Netbook advice

[Foggy Morn]

I am, apparently the rare XP user here. A friend of mine gave me the original ASUS which sits unused. I couldn't adjust to the Linux or the tiny screen.

...

My Acer Aspire One is WinXP. Sorry for not mentioning that. The WordStar I mentioned uses TameDOS, which I use through WinXP.

I agree with your assessment of linux as that's another reason the little Eee PC (701) doesn't work for me. Linux is just too arcane and I don't want to have to bother with it. (This from someone whose first computer was a CPM machine!)

I'm a writer, which is why the keyboard is so important to me, but it also makes my requirements fairly minimal. If the keyboard on the Eee PC (701) had been usable, then applications such as JDarkroom, Writer's Café, etc., would have made the linux issue less annoying.

[rabergnc]

The majority of netbooks being sold have XP on them. Apparently 70% of those folks that buy the Linux machines return them while most XP folks keep theirs. My MSI Wind U100 came with XP which was fine. A couple of weeks ago I installed Windows 7 (now available in Release Candidate version free to download). It work amazingly well - takes about 30 seconds longer to load but once it's up it is a good deal faster than XP. Needed to do nothing special to the machine for it to run. I had tried the Mac OS X on the Wind and that took a bunch of tweaking to work. Got rid of it and replaced OS X with Windows 7 which I will keep until the RC version expires in June 2010 - after that, who knows? When not traveling, I live on a Macbook.

[Jenne]

If you have any questions about installing alternate Operating Systems from flash disk, I can point you to some tutorials. (My buddy just got OS 10x working on his Asus.)

I just got an ASUS 900HD (the red was on sale at Best Buy.) So far, I really enjoy it, but since I got it for travel and writing my dissertation, I haven't used it very much at home. I think the keyboard will be fine, but if not, I have a bluetooth foldable keyboard that I know I can use comfortably. I have fairly small hands.

Mine is XP (which I am very comfortable with.) I had hoped to install Ubuntu and play with that, but quickly got frustrated with what documentation I could find online about installing Ubuntu and about dual-booting. It would be cool to see a tutorial. I mostly wanted to just get familiar with Ubuntu (I already have access to OS10 at work) but I don't want to wreck my new baby just to learn it.

[BPritchard]

I'm late into the discussion since I just joined the forums.

I purchased a Dell Mini 9 from the Dell outlet last Christmas. I got 1gig memory, 16gig SSD, bluetooth, and XP. These were my minimun requirements, except for the memory. I had planned to get a 2gig stick from Crucial.

I installed Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007. Runs fine. Upgraded to IE8.

The 16gig SSD is plenty. A spinning drive defeats the purpose of a Netbook. For more storage I use my 320 gig passport. This is not a laptop replacement. I bought it for use on trips and everyday portable use. It is my main EBook reader. For email, I use my Roadrunner Webmail.

I also have a slimline DVD/CD burner. This I use to burn CD's of my camera chips while on trips. I also copy to the external hard drive. Protects me from any disasters such as losing a camera, etc.

The netbook is a perfect traveling companion; also for a student who doesn't need a full laptop, and for research purposes.

Just make sure you backup important files and keep the SSD drive clean of temp files, etc.

I have a Windows 7 RC CD which I plan to install.

For a good website on the mini 9 and other netbooks, see http://www.mydellmini.com/