

Ask HN: A cheap netbook for development? - devmonk

I have been wanting something inexpensive, lightweight, and not bulky to carry around the house and around town that I can develop on. I know most netbooks are fairly underpowered for development, but I thought I could focus on developing with vim or something lightweight and could build/test on a server. I'm also interested in Android development, but I'm not sure about the value of running Android on a netbook for testing vs. a mobile device. I would be the first to tell someone that they should just use a mac pro if they had the money and wanted to be mobile, but I just think of it as too bulky, and I really like the idea of a netbook. I know my fingers might be a little cramped, but maybe I'd get used to it.<p>Have you done any development on a netbook, and if so, what do you think of it? Any recommendations?
======
grobolom
I'll echo most everyone else - a netbook, for development, is not an ideal
choice. However, there _are_ advantages - very portable, ridiculous battery
life.

My main choice (and the one I ended up buying) was the Asus 1005PR :
<http://commercial.asus.com/product/detail/69>

Here are the reasons: 1\. Ultraportable. 10" screen means it fits anyway, and
is light enough to carry around by hand. It's lightweight and comes with the
standard EEEpc addons, making the boot-up time, especially to the mini-os,
very good. This means quick note-taking and response if you think of something
cool on the fly.

2\. Absurd battery life - sometimes you don't want to drag around the power
cable. Sure, 6 hours is enough for most people, but in honestly most other
netbooks I've tried only hit 3-4 hours. I can easily crank out 6-7 in a single
Starbucks dev session. This netbook will get you there, and the bus/train ride
home.

3\. Adequate screen size - Sure, it's 10", but its got a 1366x768 screen.
Vertical space is an issue, but horizontal is very good - widescreen makes it
pretty sexy for Ubuntu Unity (though I don't really like Unity). I will say
that it 100% better than a 1024x600.

4\. Fast - a Broadcom chip means you've got 720p on youtube with no hiccups.
2gb of ram with a decent Pinetrail processor. Not ridiculously fast, but with
any netbook you're really not going to get more than 2Gb and a decent
processor, but this _does_ do the video part at least. Slap on a 64GB solid-
state and you're flying.

5\. Cheap? Really, all netbooks are cheap. This is towards the upper spectrum.

6\. It fits the bill - it fits the specs you posted. It's not underpowered,
and it's _extremely_ portable and fast (bootup especially). Good for
monitoring uptime/fixing quick bugs/ developing for long periods of time (with
proper adjustments to your dev environment).

Hope this helps!

------
AngryParsley
I own an Acer Aspire One (1.6Ghz Atom, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive). While the
battery life isn't bad (5 hours), performance is poor and the whole thing is
too small to do much work on. I've also had constant problems with audio,
video, and wifi in Ubuntu. Windows XP works alright, but it's not useful for
much more than browsing the web.

 _I have been wanting something inexpensive-_

I used to think this way. Now I realize that it's not worth skimping on
something you spend a significant fraction of your life using. Instead of the
up-front cost, think of the amount you'll be paying per hour for the life of
the machine.

I'm going to use numbers that favor cheaper computers. Say you use it 4 hours
a day and upgrade in 2 years. If you spend $500, you're paying about 17 cents
per hour. $1500 is 50 cents per hour. If you're actually using the machine for
development, you'll create many times that in value each hour, let's say $5.
If you can improve your efficiency by 10% (50 cents/hour) by buying the $1500
machine, then it's worth buying.

I've followed my own advice and bought a maxed-out 11" Macbook Air. I love it
enough that I'm using it as my main development machine.

------
kevinpet
I've been doing some work on my eee 1000he lately. Eclipse is runnable but
noticeably slow. When I'm at home, I tend to use it as an x terminal for the
desktop upstairs. I love the battery life, the keyboard is good enough for
several hours with only a slightly cramped feel.

This is not my primary development machine and I think you aren't looking for
that either. It's not just about the initial cost outlay. When I carry around
a $300 machine, I don't worry about leaving it in the car, or spilling coffee
on it, or so on. I don't worry about some absurdly padded bulky bag.

