Years ago my mom bought a tiny Sony Vaio PictureBook PCG-C1VN . This was the second sub-notebook computer I had ever seen: the first was a Toshiba Libretto owned by another guy at the consulting company I was working for at the time. The PCG-C1VN was perfect for my mom, who only needed a computer to give her PowerPoint presentations when conducting a training or retreat. Remember, this was years ago, before the proliferation of USB media. She learned pretty early that simply burning her presentations on CD was insufficient because while every facility had a projector for her to use, not every facility had a computer to connect to that projector, and when they did they didn't always have PowerPoint. So she bought the PCG-C1VN and took that loaded with her presentations. All in all, this worked out extremely well for her.
Late last year, during the height of the One Laptop Per Child Give One Get One program, I bought an XO-1 laptop for myself. I used it off and on for a couple of months, and finally sold it to a friend of a friend. It's a terrific piece of hardware, with some very clever software, but it's not really something I need. I occasionally sat on my porch using the XO-1, but as often as not it sat powered off in my office.
The XO-1 isn't exactly a netbook, but that's how I was treating it. Sometimes I don't want to lug my laptop around with me, when all I really need is something on which to check email, or occasionally ssh into a server somewhere. I can, of course, do both of those tasks from my phone, but anything more than just skimming the contents of my Inbox from my phone involves too much typing on the infuriatingly small keyboard on my Palm Centro.
So last night, with help from Mike, I installed Debian onto the PCG-C1VN. It, too, isn't quite a netbook, but it's closer than the XO-1. The Sony has a Transmeta Crusoe CPU running at 800 MHz, and while it only has 512 MB of RAM, I think I can install a slim window manager (matchbox, openbox, etc), a small terminal, and the Epiphany browser to get most of what I need out of this small form factor laptop. It won't be a speed demon by any stretch, but it should be satisfactory.
I thought long and hard about installing Ubuntu onto the PCG-C1VN so that I could try out the new netbook remix, which puts a nice netbook interface over the top of a standard Ubuntu installation. The netbook remix looks slick, but, alas, I think that running a standard Ubuntu installation would be too much for the poor little PCG-C1VN to handle.
Or maybe I'll break down and finally buy a true netbook, like the Asus Eee. Everyone I've seen using the Eee seems to really enjoy it.
As long as you have a use for a netbook, the eee is a great machine. I loved using mine when I actually used it as a netbook. As I rarely did (macbook isn't that much bigger to drag around) I ended up getting rid of it.
That sounds like it would've been fun.
I'm still considering the Acer One (seen at MicroCenter), mainly because I'm thinking of giving my parents my current laptop in order to facilitate their snowbirding needs. They haven't had what could be considered a "modern" computer, and at best have been using (at the time of purchase) 4 year old (or more) hardware, and have recently begun hauling computers back and forth between states. They have a 1GHz P3 with 2GB RAM running XP, SCSI hard drives that are considered small, CD drives that don't even read DVDs, and it's a full tower workstation that's HEAVY.
To me this seems ridiculous when the price of a new, decent laptop is so low. They have few needs (browse the web, check pop mail, occasionally play some music, write letters), but also need a modem. (They only have dial-up connections.)
I would buy the Acer One for them, but doing remote tech support on a netbook/ultra-mobile seems like it could be even more hellish than a larger laptop.
How does one pronounce the Eee? Is it "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Or
"EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"?
@Amie: I pronounce it "Eee", as in the first syllable of Eeyore, from Winnie the Pooh.
@Halfb8ked: remote desktop and WinXP's remote assistance should ease the support burden, I would think. You could get them any number of entry-level laptops: most still include an analog modem on-board. Do the Eee and similar netbooks include a modem?
The first eee doesn't have a modem (4GB SSD model) -- or at least mine didn't.
The Aspire One does not have a modem jack. Fun. I think I'd have to add in a USB modem just for peace of mind if I got one.
I still need to explore HP's options through work...
I've been following various Netbooks for a while now. The Lenovo S9 and S10 seem to be the best looking ones as far as I can tell. Also amongst the lightest ones as well (which is a major consideration). It also looks like the most solid of the lot. Also the design isn't superflous and they seems to have stripped it from a great deal of silly edges and kept it pretty sleek.
The Dell Mini Inspiron 9 is another one that seems to get a lot of things right (solid build, light, big keyboard etc), and comes preinstalled with Ubuntu.
I wouldn't go for the HP version, as they are selling this one cheap because it's probably due for a bit of a refresh.
The MSI wind Netbook is getting a lot of good coverage.
The Toshiba Netbook looks pretty mediocre to be honest and pretty chunky, with that ugly battery sticking out the back.
The Samsung Netbook didn't inspire me to be honest. It just seemed like they didn't get it right. A bit of a rushed job to be honest.
Sony are rumoured to be bringing out a Netbook as well, which could be interesting, as far as I can tell their Vaio lines have always been on the cutting edge of extremely small and compact computers, way ahead of the curve in this respect, although they have fallen short in recent years.
Still investigating options on my end, now that I've convinced my parents they need a laptop instead of having a computer in each house, 800mi away from each other. Dad spent 4 hours playing on my laptop, learning to use a trackpad, and deciding that it wasn't too bad. I suggested a $5 mouse for more familiarity, and he didn't disagree, but he said the keyboard was fairly comfortable for someone who doesn't type. Whether my mom, a former secretary, would agree, I'm not sure.
give PEKWM a try. its a terrific WM after you've customized it a bit to your tastes ;)
I'm using it basically if I need a proper GUI but no overbloated desktop, launch bar and similar stuff. Thats mainly if I need quickly look up some graphical or JS-related when not having much time left or plainly watching DVD on my system w/o further addo ;)
cu, w0lf.
Don't want to spoil anything, but the c1vn has a 600MHz transmeta cpu and as far as I know a maximum of 384MB RAM supported. I have the european model and while using xp kinda works, ubuntu is very slooow. To try it you have to download the alternate install-cd, if you are using the original sony pcmcia cd-rom drive. Good luck!
Yes, the C1VN has a very slow processor. It only has 128 MB of RAM (not the 512 I incorrectly reported in the post above), so a full-fledged GNOME desktop is out of the question.
I used the C1VN on one trip, and found it to be too much hassle to be worth it. It has no built-in networking, so I need to lug around a PCMCIA WiFi card. Since I'm using a slim window manager, I don't have NetworkManager installed, so network configurations are a manual task. I never bothered to try to install NetworkManager onto the laptop, because it'll still be an underpowered device for the bulk of my usage.
I am reading this on a C1XD (400 Mhz CPU) running Fedora 7. 192 Mb RAM and D-Link WiFi card are the upgrades. I use external DVD-R and 250 Gb firewire drives when needed. When I bought the machine in 2000 it was my main machine and had a Samsung LCD and USB keyboard and mouse attached in the office.
Speed is relative as they say. Browsing the web works you just have to be patient and stay away from badly programed Flash driven sites. All unused services are turned off and right now I am using about 72% of the available RAM.
I am thinking of trying Ubuntu netbook version and a tiny window manager or even getting rid of X and using the framebuffer. My only problem is OpenOffice which is used from time to time and there is no fb version as yet.
Cheers