

Ask HN: Experience with netbooks - csomar

I just bought a netbook (LG X130) with around $500, but it's nice and not slow.<p>It has two buttons: one to start the Windows OS and the other to start a weired platform that LG made (a browser + Skype + things like that).<p>It's not bad to use Windows (XP right now); but I'm using this little device just to browse the internet (sites like HN, read emails, watch videos and chat).<p>I read about Android but I don't know it; can it work in netbooks? Also what's your experience with netbooks? What platform, apps.. do you use? and why?<p>Thanks for your replies!
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ryandvm
Netbooks are the Nintendo Wiis of the laptop world.

I fell for the netbook hype and bought a Mini 9. What I wanted was a
convenient way to quickly get on the web to get movie times or weather or
check my email. What I got was a laptop that boots up slower than my Macbook,
with a screen that is too small, a processor too slow, and a keyboard prone to
typos. It's infinitely easier to just open the lid on the sleeping Macbook
instead.

At this point, the Mini 9 basically only sees use as a streaming media player
for the kids. It's actually usable for that.

That said, I hold out hope for Chromium OS netbooks. I played around Dell's
build of Chromium OS on the Mini 9 and it shows great potential. It booted up
and was ready to browse the web in about 15 seconds.

So my advice - wait until Chromium OS netbooks start popping up this fall.

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ramidarigaz
I bought an Eeepc 701sd on Ebay for $170. The screen and keyboard were hell to
get used to, but it's actually one of the best purchases I've made in a long
time. I'm currently travelling Asia with nothing but a small backpack, and if
I had brought a larger laptop, I probably would have needed to buy a bigger
backpack.

I'm currently running Ubuntu Karmic, (normal, not UNR). The screen feels
cramped at times (800x480), but it hasn't been a huge issue. One problem I had
was dialog boxes' confirmation buttons running off the bottom of the screen,
but then I found that alt+click&drag moves the window.

The 701sd comes with a 8gb ssd, and an internal SD card reader. I got a 8gb
SDHC card, but 16gb is still restrictive at times, so I have to run at
absolute minimum and clean stuff up regularly.

Webapps can be a bit slow, and flash is a bitch. I can watch most flash
videos, but not in fullscreen. Non-flash videos work fine up to about 780p.
Above that and the videos start to stutter.

Battery life was nice when I bought it (3hrs+), but now I'm down to about 1.5
hrs on a full charge. Annoying but not crippling.

The biggest issue I've had is with the charger. My Eeepc is about 6 months
old, and the charger gave out yesterday. My friend's charger also gave out
recently, and he bought his Eeepc about the same time as me.

In summary, I miss the big screen and full-size keyboard of my old laptop, but
this Eeepc is pretty much perfect for my needs right now.

Edit: it helps that the girls think it's "cute"

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pplante
I bought the original netbook, ASUS eeepc 701 surf, and I hated it. The 7in
screen was too small, and a keyboard at 92% normal size just wasn't working
for me. However something around the 10in might be handy from time to time.

I used ubuntu netbook remix and windows xp. Found both to work moderately well
performance wise.

~~~
SamAtt
The keyboard situation was the same for me and it turned out to be the deal
breaker.

I had the Asus 1000HE (a 10.1") with the same 92% of normal size keyboard and
I just never got used to it. I have an easier time typing on my Blackberry
(which is such a different experience that my normal keyboard reaching
instincts don't apply)

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iamelgringo
I got an Acer Aspire One for $270. I upgraded the RAM and got a 9 cell
battery. I installed Windows 7 Ultimate, and I haven't looked back. It's a
little slow opening apps, and the sleep/suspend is a little wonky. But, I now
have a laptop that lasts an entire day of traveling from San Francisco to
Barcelona without being plugged in.

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steverb
I bought the Dell Mini-10 a year ago, and I love it.

The keyboard on the Dell is laid out slightly better than the Eeepc (IMO), and
it runs Windows 7 fast enough for the majority of what I do. I went with the 6
cell battery, so start up time isn't an issue (just put it to sleep).

My only issues with it are that the screen resolution is too small to do any
real coding on (but big enough in a pinch) and flash video can get a little
choppy.

No other issues, and I use it constantly, either by itself, or as a secondary
machine when working on my desktop.

~~~
stilldavid
Another nod for the Dell Mini-10. I bought it with Ubuntu preinstalled, but
wound up swapping Netbook Remix for a plain install of Karmic. With Google
Chrome running fullscreen, it's a very usable and capable web browsing
machine, but I echo Steve's comments about trying to do any real coding on it.

6-Cell battery is worth it, the keyboard is well laid-out and decently large,
and I went with the 32 Gig SSD so I don't have to worry about bumping it
during operation. It's a bit unnerving hitting the power button waiting for
the comforting hum of starting up, as the whole system is passively cooled and
makes zero noise.