If I were in the market right now, I would go for an 11" timeline or similar
intel ULV. The boost to 13??x768 is about 50% gain over the 1000he's 1024x600,
and the CPU is probably 2-3x my atom.

~~~
SingAlong
I was using an Acer Aspire One until 2 days ago, when I bought by new HP
Probook 4420s (ya I love this new machine).

My tricks to run heavy stuff to run stuff efficiently on an Aspire One were:

1.) Use XFCE (lightweight) or Lxde (super-lightweight) as your desktop
environment. Made it possible to run Eclipse pretty fast. Use the version of
eclipse from the OS repo. I had problems with the overflowed UI elements being
hidden in the original version from the eclipse site.

2.) I used Synergy to share my desktop keyboard and mouse when I'm at home.

3.) Use Chrome instead of Firefox whenever possible. Chrome's startup is
faster. Don't suspend with too many tabs open in Chrome. Chrome hangs your
netbook and crashes.

------
codedivine
Rather than a netbook, get a 11.6inch machine like the Acer 1830T (or many
others). More screen resolution, better keyboards, more CPU horsepower and
only slightly more expensive (can be had starting around $375-400) and weight
is still only around 1.5kg/3.3 pounds.

~~~
grobolom
Agreed 100% here.

After a long time of using a Netbook for computing, I'm realizing soo much how
the 'battery life and portability' is really not an issue.

Every year, more and more laptops come out that are lighter, faster, and just
as cheap. And in all honesty, weight shouldn't be a deciding factor anyway -
you can't operate the damn keyboard in mid-air, so you're going to be setting
down your laptop a lot. If you're running a dedicated environment, you're also
probably walking around with a backpack or messenger bag - my preference here,
both for easier access and just plain looking cooler : )

But the issues of screen size and better keyboards are huge. Between the
common need of many for running VNC and remote servers, and just the fact that
an increase in pixels up to somewhere around 3000x1000 leads _directly_ to
increased productivity, the drawbacks of a 4-5 hour battery and an extra pound
or two quickly fade away. Most people that are serious about the portability
either bring a charger or an extended battery - I prefer the latter, since I
often find myself in places without outlets or power strips (like the subway,
or a conference auditorium ).

Think about it this way : What's the difference between a bag that contains
the following:

3-lb "Workhorse" laptop; power cable; spare laptop battery; notebook; pens;

And one that has a 1-lb netbook?

Nothing.

Except for the fact that the netbook is slower and smaller, and only
marginally cheaper.

As I write this, I begin to regret my own purchase :P

~~~
bad_user
Portability is important to me, and when on the move you can't find too many
electrical outlets. And bringing an extra battery adds weight to my already
overcrowded bag, not to mention changing it is disrupting my work.

Also, when a device consumes less, it also generates less heat. This summer
got really painful to hold my Dell in my lap.

I also like to travel with public transport, but it is not fun to carry 6 lb
with you especially on a crowded day.

~~~
grobolom
I totally understand this, and it's why I switched to a netbook.

But looking back, I realize that all these are really becoming non-issues. Two
years ago, maybe - back when netbooks had (on average) 8-9" screens and were
significantly lighter and more sustainable for long periods of time.

But nowadays - take a 13" Macbook Pro vs. my recommended Asus 1005PR EEEpc:
13" screen vs 10.1"; Significantly faster processor; 4GB RAM vs 2GB, supports
8GB, higher FSB; Larger keyboard.

What does it trade off? 6hrs vs 8hr of battery life, and it is 4.5lbs to the
PR's 2.8lbs. Oh, and it's larger by about 3 inches.

Not even a contest. More screen space, better memory, a bigger keyboard, and
comparable battery life is _waaay_ more important than a few extra pounds. And
while I understand the heat issues (which, really, depends on the model more
than a specific type of laptop. Heat will be directly proportional to load and
venting, so heat on one vs. the other will depend on the venting, because what
you are developing will be the same), this is also starting to be less of an
issue - I don't know what to say if you're putting something that generates
heat on your lap _during the summer_. As far as weight - it won't be 6lbs
difference, and even if it was, I would argue that this is worth it. With a
proper laptop/messenger bag, this issue also goes away.

Edit: Oh, and yes, the Macbook does cost more. $700 more for these extra
specs? Maybe not worth it...

But then again - craigslist one for $700 total, probably with a RAM upgrade.
$400 for a good netbook vs $700 for a complete beast is an easy choice for me.

------
eftpotrm
I've got an Asus Eee 1000 HG which I use for Windows development, bought as a
reconditioned ex-demo machine for about half retail. It's obviously slower
than my main machine, but (by and large) quite fast enough for my day-to-day
development usage with Visual Studio 2010 and SQL Server. VS2010 is
particularly useful for netbook development, having a lovely scalable default
programming font and a zoom feature.

