I’ve had my eye on a netbook for a while. I have no intentions of buying one, not until I am out of debt. It’s a luxury to me, and even though the little gadgets are about as inexpensive as a nice cell phone or PDA, I am forcing myself to wait. Prices are the lowest ever– I saw an Asus Eee Linux model for $249 at Best Buy. But NO NO NO! I cannot afford one right now, not when the kids need new North Face jackets and boots, and when I have an escalating energy bill! I’ll wait, and watch, like I usually do. When the time comes for a great deal, I’ll be ready.

But perhaps you have been looking at some, and are wondering about them. I’ve done a little research, so I’ll share what I’ve found here. One quick clarification: there are many different kinds of netbooks– some have 8.9″ screens, others have 7′; some have flash drives, others have hard disk drives with moveable parts; some have Windows XP, others have Linux Xandros or Ubuntu; etc. I’m going to keep this post simple by discussing the original and most popular netbook– the Asus Eee with Linux installed. Most models have only 4 to 8 GB of disk space, on a flash drive with no moveable parts. These are the most portable and, to me, the real definition of a true netbook.

1.) A netbook is a cross between a laptop and a PDA. It is NOT a tiny laptop. This is a mistake many people make when buying their netbook. They get home to see that these little things have very little hard drive space, tiny keyboards, and a small screen that doesn’t display large websites in the browser. The fonts are small, the keys on the keyboard are small, etc. A netbook is designed for being able to connect to the web and email while being extremely portable. If you are looking for a computer that will enable you to use your Photoshop program, run video-editing programs, and other heavy-usage– a netbook is not for you. Just get a smaller laptop for that.

2.) Most netbooks are under 3 pounds. This makes them extremely portable- you can tuck it in your bookbag or purse. The solid state hard drive (flash drive, just like those USB flash drives, also known as thumb drives or jump drives) has no moving parts, so the netbook can rattle a little and the hard drive information remains intact. Note that on the Specs sheet for netbooks, a lot of them will list the weight as “2.2 pounds” or something like that. This is the weight WITHOUT the battery inside. If weight is extremely important to you, know that the battery will add a good pound or a little less to the weight of the netbook.

3.) Most netbooks have the Linux operating system installed. This is to preserve the speed and reliability of the netbook. It takes a lot of space to contain and run Microsoft Windows. Some netbooks do have Windows installed, but this adds more weight to the netbook and decreases its portability. Windows OS must have a larger hard drive, so the netbook may have a hard drive disk with moving parts– which makes the netbook less durable and less portable.

As to Linux– I’ve tried Xandros (a few years ago) and liked it enough. But for a Linux OS, it’s still pretty big. Most geeks seem to be dumping the Xandros and installing the Linux Ubuntu, which is smaller and more reliable than Xandros. If I get my netbook, I’m going to install Ubuntu. But that’s a story for another post.

4.) The screen is very small. The 7″ monitor size of the Asus supports 800 x 600 resolution, although some can handle a larger resolution. Either way, everything is miniature– the font, the images, the screen, everything. Be sure to test out the netbook at the computer stores before buying, to ensure that you can handle the diminuitive size.

5.) RAM size is often smaller for the netbook. The highest I’ve seen is 1GB RAM for the Asus Eee. This is enough to run the Linux operating system well, but a Windows installation may make it choke.

6.) Hard drive space is very limited. I’ve read complaints that out-of-the box, the netbook only has about 350MB hard drive space available. An Ubuntu OS installation may increase that space to 1GB or so, but that is still not a lot of space for your stuff. The NICE thing about the netbook is that it has an SD reader. There is a slot on the side of the netbook where you can slip in a 4GB or 8GB SD memory card, esssentially doubling or tripling your space. You can store all your photos and documents on this SD card, adding to the portability. All you have to do is eject the SD card and slide it into your desktop PC, and there are your documents and photos.

7.) Most netbooks come with a webcam. I’m not too fond of webcams (I hate them, actually). I’ve heard that most netbooks have the webcam disabled by default. I like that, but most people don’t. You have to get into the BIOS of the computer and enable it manually.

8.) Most Asus netbooks have the Intel Atom processor. From what I have heard so far, this is the best quality processor, designed specifically for the small needs of the netbook. Avoid Celeron processors (for netbooks as well as any PC). Celeron is like the thrift-store version of a processor. Computers are so cheap these days that $40-$50 will get you a much better processor than the budget brand. Cheapo processors are responsible for a good deal of the computer crashes and problems, and newer software programs (especially games and image-editing) won’t work with them at all.

So that’s my research and thoughts about the netbook, in a very small nutshell. I’ll be posting more about the netbook in the future, as I look into it more and as they become more widely available in varying models. As always, if you have questions, feel free to leave a comment.

Tags: Asus Eee, buying guide, netbooks