Anyone getting a $250 netbook?

[touchring]

Yes, Ee book from Asus, linux installed. This must be microsoft's greatest nightmare.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: Anyone getting a $250 netbook?

Yes, Ee book from Asus, linux installed. This must be microsoft's greatest nightmare.

What is a $250 netbook?

[jiimbergin]

Re: Anyone getting a $250 netbook?

Yes, Ee book from Asus, linux installed. This must be microsoft's greatest nightmare.

I have had the original from ASUS since last April. It was $399 then. It is great for email and the web. My son has just gotten a newer version with Windows instead of Linux, with a 9 inch screen instead of my 7", a 160 meg drive and more memory than mine. We take ours on all trips, but I also take my laptop if we are traveling by car.

[Slimprofits]

Re: Anyone getting a $250 netbook?

Jim, a 'netbook' is a laptop that is the size of a small magazine with WIFI.

They are lighter, smaller and thinner than laptops without CD/DVD drives, less RAM and smaller hard storage.

Something like 70% of them are sold with a version of Linux, as opposed to a version of Windows and the market is projected to grow quite a bit over the next few years. I can see envision non-computer games that use both a desktop and a laptop, shifting to the netbook if/when their laptops breakdown or become outdated.

[touchring]

Re: Anyone getting a $250 netbook?

What is a $250 netbook?

netbooks are lightweight notebooks used for surfing on the go. they got small keyboards, but the keys are still larger than pda phones and blackberries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netbook

[Supercilious]

Re: Anyone getting a $250 netbook?

Just got a cheap notebook (Emachines D620) for $280.

Wiped out that pathetic excuse for an OS which is sold under the name of Vista Home Basic and installed Ubuntu Linux. The little toy rocks on linux steroids.

Under the factory settings Vista was not able to recognize the 10 base T ethernet, working only on Wi-Fi .:eek:

If Microsoft doesn't get it's act together fast, they have no chance to survive. Vista is an epic failure, and if you though the business edition is bad , you should see the Home Basic ...:eek: Microsoft is now the GM of operating systems.

[touchring]

Re: Anyone getting a $250 netbook?

Just got a cheap notebook (Emachines D620) for $280.

Wiped out that pathetic excuse for an OS which is sold under the name of Vista Home Basic and installed Ubuntu Linux. The little toy rocks on linux steroids.

Under the factory settings Vista was not able to recognize the 10 base T ethernet, working only on Wi-Fi .:eek:

If Microsoft doesn't get it's act together fast, they have no chance to survive. Vista is an epic failure, and if you though the business edition is bad , you should see the Home Basic ...:eek: Microsoft is now the GM of operating systems.

i don't understand why they had to do vista, it's a complete failure, scrwes up everything. they are letting linux have a chance by creating vista.

[Supercilious]

Re: Anyone getting a $250 netbook?

i don't understand why they had to do vista, it's a complete failure, scrwes up everything. they are letting linux have a chance by creating vista.

The Vista is for Microsoft , what Avanti was for Studebaker and what Pontiac Aztek was for GM:
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/01/18/2...aztek-25-sold/

The truth is that for Apple and the Linux community, all prayers were answered by the arrival of Vista, a true Godsend

This is how stupid monopolies ran by idiotic boards end.

[Shakespear]

Re: Anyone getting a $250 netbook?

Microsoft = Chrysler = GM = Arrogance

I will not buy any machine that has VISTA, that is my personal mission. XP and Win2000 are great :-) and no Microsoft cleptocrats will tell me what I must run.

Pure arrogance.

[c1ue]

Re: Anyone getting a $250 netbook?

Jim,

To be more precise, a netbook is a laptop made on the same principles as the original concept of the $100 laptop for 3rd world countries, or the OLPC.

It has a small screen - the cheap models are 8.9" or 10" vs. the 14.1" or even 17" mainstream laptops.

It also doesn't have a hard drive - it uses flash memory. Generally 80 Gigabytes or so, so not like you're being gypped.

Many are Linux, but I still see a number with XP as well.