The one time I remember it being particularly slow for development was when I
was doing some odd SQL Server testing and needed to return a couple of hundred
results sets. The query wasn't very slow to run, opening that many results set
in quick succession was. It's also not really fast enough for raw photo
processing but then I'm not entirely surprised about that and it is usable in
an emergency :-)

I know what others mean about inexpensive - for me this was as much testing
the theory as anything, a dearer machine wouldn't have been bought on a whim.
I can live with the limitations inherent in such a cheap machine, they don't
cause me major issues.

The machine has about 4.5 hours battery life - that's good but it's taught me
that with a small machine like this because it just lives in bags most of the
time, the more battery life the better - it doesn't get automatically plugged
in to use every night, so more battery life is better.

A better screen - higher pixel and colour resolution - would be appreciated
but the existing one is perfectly usable.

I wouldn't have taken the punt on a dearer, higher spec machine when I already
had a perfectly good main laptop, and I'm still getting significant added
value from this cheap little thing from places I wouldn't / couldn't take the
big main machine. If you can get a good deal, I'd recommend one to anyone -
even at full retail if you've got a solid use case and are happy with the spec
you've found.

The one time I remember it being particularly slow for development was when I
was doing some odd SQL Server testing and needed to return a couple of hundred
results sets. The query wasn't very slow to run, opening that many results set
in quick succession was. It's also not really fast enough for raw photo
processing but then I'm not entirely surprised about that and it is usable in
an emergency :-)

I know what others mean about inexpensive - for me this was as much testing
the theory as anything, a dearer machine wouldn't have been bought on a whim.
I can live with the limitations inherent in such a cheap machine, they don't
cause me major issues.

The machine has about 4.5 hours battery life - that's good but it's taught me
that with a small machine like this because it just lives in bags most of the
time, the more battery life the better - it doesn't get automatically plugged
in to use every night, so more battery life is better.

A better screen - higher pixel and colour resolution - would be appreciated
but the existing one is perfectly usable.

I wouldn't have taken the punt on a dearer, higher spec machine when I already
had a perfectly good main laptop, and I'm still getting significant added
value from this cheap little thing from places I wouldn't / couldn't take the
big main machine. If you can get a good deal, I'd recommend one to anyone -
even at full retail if you've got a solid use case and are happy with the spec
you've found.

------
gte910h
I have developed on a netbook, it is really not worth the experience. If you
want cheap, buy a desktop, a dell, or the 999 mac.

~~~
CyberFonic
Ditto !

Bought an Asus and ended up using it as a portable note taking device. I too
was using Vim to edit programs - and that worked well. As for Java development
compiling was excruitiatingly slow and Java apps were very slow to load.
Having big fingers I never really adopted to the keyboard. For note taking, I
ended up using only one hand to type across the whole keyboard. Looks strange
but rather quick.

Have since upgraded to a MacBookPro with 4G RAM - much nicer experience.

~~~
gte910h
I was doing terminal based development on vim over the network....the small
keyboard, unusably small modifier keys, and unconventional keyboard layouts
made it just plain painful.

I wasn't even compiling on device and it sucked.

------
ctkrohn
Thinkpad X100e. It's got an 11.6" screen with a 1366x768 panel. Nice keyboard
and runs Ubuntu well. Should set you back about $500.

~~~
vondur
Upvote for you. I have a Dual Core one with an AMD Neo. It works pretty well
for a small machine. Probably going to install a smallish SSD in it soon. It
also runs Ubuntu quite well.

------
rriepe
I use an older Asus Eee PC. It works pretty well, but has resolution issues
like others mentioned.

I do a lot of graphical work on it (I created <http://productplaceme.com> on
it) and it actually works really well. I'm even doing digital paintings on it
after setting up my tablet.

Resolution is an issue, like others mentioned. On the other hand, it does keep
you focused. You definitely have to work on one thing at a time. This might be
a bigger issue for people who do a lot of coding-- I can't really comment on
that.

It is nice having one machine to bring everywhere. If you're flying, you don't
have to transfer everything to your netbook. It's all already there. The
portability also makes it so you can comfortably use it anywhere (like on the
couch, where I am now). On the other hand, the _least_ comfortable place you
can possibly use it is a desk.

If you do get an Eee PC, download and install EasyPeasy. The default Xandros
was pretty terrible, and EasyPeasy is pretty great.

EDIT: I also wanted to add that I'm doing digital painting on a 250-dollar
machine, with a 45-dollar tablet, using free, open source software. In other
words, I'm doing Photoshop-level work on hardware that costs half as much as
Photoshop. Not a bad deal.