My main gripe is that it's near impossible to click and drag on the small
touchpad with the integrated button.

~~~
steverb
Thank you. I forgot to add that the touch pad stinks. Putting a strip of
scotch tape along the bottom where the "buttons" are helps things
considerably.

Wireless mouse helps more.

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noodle
i've had an asus eeepc 1000HE for about 6 months now, and its great, mostly
because it has been, so far, exactly what i expected. i bought it because it
has a bigger screen (10-ish in), wider chicklet keyboard, and 9.5 hr battery.

i use it pretty much exclusively as a web browser, accessing web apps, and as
an ssh terminal to do web dev work on my slice. no high powered apps to make
it seem sluggish.

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warp
I have an Asus eeepc 901. It is my main development machine. It's fast enough
for the stuff I'm doing on it (python web app development). I don't have any
way to connect to the internet when I'm on the go, but that's actually a
benefit; it forces me to just be working without distractions whenever I'm on
a train trip which lasts more than 20 minutes.

I never turn it off, I goes to sleep when I close it. It's a bit slower to
wake up from standby compared to my macbook, but that's ok because I intend to
be working on it for atleast 30 minutes. I use emacs inside a GNU Screen, so
when I get home I can just ssh into it and continue working where I left off
-- but with a proper screen+keyboard.

The machine is horribly slow when using Windows XP, completely unusable. Don't
get a budget machine like this unless you run linux with a light-weight window
manager, etc..

The keyboard is tiny, but good enough. And I love the form factor, the macbook
I used before this was too big and heavy to carry around all the time, but
this netbook is coming with me on almost every trip.

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jcmhn
Acer Aspire 1 with 2gig ram. Running XP Home SP3.

My usual app mix: firefox with 3-10 tabs and 1 or 2 windows cygwin x server
with 0-2 remote x apps 2-5 ssh terminals (local urxvt clients) notepad++ with
1-4 tabs open openoffice writer and calc

Throughout the day I sometimes run: a native windows web server, a hosted
virtual linux install, pdfs, torrent clients, rdp clients, cygwin or native
java tools, and several oldish video games (diablo2, morrowind, warcraft3,
galciv2, angband)

My primary problem is the screen size, many games are unplayable without
connecting to a desktop monitor since the max native resolution on the screen
is something goofy like 1024x600. This also means that some web apps have
layout issues - they can usually be worked around with some combination of
browser and plugin configuration.

The dual core 1.6ghz processor is surprisingly capable - opening spreadsheets
and pdfs sometimes open in 2.5 seconds rather than 2 seconds, but I somehow
manage to get by :D

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sunkencity
I have an Acer Aspire One, the biggest problem for me is the small keyboard, I
have big hands and is a touch typist. I've tried a couple of linux distros on
it, but the by far best, and that I am running now is moblin. Boots really
fast, looks nice, the hardware works well and most tools I need are installed
by default.

I have, however given it to my 3 year old to play with. It's better that she
has a real computer instead of a play computer, perhaps she'll have a sense of
ownership of something fully working (maybe future career as programmer father
thinks :). I liked _real_ tools when I was a kid. She likes to type letters on
it, listen to music, videos and play with the interface.

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dogas
I bought a netbook
([http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DYIXMS/ref=ox_ya_oh_pro...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DYIXMS/ref=ox_ya_oh_product))
for my wife and installed OSX on it. Had to replace the wifi card, but
otherwise everything was completely compatible. It's pretty fast and gets the
job done. Battery life is phenomenal.

Could I use it for work? Probably not. The screen is too small, and the
keyboard is uncomfortable to type on. It's great for just fooling around on
the internet and playing the occasional game of nethack ;)

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TrevorJ
I love my netbook for surfing the web. It's a low-fuss way to have some mobile
computing power on the go or on the couch.

I run Firefox and have it setup to launch in full screen mode so the screen
real estate actually feels fairly decent for what it is.

I tend to use it for watching itunes movies or netflix before bed as well. The
only complaint I have is that the wifi is slow when you aren't plugged in to
an AC outlet.

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bensummers
I got a Lenovo S10, and after replacing the stock Linux with Ubuntu, it
worked. But it wasn't a nice computing experience, they hadn't even bothered
to make the trackpad work sensibly.

Eventually I gave up and got a discounted previous generation MacBook Air.
Same weight, but a usable computer running the same OS as my desktop. Much
better!

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gtt
Sadly, Matlab (my main tool) is damn slow on my asus eee pc 901. I thought of
buying another netbook but came to conclusion that none of netbooks currently
available at the market has resources to run matlab smoothly enough.

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aurynn
I bought an Aspire 1410 recently; it's more of an ultraportable than a
netbook, though.

I have to say I love it. Just the right size, capable, and decent Ubuntu
support.

