
The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time - jasonlbaptiste
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/17-03/mf_netbooks
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kragen
It's a pretty good article. I think it's pretty amusing that Mary Lou gets all
the credit for inventing netbooks — from my limited knowledge of the field,
not totally unfair, but a little exaggerated, maybe. After today's item from
Norvig, though (<http://norvig.com/fact-check.html>) I wonder how much of the
article is fabricated.

Basically it asserts that netbooks are a disruptive innovation that has
already changed everything in the industry, that they're useless without a
network connection, and that they are sufficient and will wipe out traditional
computers except for high-end and server purposes. Plausible. Also it makes
the story very engaging.

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Retric
I don't think netbooks work as a primary / your only machine. They are a great
replacement for a PDA and let you get work done on the go, but the comparing a
300$ netbook to a 900$ laptop is a mistake.

PS: IMO, you can see the bias when you look at the machine they compared the
netbook to. You can get a lot more machine for 475$ than the laptop they
chose: Dual core at 2ghz, 250GB hdd, 3GB ram etc.

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TomOfTTB
I think it depends. Don’t get me wrong, the comparison was a little silly but
right now I’m in the process of doing test runs with a few netbooks at work
and have found them to be effective replacements in certain areas. Mostly for
people who only do data entry into a web application.

For us that means about 97 positions which adds up to big money in the end. So
there’s some validity to the idea even if that particular comparison was
bogus.

(The caveat being that this only works with the few netbook models that have
close to full size keyboards)

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colins_pride
From the article:

"In the US, we regard branding and marketing — convincing people what to buy —
as core business functions. What Asustek proved is that the companies with
real leverage are the ones that actually make desirable products."

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rbanffy
Well... I love my Aspire One. With a 160 GB hard-disk, 1.5 gigs of RAM and
Ubuntu 8.10 it's a remarkably capable workstation that can hide in my bag in a
way nobody would guess I am carrying a computer. I have to explain that: I
live in Brazil and there is a larger risk of being robbed than I would
comfortably live with. Having a nearly "invisible" computer is priceless.

It is not and will never be blindingly fast, but it's good enough for me.

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lacker
My fiancée, who is fairly computer savvy but not a programmer, is a big fan of
her new netbook because it fits into her purse. Something that perhaps the
mostly-male engineer population might not think about.

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herval
I like my netbook because it fits my backpack (and it's very lightweight)!

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djahng
Conservation of Processing Power is in effect, Gordon Moore would be happy.
Processing power on the user end may be going down, but it's just transferred
over to the servers. Stronger servers, weaker clients, more bandwidth...

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profgubler
I think what they miss about netbooks, it is that in America they are really
secondary computers. Maybe I am wrong, but I think that most netbooks are
primary computers. Great devices, but you often still need another device.

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Retric
Netbooks are just a price point / buzzword.

I know they compared it to overpriced crap to make a point that's just stupid
400-500$ is the new sweetspot for most people. You can buy less HW but you get
a _lot_ less power.

    
    
      From Dell today:
      EX1: 300$ = 9" screen, .5GB RAM, 8gb hdd, 1.6ghz cpu, no DVD drive.
      EX2: 400$ = 15" screen, 1GB RAM, 120GB hdd, 2.1ghz CPU and a DVD drive.
      EX3: 475$ = 15" screen, 3GB RAM, 25GB hdd, 2 GHZ dual core CPU, and a DVD drive etc.
    

PS: I don't think most people are going to be happy to give up the ability to
use a DVD / CD drive anytime soon and using a 9" screen all day is not a great
idea.

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jrockway
DVDs and CDs still exist? Oh.

Anyway, the point of the 9" screen and 8GB flash drive is that it makes the
machine easier to carry around with you. You can pick it up and shove it in
your bag without worrying about whether the disk spun down or not. The battery
lasts 6 hours, so you don't have to constantly wander around looking for an
outlet. You just open the thing up, and can work for as long as you like. It's
not heavy, so you don't even know that that computer is with you.

It's not just a "price point", it's about having the power and convenience of
a "real computer" with you where ever you go.

(And FWIW, I don't really mind working on my 9" EEEPC all day. The screen is
stunning, much better than my 15" Thinkpad. The keyboard is nasty, however, so
I tend to carry around my HHKB with me. But with that, there is basically no
productivity loss. I can, and do, work all day on that.)

~~~
Retric
You don't need to spin down laptop HDD, you can dropkick a modern laptop
without doing any damage to the HDD. Also 6 hours of battery life is fairly
normal for non gaming laptops these days.

I think Netbooks are a solid replacement for a PDA if it's with you, but IMO
they tend to be a poor compromise between a primary machine a portable one.
They don't fit in my pockets and if I have a bag I only really care about
weight at that point. I always have a cellphone that works as a PDA, if I am
going to get stuff done I want decent keyboard, a high resolution screen, a
fair amount of ram, and a HDD large enough that I don't have to care about
what I am storing.

PS: Many "normal people" tend to have a web browser (word processor etc) and a
IM client open at the same time so Netbooks resolution is still a fairly large
sacrifice for most normal people. I use a 15" laptop with a 1920 x 1200 screen
and it's great, I could drop down to 1680 x 1050 but that's low IMO.

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jrockway
_They don't fit in my pockets and if I have a bag I only really care about
weight at that point._

Maybe, but I find the eee a lot easier to carry around when I am at
conferences. Sometimes you need to move pretty quickly, and the eee makes that
easy. A big laptop has to be closed and stowed away in your backpack. The
netbook just floats around with you. (It's hard to describe, so try it
sometime.)

 _Many "normal people" tend to have a web browser (word processor etc) and a
IM client open at the same time so Netbooks resolution is still a fairly large
sacrifice for most normal people._

That's why the non-Windows netbooks go for a GUI that uses virtual desktops
(or rather, all the apps are full-screen). This works very well; the
notification tray gets your attention when your IM window needs you, but
otherwise you just keep the browser maximized.

(This is not how I use my netbook, FWIW, but I am not a "normal person". I do
my IM-ing from inside emacs; so I usually have 3 xmonad desktops; emacs, an
xterm, and a full-screen web browser.)

Anyway, the reason why people need 1900x1200 on a laptop is because they don't
know how to manage windows properly. Learn that, and you can do fine with a 9"
screen.