~~~
SkyMarshal
I hack on my older Asus Eee PC 1000HE. Replace the default Windows with Ubuntu
UNR (10.04 edition, not 10.10 imho) or some other Linux, upgrade the RAM to
the highest amount possible, and it's as snappy as a desktop workstation.

------
PStamatiou
There is a particular Eee PC with 1366x768 resolution (same as 11.6" MacBook
Air, but it's only $400 or so). I forgot the model number but it should be
easy to find on amazon. I want to say the model number ends in "PR"

edit: [http://www.amazon.com/Seashell-1005PR-PU17-BK-10-1-Inch-
Netb...](http://www.amazon.com/Seashell-1005PR-PU17-BK-10-1-Inch-Netbook-
Battery/dp/B003FZC1K4)

~~~
logic
My wife picked up a similar "subnotebook" for her classes (12.1" screen,
though), and I've ended up taking a liking to it: an MSI Wind12 U230-040. They
keyboard doesn't suffer from as much of the braindamage that some of the other
devices in this form factor seem to sport (two fingers required for some
common keys like insert, delete, page up/down, etc), and the 1366x768
resolution is quite usable. Video performance is respectable, you can stuff
4GB of RAM in it with a 64-bit OS, and I'd expect it to fly with an SSD.

There's a few different versions of it; the -040 has a dual-core Neo X2, while
the newer -087 models have a single core. MSI is notoriously lousy about
making minor adjustments to the model numbers/names, but making substantial
changes to the underlying hardware.

Coming down the road (MSI is also notoriously late on delivering new models,
apparently) is the U250, and there's a few specific spec updates on the
roadmap for it (DDR3, processor and video updates) should make for a very
capable small-form-factor computing device.

My more general recommendation for any of these smaller gadgets, though, is to
go into a store and handle them yourself. Use the keyboard, fire up notepad
and write a little bit of code if that's what you were planning to do with it.
The keyboards on a lot of these units are absolutely vile; they're all a
compromise between key size and layout, and you'll want to spend some time
with them to see if you can live with it.

------
jawee
Use the only Richard Stallman approved computer, which also happens to be a
netbook!
[http://www.lemote.com/en/products/Notebook/2010/0310/112.htm...](http://www.lemote.com/en/products/Notebook/2010/0310/112.html)

See: <http://richard.stallman.usesthis.com/>

------
huwshimi
There was a thread about this a while ago:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1287909>

The blog post that thread links to is worth a read.

I personally do some Django development on a netbook and have found it
excellent, especially while commuting. I have not had a problem with being
under powered (I don't know how Android development would compare) and the
only downside has been the lack of screen realestate. Thankfully I bought a
netbook with a reasonable keyboard size (Asus Eee PC S101).

------
Orva
Using IDEs with netbook is not really good experience: screen area is just too
small for having all components on screen same time and you cannot help
noticing that modern IDEs do need way too much resources to be smooth on such
tiny machine. Netbooks cannot really be used like normal laptops: usually
there is no other option than programs fullscreen, which in practise means you
need virtual desktops. This effectively throws windows to the bin, but if that
is not problem for you.. go ahead and get one. Just make sure you test it
beforehand, many netbooks still have horrible keyboards!

Lately I have been doing most of my developing on netbook using vim and must
say I love it. There is no performance problems with any scripting languages,
not even while having mysql + rails/cakephp on. Only problem is compiling
bigger projects when doing c/c++, but that isn't problem if you have access to
box with more power like you suggested.

My own machine is Samsung n140, although my config is not the most usual one:
stripped down arch + xmonad. Battery life while using wlan is from 10 to 14
hours. The reason why I ended to this particular machine is combination of
awesome battery life + really nice keyboard, one of the best I have found from
any laptop. Minus side is kinda low quality HDD which blew up quite fast, but
I use this machine only on battery power with agressive spindowning and load
count jumps into sky fast which can explain.

------
psyklic
I have used a netbook for development. It is not very fun. The main problem is
the screen resolution - 1024x600. This ensures that a modern IDE will not fit
on the screen without hiding the most useful parts. For example, when you
compile code, you will not have enough room on the screen to view your errors
and code simultaneously. (Or rather, you _can_ , but it is frustratingly very
cramped).

So, I use Notepad++, auto-hide the Windows taskbar, hide all of the toolbars,
and reduce the font size. Now it is usable ... oh wait, no it isn't ... the
screen resolution is still a big problem. What about when I want to ... view a
help file? Compile/run my code in another window? View a website? First, there
is almost no room on the screen to put two windows side-by-side. (It can be
done, but they have frustratingly small widths.) So, you have to manually
switch between applications all the time. And you soon find that it gets old
fast, especially since the taskbar is necessarily auto-hidden.

Another item (at least from my 1-yr old netbook): Netbooks are staggeringly
slow at playing web video - high-res video on youtube is not watchable.

So, I do not recommend a netbook for development. For basic web browsing, a
netbook is awesome. But not for development.

EDIT: These are based on my experiences with a 1024x600, no HD-enhanced
netbook. There are new models out now :)

