Netbooks: proof the tech industry has gone nuts

17. quote::When you say "modern operating system", is this another OS we dont know about, or are you just another sarcastic,patronising linux fanbo.. er person?.

It's a simple statement of fact.

As I said in the previous post. I started using Linux because of my concerns over the lack of security on Windows desktop machines. Nothing has happened in the intervening 8 years to cause me to revise that decision, although many cosmetic changes have been made to XP (in service packs), Vista, and now Windows 7, that give the appearance that something is/has been done. The underlying causes, however, remain, and there is still the total reliance on 3rd party add on security, which, as has been demonstrated more than once, by the bad guys, can be used as the means of entry into the system. Nothing has been done to genuinely protect the user, in any meaningful way. You are on your own, you either know enough about computers ans security to make your Windows system secure or you rely on the word of the salesman, and whatever happens happens, and you go back to the shop where they clean your machine for a fee, and it's clean until next time. Or you don't, if your ignorance is sufficiently profound, and your computer participates in the bot net uninterrupted.

16. quote::Thanks, TracyAnn. So, er, you quite like Linux then? :)

Well yes, isn't it obvious :)

I started using Linux because I had concernes about the security, well actually the lack of, of Windows. I discovered that I had a more stable, more usable system with hundreds, probably thousands of applications only a few mouse clicks away in the package manager.

Recently I have discovered that I can sell Linux based desktop hardware with better hardware specifications for less than I can sell Windows based hardware. The net book I mentioned earlier is a case in point. The same machine with Windows XP retails currently for $AU700 + (it comes with 512 Meg of RAM and a 160 Gig HardDrive) I can retail the same machine with Linux on it with 1.5 Gig of RAM for $AU680. The customer gets, in addition to this price, as standard all the software they need. That software includes OpenOffice.org 3.x, the GIMP 2.6.x, FSPot and DigiKAM, Skype, VLC media player. Pidgeon, aMSN, webcam software for the use of the built in Webcam, and of course skype aquires the webcam on start up. Brasero for CDDVD burning, Acid Rip for DVD ripping Grip fro Audio ripping Banshee media player gtkPod for your IPod and other MP3 players, although the other media players also do the sam job. An ebook reader Evolution, Thunderbird and kMail to choose from a Homanking financial management application a Dictionary, Firefox and Konqueror, Transmission bit Torrent client, a remote desktop viewer, Inkscape vector graphics editor, Scribus DTP various photo printing applications, including a panorama creator, about 40 or 50 games, admittedly a few of them require a taller than 600 pixel screen. Virtual box, and yes with the Linux set up you can run Windows XP inside a VM on this machine.

In addition you get a cutting edge desktop, if you choose to enable it. Or you can stick with the (and I kid you not, about it's name) "Easy Peasy" desktop.

15. When you say "modern operating system", is this another OS we dont know about, or are you just another sarcastic,patronising linux fanbo.. er person?.

14. Thanks, TracyAnn. So, er, you quite like Linux then? :)

13. quote::Sorry, meant to include this: do you really do video editing on a netbook? I take it you've got an external monitor, or really good eyesight...

I can, with a modern operating system. Doing anything but simple editing, like removing ads from free to air movies I've recorded on my mythTV rig, is a bit silly, but the point is, with a modern operating system like Linux, where all the applications are no more than a few mouse clicks away with the package manager, is quite easily possible.

I can also do image editing, and process my photos, with tools like the GIMP and digiKam or FSpot, play games, including your first person shooters, watch those movies with or without the ads, and I can even have a truly modern and cutting edge desktop while doing those things.

I don't need to stick Google chrome on it, I've already got Firefox and Konqueror and Evolution and Thunderbird, I don't need to stick Openoffice on it, it's there by default, It's got the GIMP by default and VLC and a host of other applications by default, and everything else is available from the package manager. That's what a really modern operating system gives you. And you don't have to worry about viruses, or even have to install anti virus software, the add on security that is so necessary on all versions of Windows just to get it half way as secure as a modern operating system.

Without the modern operating system that's on my BENQ, it is just pretty looking brick. when I show people the Windows version they kind of like the idea of the net book, when I show them the same machine with a modern operating system, they buy it, part of the reason for that is the 'easy peasy' desktop that comes with EeeBuntu, it gets them hooked, then all the exciting things they can do by default reel them in.