Prices are in the $250 - $400 range. This isn't as good as it sounds as many regular laptops are now nearing the high end of this range.

But, the netbooks are really light and have excellent power characteristics. With a normal battery, they are supposed to be able to run for 6 or 7 hours as opposed to the 1 hour for a normal laptop.

I'm getting one for my mother as she wants a laptop with XP - plus she does nothing at all with PCs except use the internet and occasionally Excel.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: Anyone getting a $250 netbook?

Jim,

To be more precise, a netbook is a laptop made on the same principles as the original concept of the $100 laptop for 3rd world countries, or the OLPC.

It has a small screen - the cheap models are 8.9" or 10" vs. the 14.1" or even 17" mainstream laptops.

It also doesn't have a hard drive - it uses flash memory. Generally 80 Gigabytes or so, so not like you're being gypped.

Many are Linux, but I still see a number with XP as well.

Prices are in the $250 - $400 range. This isn't as good as it sounds as many regular laptops are now nearing the high end of this range.

But, the netbooks are really light and have excellent power characteristics. With a normal battery, they are supposed to be able to run for 6 or 7 hours as opposed to the 1 hour for a normal laptop.

I'm getting one for my mother as she wants a laptop with XP - plus she does nothing at all with PCs except use the internet and occasionally Excel.

Thanks, c1ue.

The only programs that I run constantly are Internet Explorer, Excel and Outlook Express on a laptop using XP. Less frequently I use a Word version from back in 2000, and MS Money 2006. I bought wife a laptop with Vista a year+ ago, and the only thing I know about it is that she gets a lot of popups asking for permission to breathe, exhale, and seemingly everything else.

Someday, I'll probably buy a new laptop, but were someone to give me one loaded with the current Office programs and Vista, I'm not sure I'd take it if I had to learn the new, I guess the word is, interface.

What if I were to buy a laptop loaded with Vista, but wanted to try Linux (about which I know NOTHING), would Linux allow me to run my Excel, Word, Money, Internet Explorer?

In case you can't figure it out, I interact with no one on a face to face basis that knows about this stuff. People I know understand less than I do about computers, so they are really bad off.

Anyone wishing to answer any of this, thank you in advance.

EDIT: I've got a backup laptop that I keep updated with program changes, and it too runs XP. Is it possible to install Linux over an existing installation of XP, or must one start with a clean harddrive, and reinstall everything?

[GRG55]

Re: Anyone getting a $250 netbook?

The Vista is for Microsoft , what Avanti was for Studebaker and what Pontiac Aztek was for GM:
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/01/18/2...aztek-25-sold/

The truth is that for Apple and the Linux community, all prayers were answered by the arrival of Vista, a true Godsend

This is how stupid monopolies ran by idiotic boards end.

The analogy with Detroit is closer than many realize...

It took a long time for Detroit to back off stigmatizing any executive or employee who didn't drive the employers product. Pretty tough for anyone at Cadillac or Lincoln to understand the appeal of a Mercedes or Lexus if they've never been in one.

I recall seeing an interview with Steve Ballmer a couple of years ago. He said that he wouldn't ever allow his kids to use an Apple PC or an iPod...

I use XP at the moment, and hate it with a passion, especially all the security upgrades and constant rebooting of the computer. The MS-OS on my XP laptop takes up a huge amount of disc space now...two full orders of magnitude more than my last laptop running NT. I wonder sometimes if MS wants to trash XP so people are forced to replace their hardware and upgrade to Vista. My next computer may be a Mac.

[Supercilious]

Re: Anyone getting a $250 netbook?

What if I were to buy a laptop loaded with Vista, but wanted to try Linux (about which I know NOTHING), would Linux allow me to run my Excel, Word, Money, Internet Explorer?