~~~
kiba
I used emacs, git, and (soon-to-be)xmonad. The size is not an issue for me,
but my problem was mostly with the linux distribution I used.

Eventually, I got rid of ubuntu and settle for archlinux.

I think netbook are great for web application development, especially if you
used exotic tools like emacs and xmonad.

I never used an IDE, or heavy duty debugging tools(I find manual debugging to
be a great and useful tool), and the rest of tools that need a pretty GUI.

~~~
vinc
I use xmonad since a few months on my netbook and it's indeed the perfect
choice for this!

------
juancferrer
I recommend an X series thinkpad. x40 although X60 and up would be ideal.
It'll be in the $300-600 range used, and lightyears better than what any
netbook would offer

~~~
jim_h
The X40/X41 might be cheap, but it is limited to a proprietary 1.8" drive and
1.5GB RAM. It'll be a slow drive around 40GB 4200rpm or you can spend money
for a SSD.

I suggest the X61. It'll support up to 8GB RAM and takes regular laptop drive.
On ebay, I've seen it slip out for $300.

------
anthonyb
I have an EeePC 901with 2Gb RAM and Ubuntu netbook edition installed - it
works pretty well for development and web dev type stuff - I even wrote a book
with it. About the only thing that I wouldn't use it for is anything requiring
a large screen (eg. layout and design) or something requiring large amounts of
processing power (eg. Running Eclipse or compiling lots of stuff). Other than
that, it's great.

~~~
grobolom
Definitely true - I do want to say, however, that newer netbooks will be able
to handle all but the largest projects in Eclipse/Netbeans with ease, so this
part is less of a consideration. Your main bottleneck will really be memory,
which should still be adequate.

------
Poiesis
The MacBook Air looks pretty good (SSD standard!), but it s not as cheap (in
either sense) than the typical netbook.

I run XCode on a Dell Mini 9 with Mac OS X. It has the expected tradeoffs: the
keyboard is tiny, resolution too. But it's amazing how fast it feels die to
the SSD. I simultaneously hate the keyboard for putting the quote key
elsewhere, and am impressed that I can mostly adapt to this.

~~~
sunkencity
I bought a small netbook Acer one, but couldn't really do anything with it
because typing suffered on the too small keyboard, so I gave it to my
daughter. Really looking forward to getting a 11" macbook air to have as the
computer to bring when going away for weekends or travelling. Hate lugging the
15" MBP everywhere, it takes too much space and is heavy (although it's a
pretty powerful machine).

------
rrrhys
I have a HP mini 5102, and spend 3 hours a day on it doing web dev - I find it
awesome. Resolution is 1366x768 so you don't get too squashed in. It has 3G
built in as well and the battery life is safe for probably 5 hours (meant to
be 8 maybe) The keyboard is almost natural size, and it has enough grunt to
keep a few things open (lets not kid ourselves, but it does better than I
expected).

------
joeyh
I have used nothing but some Dell Mini 9's for programming and everything else
for over a year. It took some getting used to, and some significant
customisation of my window manager, but I feel as productive with it as with
anything previous.

The low specs rarely bother me. I have upgraded the SSD, that was the only
stock component that was annoyingly slow (and small).

I wrote up the approaches I use for very task-specific, low resolution
workspace layouts here:
[http://kitenet.net/~joey/blog/entry/xmonad_layouts_for_netbo...](http://kitenet.net/~joey/blog/entry/xmonad_layouts_for_netbooks/)
Should be applicable to non-xmonad users too, just perhaps harder to do.

------
thecombjelly
I use an older 9 inch Eee PC. For $170 off of woot, it's been real good. I
actually liked it enough that I got rid of my desktop and this is my sole
computer now. I do tons of development on it. I installed a lightweight Linux
distro (Arch) and am running a lightweight, minimalistic DE (stumpwm). I found
that the default KDE3 was too heavy, but with my customizations I have almost
no lags in development (all of my development is for web apps written in
Chicken Scheme). I like to work out in the sticks (in areas you can't get to
by car) so this works out real good.

