The Occidental Weekly

Media Credit: Tyler Kearn Mini Me Trendy "netbooks" are a welcome alternative to unwieldy laptops.

I have a tiny computer. Size wise, it is a little bit smaller than most hardcover books. To put it in Oxy terms, it's a hair larger than A Writer's Guide by Diana Hacker, and much smaller than Mankiw's Principles of Economics. The computer runs Windows XP, has a 120GB hard drive, 1GB of memory, a 9 inch screen, and I bought it at Best Buy. It cost $350 dollars.

This computer, called the Acer Aspire One, is just one of many computers that fall under an entirely new category of computer called mini-laptops, or, as they have come to be known, netbooks. Netbooks have come to be defined as computers with 7-10" screens that run either Windows XP or a variant of Linux, and tend to run an Intel processor called the Atom that drains very little power. Netbooks are really intended to be used as secondary computers that compliment the larger, heavier, more expensive machine that you can now leave at home. Depending on the model and configuration, they cost somewhere from $300-$500, and the prices keep coming down.

Netbooks have two main things going for them - they are very small and they are very cheap. Previously, purchasing a small laptop meant paying a premium - most started at $2000 and went up from there. Now, thanks to smart engineering and low cost components, you can buy a netbook for less than the cost of a full sized laptop.

This is possible because people realized that computers had gotten to the point where it was okay to build a computer that was not necessarily any more powerful than the ones that came out last year. The computers are constructed from parts that are not at the cutting edge, but are powerful enough for most people. Most people wouldn't even be able to take advantage of cutting edge components if they did pay for them. When a computer is the size of a book and weighs 2 or 3 pounds, throwing it in a bag and carrying it around with you becomes almost a second thought. It's so small that I can just throw it in the bag that I carry my books around in anyway. It would also easily fit in a medium to large purse, if you are someone who carries one.

This way, I have a computer with me if I need one, for any reason - say I need to pull up something for a class that is on Moodle or Blackboard, or I need to pull up a document I have been working on, or I need to, I don't know, check Facebook. Netbooks are full computers, and they can do everything a regular computer can.

In a way, that's the real advantage to having a netbook - with an iPod you can have all your music with you, and with a Blackberry you can have your e-mail with you, but with tiny laptop, you can have all of your data and programs with you, at all times.

This is largely why the sales of netbooks have exploded. Last April, I wrote an article for the Weekly about small laptops, at which time there were only two netbooks on the market. Now, there are dozens of models for sale, from companies like Dell, HP, and Acer. Additionally, some of the bestselling netbooks are coming from brands that are not as well known, such as Asus and MSI. Prior to Apple releasing its new MacBooks, nine of the top ten best-selling laptops on Amazon were netbooks (the last was the MacBook). Now, the top twenty is a mix of netbooks, and the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros.

Netbooks do have a few weaknesses, which typically come in the form of compromises made to keep the size small, the weight low and the costs down. The keyboards tend to be fairly large, but are not quite full sized, which can take a little getting used to. I've gotten very fast with my netbook keyboard, but I wouldn't want to write an entire paper on it.

While the processors on netbooks are very power efficient, they are not super powerful. The Intel Atom processor in my computer is actually much faster than I expected - it seems to be at least as fast at most tasks as the Intel Centrino Duo processor in my Dell Latitude. However, do not expect that it would be up to strenuous processing tasks, such as editing or encoding video, or playing the latest games. In fact, do not expect these things from any computer that costs less than $500.

Finally, netbooks do not include disk drives, which helps keep the size and weight down. This can be a problem, especially when it comes to installing programs, but for the most part, it has not been a major issue (you can always buy an external drive for around $40 anyway). However, this does mean that you are not going to be able to use your netbook as a portable DVD player.

These limitations unfortunately cement netbooks as an option only as a secondary computer for a lot of people. As handy as the mobility that netbooks offer is, people need to write papers on full-sized keyboards and they need to watch DVDs on their computers.

However, as the prices continue to come down, the idea of having a secondary computer might not seem as crazy to a lot of people. Already, you can buy a netbook for the price of an iPod Touch. When these computers get into the $100-$200 range, it can be hard to see people not picking one up. We do live in the information age, so for those interested in the topic of netbooks, here is some further reading:

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/09/netbooks-evolvi.html

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13554_3-10063963-33.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

http://www.liliputing.com/2008/10/liliputing-in-wired.html#more-1967

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