12. Sorry, meant to include this: do you really do video editing on a netbook? I take it you've got an external monitor, or really good eyesight...

11. Tracyann, just coming back to this (I'm the writer) - had the Samsung been running Linux instead of Windows I'm sure I'd still be raving about it. But the ancient operating system thing is kinda the point: security pains aside, an OS is just an OS. It's the apps that matter, so for example sticking Google Chrome, OpenOffice or AbiWord onto the samsung means I'm as happy working on that as I am on the Mac with Firefox, MS Office and Pages. For a lot less cash.

But this has got me thinking. Years and years ago I used to make music on a 500MHz machine with a gig of RAM and Windows XP, and I played games on it too. So I'm a bit gutted that the machine's gone back to Samsung - otherwise I'd stick some music software on it, some old but good games (Deus Ex! Yes!) and see how it got on. I suspect it'd do just fine.

The hard thing about all of this is resisting the temptation to wait for the new new thing, even in netbooks - so the Samsung's brilliant, but then I'm looking at the seashell Asus that's coming up and some of the other netbooks and thinking "hmmmm, they'd be even better..." It's a trap!

10. quotewell, if you want to play some games on the plane, you need slightly more than a £200 netbook wouldn't you?

No. Well yes.

All you need is a £200 netbook with Linux running on it. EeeBuntu has access to several hundred games to help you while away your time on plane, and if the plane allows you access to the internet, you can even engage in networked games, all for that £200 outlay... Probably less, as there is no license fee required to use Linux.

As I noted in my earlier post, I can do all the things the author of this blog claims he can't do with the ancient operating system he has on his netbook, by virtue of the fact that my netbook runs on Linux.

9. well, if you want to play some games on the plane, you need slightly more than a £200 netbook wouldn't you?

8. The Samsung Q210 also looks interesting - about £650 for a 12" lightweight laptop, but with a GF9200M in it, which should give it enough punch to at least play Source-engine games like Counterstrike reasonably.

Of course, we all knew that Macs were a ripoff anyway :)

7. quote::It's a netbook - a Samsung NC-10 with a bog standard Atom chip, a bit of RAM and an ancient operating system.

But of course you aren't using a Linux powered netbook, hence the ancient operating system

quote:: Sure, the Mac is capable of video editing, music making and all kinds of goodness

So too is the Linux powered netbook I'm using. It's a 10 inch BenQ with EeeBuntu installed on it. Now that's a modern operating system. I can even run a cutting edge desktop... the compiz/fusion 3D desktop cube, while doing those things you say you can't.

6. I agree on the netbook front: I use my MSI Wind as my primary PC at home, since I stopped gaming and music production on my "proper" PC.

I disagree about pretty much everything else, though. Blu-Ray looks much better than even upscaled DVDs to me. Good speakers or headphones still make a big difference with mp3s. And there are plenty of new games with stories and gameplay to match the graphics: GTA4, Fallout3, Mass Effect, etc.

5. When you talk about technology, and what is out there, look at an hearing aid. i had an analogue hearing aid and if i wanted to listen to music i could plug in my "shoes" and listen to my mp3 player and have all the background noise cut off, ie i would only hear the music and not the traffic or people conversations.

Now due to evolution in hearing aid technology, i am on digital and when i listen to music via my shoes i suffer from migrane due to my concentrating on the music to drown out the conversation which i have never had to do before.

Fantastic technology but a pain in the ear!!

4. ericklamothe, tell me what phone you are using?

Thx

3. And as for phones, well my N95 8GB can everything under the sun. There's just one problem, it's rubbish and just too tedious to use all those features...

2. Brilliant Article. Funny yet informative and oh so true.

1. This article is absolutely correct. There is incredibly fantastic technology that is expensive currently out there, but there is increasingly an amasing array of technology which is very accessible and affordable and performs functions at a fraction of the price that one would expect. For instance, with one of my java based mobile handsets which I purchased for $140.00 £100.00 I can email, browse the web, check documents, listen to music, take photos, record video, organise my schedule, make notes, and of course make phone calls (including video calls). So why spend $600 on a windows smartphone when these devices do these functions quite well at nearly an eighth of the cost?