Yes Jim. It will run much faster under Linux, with no crashes, and it will be perfectly safe (you don't have to worry about viruses and trojans). The equivalent programs though have different names though, but they look very similar with respect to function and commands and program layout.
If you know how to use MS Word you will have no problem to use Open Office Word Processor, it looks and feels the same but you have no crashes and no documents lost. The chart of transition is

MS Word > Open Office Word Processor
MS Excel > Open Office Spreadsheet
MS Power Point > Open Office Presentation
(For all office application you can use and save MS file formats if you really want -.doc .xls .ppt )
MS Internet Explorer > Firefox

For Microsoft Money there are equivalent programs, but since I haven't used them I can't vouch myself. I would be surprised though to find there is no much better Linux alternative. Here is some info:

http://ubuntudoctor.com/content/news...inancial-tools

There are several different flavors of Linux. Since you way you are not what we would call a computer geek, I would suggest to go with Ubuntu Linux.

There is a think called Ubuntu Live CD. It's just a CD you can put in your computer( or a file downloaded on a memory stick) and boot you computer directly with Ubuntu Linux, and the new operating system runs only from the disk.

This is very good if you want to give it a try before the changing anything to your windows machine. You can browse the internet, use Open Office see how it works and if you don't like it, just turn off the computer, get out the Live CD and restart it in Windows like nothing ever happened.

I think it's worth a try. And If you find a MS Money linux equivalent that you like , I bet you will love Linux and you will never go back.

Also if you have some free space on you hard drive you can make a dual boot machine, and you have both Linux for most of your needs and Windows for those few MS applications you don't want to abandon.

Making a dual boot machine is simple but it is not for those who don't know much about computers. If you try to do that by yourself you should have a windows recovery disk and a backup of all your data, just in case you skip a step or you make a mistake. If you find a linux geek to do it for you I may take as little as 40 minutes. This month I converted about 14 machines for relatives and friends to dual boot computers (mostly Ubuntu but also Suse and Mandriva), including a computer that belongs to the mother of a neighbor of mine ... she is 93.

It cracked me open when the lady called me some two weeks later to ask me if she needs to write a bash script file for renewing the DHCP lease in order to "up my downloading speed" (her internet provider sucks big time) or she can just type commands in a shell terminal

[raja]

Re: Anyone getting a $250 netbook?

I use XP at the moment, and hate it with a passion, especially all the security upgrades and constant rebooting of the computer. The MS-OS on my XP laptop takes up a huge amount of disc space now...two full orders of magnitude more than my last laptop running NT. I wonder sometimes if MS wants to trash XP so people are forced to replace their hardware and upgrade to Vista. My next computer may be a Mac.

GRG55,

You've got a problem there . . . but I don't think it's XP.

I'm running XP on 4 computers. I do lot's of complex stuff, like photo-manipulation, digital recording, desktop publishing, along with the less intensive stuff like internet browsing, word processing and email. But no problems with the OS.

I've never had one of my computers reboot with XP, or had any OS-related problems.

You've got some kind of virus, hard disk problem, faulty power supply, or something else . . . because it's probably not XP. Try re-seating all the cables, cards, power cord and memory chips. Run an antivirus program, a memory checker program, check to see if your CPU fan is overheating. My guess is it's a bad connection or your power supply is faulty.

[we_are_toast]

Re: Anyone getting a $250 netbook?

I would never recommend anyone who was not a geek to try and switch to a linux box, or think about trying to create a dual boot system. Being a Sys admin for a UNIX system is not easy. Linux systems can be attacked and corrupted by people who know what they are doing or even by script kiddies downloading crap they found on the internet. Some of the files from OpenOffice and Microsoft applications will not be compatible, drivers for new hardware will not be available, and there won't be nearly the number of applications available for linux.

A linux system will work fine when you 1st load it, but when you start having to upgrade all the systems and programs and you find you need to build a bunch of new libraries because the upgrade of an application you are using requires it and the old version isn't supported anymore, you're going to find you're going to end up wiping everything clean and starting over.

Microsoft is crap! It's big crap! I hate vista and it's reboots and it's crazy error messages. If you need to do big jobs, like run the internet, or scientific computing, Microsoft isn't even a contender, but for home use, as annoying as it is, it's still easier than administering a linux system over the long term.

Home computing would be 10 years more advanced if the heavy handed marketing techniques of Microsoft hadn't won the day, but I'm afraid we're going to be using their products for a long time to come.