[NBLUG/talk] 32 vs 64 bit netbook

Bob Blick bobblick at ftml.net
Fri Jan 15 16:53:37 PST 2010


On Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:33:01 -0800, "Robert Hayes" <rhayes at silcom.com>
said:
> I'm about to purchase my first netbook. I'll be running some variant of 
> Debian.
> 
> The feature set boils down to two models by the same manufacturer.

My wife has an Asus 1008HA seashell with 3 cell Lithium-Polymer, the
model with sealed-in battery and no RAM door. So other than a few
millimeters smaller and grams lighter here or there it is very similar
to what you are looking at. Same LED-lit screen and chip (N280 Atom)
etc.

I give it a solid three out of five stars. Five months ago when she got
it, it was the nicest one we looked at for her needs. The criteria was
"the most compact and lightest unit available". It fits the bill and
works just fine. Battery life is acceptable at about three hours (Six
hours advertised).

In my opinion it is slow as molasses and you don't need to worry about
accidental mouseclicks because the buttons have springs rejected from
seatbelt latches for being too hard to press :) The keyboard is nowhere
near as good as my Dell Latitude D420 which is only a little bigger and
heavier and much faster. My typing is slower on the D420 than on a real
keyboard. Typing on the netbook is waaay slower.

Don't fool yourself into thinking this will replace 90% of your laptop
needs. A netbook is for emergency use only, like the back seat in a
Mustang.

That being said, the 10% of the need it fulfills is quite worthy. It
will fit in a glove compartment or big coat pocket and two of them can
share a Starbucks table. The AC adapter is tiny.

I figure the current generation of netbooks is still too early to be
very good. Consider it a disposable impulse purchase?

Cheerful regards,

Bob

-- 
http://www.fastmail.fm - The way an email service should be




More information about the talk mailing list