine as long as there doesn’t happen to be a Zerg rush.

I own an eeepc 900 with 2gb ram and 20 SSD, just perfect with kubuntu 8.10 – kde 4.2, amazing. and runs backtrack 3 with virtualbox..I love it !

I have an XO. I keep it in the kitchen to look up recipes. It’s super rugged so I don’t have to worry about spilling melted butter on the keyboard. I’d never do my work on it though. The keyboard was made for carnies. “Small hands, smell like cabbage.”

I was going to get a blackjack II from AT & T, but decided to go with the Acer Aspire One instead. I really like it. They may not be the greatest computers, but they’re really easy for me to carry around campus, and have a great price. perfect for taking notes and other every-day stuff.

My mum bought a netbook just 2 days ago, and i was actually surprised at it compared to my laptop which i bought just over a month ago, although going from widescreen to 8″ takes some getting used too but i actually really like it.

A lot of the complaints about netbooks are trivial. So you can’t play the latest videogames with all the high res graphics and effects? So your netbook ain’t a super computer when it comes to memory or processing? What do you expect? It’s a mini computer that costs a few hundred bucks! The price and size alone make netbooks a good choice. How much speed/memory do you need to browse the internet anyway? And FYI: the latest eee pcs play video just fine.

Nokia N810 is fine for everything I need to do outside of the office. Maemo OS works for anything that is not Gimp or Games. It is small and that works for me. Easy to cancel when I’m using an open network.

I’m using a lenovo 3000 V200 and I really like it. it seems that a lot of thought was put in to the design and feel. the size is perfect. the keys feel great. I love having a switch to disable wireless connectivity (wifi and bluetooth). the latchless way it opens and closes is great. I will say 2 negative things about it, though. First, the SD slot does not read SDHC (2Gig max). also, I really wish this had some sort of docking station. I take this thing on the go with my every day, so I’m constantly plugging and unplugging. Oh, and they could have skipped the dial up phone jack and the firewire, but not a big deal. A few more USB ports or even a serial port would be more useful.
even thought it’s silver (wish they came in black) this is still a serious looking laptop that doesn’t look like a piece of candy. I don’t feel like some punk kid carrying it around and using it in public. my lenovo has enough plastic to protect the electronics but not so much that it appears bloated or silly. I really hate the way most modern laptops are bright and bubbly looking. nothing beats hacking away on a black box.

Just got my M912x:

1gb ram (upgrading when the new stick arrives)
1.6 ghz atom
160 gb hdd
1280 x 768 on the 9″ touchscreen
bluetooth – great feature, as I can blue-tether my blackberry for internet when away from home, and I don’t even have to pull the phone out of my pocket.

I LOVE this computer, only takes about 10-15 seconds to load photoshop cs3 – not a gamer, so this is my most intensive load.

I got it two days ago, and I haven’t touched the other 4 computers I own since (though I do use the desktop monitor for more real estate.)

I shopped around A LOT before buying and I am very happy I did.

acer aspire one with 1gb ram and 120gb HDD
i find this thing absolutely perfect minus the 3 cell battery life. its perfect for carrying around and for classes. and running aircrack-ng on the road

Netbooks are awesome. I was on the verge of buying a Samsung NC10, but I finally settled on a used ultraportable (Dell D420) just for the full size keyboard. The NC10′s or any netbooks’ performance/specs are plenty good enough but a 100% keyboard was ultimately most important to me (writing is my main use). If there was a <$500, 3 lb, netbook with a full size keyboard, they would have gotten my money.

I’ve got an eeePC 1000h with 2G RAM and a 320G HDD – works great. I’ve even run an XP virtual machine with MS Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2005 and IIS. It’s not fast by any means, but it does cope. I hook it up to my 24″ 1920×1200 dell monitor and keyboard/mouse and you can treat it more or less like a regular PC for web browsing and email and you can watch DivX and DVD movies on it without a hitch – although i haven’t tried anything hi def.

I own an EeePC 1000HD. Its got a gig of ram, 160gig ram, and an intel 900mhz processor. I’ve owned it since christmas, and i havent yet figured out the BIOS key, but I think its underclocked and undervolted to keep power usage and heat emissions down. I use it for music, movies, and the web.