If you need to use development environments heavier than emacs/vim, than you
may need something more powerful.

------
LogicHoleFlaw
I'm currently doing full-time development work on a netbook. It's not ideal
but it is manageable. It's an MSI Wind running Ubuntu 10.10. Admittedly it's
hooked up to an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse. And I upgraded it to
2GB of RAM and a 300GB hard drive. At any given time I'll have gvim, chrome,
apache, mysql, and memcache running.

I'd like to get a beefier laptop but this will do for the time being. Funds
are tight.

EDIT: If you decide to get a netbook, try out a few and see what keyboard
layout you like. The hardware inside will be pretty similar, but the keyboards
are all crummy in slightly different ways.

~~~
EasyCompany
I just bought the latest asus netbook, its an intel duo core, they have just
been released two months ago(i think). It has 250gb and 1gb ram. I run a dual
partition ubuntu/windows 7 and i run netbeans to do some programming. I really
love it and forget to log onto my home laptop when i get home, also the 1 gig
ram seems fine so far but i will upgrade it this week to 2gigs. I actually
debated between an ipad and a netbook and after playing around with a friends
ipad i chose this netbook for $350.

------
vinc
I use an Asus Eee PC 1005HA, it's inexpensive and very lightweight, perfect
for working from anywhere. Great autonomy too!

With a resolution of 1024x600 the screen is not very big but I use xmonad (a
tiling window manager written in Haskell) which maximize the available
surface. I also only use command line apps and it makes everything extremely
fast.

xmonad + vim make me very productive and if I want more power I just log on
another computer by ssh and it's completely transparent!

------
TamDenholm
I've always wanted to go on the road and still do dev work, i was considering
this setup as a dev environment, iPad + bluetooth keyboard for coding on and
while i could easily switch between code editor and browser i'd probably use
my HTC Desire HD as the web browser to view what i'm coding.

In theory it would work but i've yet to test it as i dont have a bluetooth
keyboard yet.

------
desigooner
I'd recommend the Toshiba R700 series .. I have the one from BestBuy in
addition to my MBP.. 13 inch machine with Core i3, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD, 720p
display, 5-6 hours of stock battery life (not playing video though), eSATA
port for 750$ .. Did I say 3 lbs and doesn't heat up as much as MBP?

the crappy part : Intel Display adapter and very bad speakers .. almost tin
can like

------
sjs382
Other than my work machine, I've been using an Asus EeePC as my primary
machine since March. I have a desktop at home, but I haven't touched it other
than moving it to another room.

I use the EeePC as a dev machine and have to say, they keyboard sucks for
special characters <>/\\[], but the convenience is nice. Guess it's about
trade offs. I love the netbook.

~~~
sjs382
I should add: my dev environment consists of Google Chrome and a screen
session with vim running in PuTTY. Pretty minimalist as-is.

------
rebooting
I have a MSI Wind. The keyboard is a pain to do dev work with. if you're doing
Android development with a netbook get a real device to test - the emulator is
practically unusable.

Agree with the rest of the comments here, a regular cheap notebook with a
better processor will fill the role much better.

------
alexyoung
I had a Dell Mini 9 and used it for months, but the keyboard and form factor
got me down so I swapped it for a Macbook Air. Granted that's not a netbook,
but it's far better for work.

I do a lot of objective-c though so I might be more enthusiastic about the Air
than you.

------
bobf
Although it might not fit with your requirement of being inexpensive, if you
want something with a real CPU, light weight, small form-factor, and great
battery life, I have the Asus UL20A-A1 (~$575) and love it.

------
Rhapso
Asus 1001P has served me well, wireless drivers are finicky with linux, it has
the best size to usefulness of keyboard ratio I have yet to encounter. Cost me
about 400$

~~~
kiba
Wireless drivers and screen display are the most common problem I experienced
with Asus 1001P. My major annoyance is the mousepad. It has caused me to
dislocate my emacs pointer and start doing weird crap to the codebase.

I received my Asus 1001P for free.

~~~
Rhapso
it does that to me too, :'( but only on linux, so I think it might be more
then just the hardware.

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weel
I like my Thinkpad X61. It's not a netbook per se, but it has good battery
life and isn't too bulky.

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acconrad
Why not just find a T61 on eBay for the same price and get a bulletproof, fast
machine?

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sthomps
LG X120, it's really basic. But it runs super quick, I do some light
development on it.