People have to understand that netbooks are made for light duty. If you want a gaming laptop, get an ASUS G series. Now, that being said, I installed Red alert 2, my favorite rts, and its been running fine. The only gripe I have with this netbook is the shift key. I read a review on newegg complaining about the locatioon of the right shift button, and I agree that it is hard to get used to. Maybe in a week or two I’
ll get it down.

no complaints about the speed or performance here

I own an Acer Aspire One and it has been one of the best investments I have ever made. I can take this mini laptop anywhere. I have added a touch screen, internal logitech transmitter and I’m planning on bluetooth. The machine is rock solid and to say that it’s underpowered is plain stupid. I think what is going on is that some businesses are joining forces to focus on more “powerful” systems = more money per machine = larger profits.

The size of the keyboard is not a problem, you get used to it after a few hours and you can be as proficient as with a standard size keyboard. I have used my One so much that normal size keyboards seem a little too big now.

I have a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 and I like it a lot. I haven’t typed on it enough yet to get used to the slightly different keyboard, but I will be typing more on it soon. The Acer Aspire One has a better keyboard, but no one could beat the Mini 9′s battery life, and I thought that was more important than the keyboard.

I have an 8GB SSD and 1GB of memory, and that is fine for me. We have a fast and powerful notebook I like to use in different room in our house or on trips. But the Mini 9 is something I can easily carry to my office or to various worksites or coffee shops.

The graphics are good, speed is better than I expected–excellent in many cases, but a little jerky in others–wireless is fine, and the trackpad is nice. Dell is updating both the bios and drivers a lot. I did have a problem with freezing after booting, but the first troubleshooting solution on the Dell site worked for me, and it was easy.

It didn’t matter to me, but a lot of people complained about the lack of an F11 key on the Mini 9. That has been taken care of in a recent bios update (FNz does the trick).

People seem to want too much from netbooks. I will use mine to check scores, look at a few websites, check my email, and do some light blogging or document writing. That is what the machine is intended for, and it functions quite well. I’m really glad I bought it.

I bought a Samsung NC10 two months ago and love it. Very portable and fantastic battery life, my laptop has become the desktop and the NC10 the portable – desktop redundant. I have taken the NC10 on holiday and didn’t even notice it in hand luggage. Only gripe being the mousepad which I have tried to adjust, but not perfect yet. I use it for email and web browsing mainly.

As much as I love my AAO, I can’t really say that it’s a replacement for a desktop or even a full size notebook. I knew what I was and was not going to get when I purchased it. One thing that I think is overlooked, is that the intel atom n270 processor while clocked at 1.6GHz, is also hyperthreading. not a true dual core, but it certainly makes a difference, particularly when compared to a non hyperthreading p4 at the same clock speed. true, I can’t even run msn video at full screen without massive jitter, but that’s not why I got it. I wanted portability, and that’s what I got. as far as gaming is concerned, Diablo 2 runs okay, maxed at 800×600. World of Warcraft is… well if you need to check the AH on the go then its okay. 7fps outside, 27 inside if you’re staring at a wall. other than that, the 1024×600 max resolution can cause problems with certain applications that are expecting at least 768 pixels in the vertical. 1024×600 is a poor choice for a widescreen resolution, but its livable. the AAO has a very clear, crisp and bright screen, but it is a bit reflective. I find myself running firefox in fullscreen mode with just the address and status bar showing. Also, I don’t know how other netbook keyboards are, aside from the minuscule eee keys and the 89% of standard acer keys, but they work okay for me. scrolling with the trackpad is simple enough, you just have to find the edge of the trackpad, which incidentally is very smooth in operation on the AAO. I normally use a wireless laser mouse however.

I have a Dell mini 9 that i brought with me on deployment to Iraq and it has survived the rigors of living in a dry dust and static filled environment. It has survived many of days at the bottom of my assault pack and many hours being near electronic jamming equipment without a sign of trouble I think a lot of people have forgotten the concept of the netbook ultra portable and powerful enough to surf the net and chat and use some type of messenger. If they are looking for a computer with enough processing power to compute the meaning of life and to go into a seizure from all the flashing bright colors from it being displayed on the screen they should stick with a desk top.

Old post, but to confirm, I use my netbook as my primary machine. Its just the right amount of stuff to get regular stuff accomplished.