Netbook Idea

[Deleted User] · 03/12/10 - 22:03

Hi All

After getting stuck in Florida last year for an extra 2 weeks due to volcano I want to take a netbook to get internet access as we was lost last year without internet, I dont want to take a laptop as its too big, can any one reccomend a netbook and is it the same as a laptop apart from no cd driv e. When i'm not on holiday with it, 10 year old will prob have it.

Thanks

Tally

len112 · 03/12/10 - 22:11

Yeah the same as a laptop but slower , fine for most things internet though . Some have 3g built in if not you can use a dongle , most have Wifi .

rottweiler · 03/12/10 - 23:00

these are good value and look great

LION8TIGER · 03/12/10 - 23:40

rottweiler wrote: »

these are good value and look great

Clicked on your link and the first thing I thought was 'that's a bit pricey' but then went to a few more sites and it seemed comparatively relatively cheap.
Netbooks must have gone up a good bit in price lately, not that I follow them but last time I looked a few months ago I thought they were only around the £150 - £170 mark.

Must be something to do with robbery or inflation.

brillopad · 03/12/10 - 23:43

I've got an Asus 1005HA.
10 hour battery, great keyboard, WiFi, Bluetooth, camera, touchpad with gestures, LED screen and so on.
I sometimes use mine to watch TV via a Freeview USB dongle.
Recently put Windows 7 on it which makes networking to my desktop a breeze.
My desktop died 2 weeks ago and the Netbook allowed me to carry on working as everything is duplicated on it - just had to plug in a LAN cable.

I bought it as a toy but it's been extremely useful - I ended up buying an DVD writer and an external hard drive.
I also use it for drive copying & repair - boot it with Linux/MiniWindows/DOS on a USB stick and use USB docks for the drives.

Anne-Sophie · 04/12/10 - 12:22

Just a word of warning........

I have one of the first Asus netbooks with Linux Xandros as OS.

I took it to France a few weeks ago and before I went I ordered an Orange.fr dongle to get mobile broadband.

Unfortunately the dongle isn't compatible with Linux, only Windows or Mac. A bit silly, I thought, as most of the earlier netbooks were configured with Linux.

I don't know if there is any way round this Orange's only suggestion was to install Windows on my netbook but my Windows XP CDs are OEM and therefore I cannot use them on a different PC. It's not worth the expense of buying a new copy of Windows just for the odd foreign holiday.

By the way, I must admit I find surfing the internet on a 7" screen very tiresome.

alanwarwic · 04/12/10 - 12:32

Most of the dongles by Huawei are actually compatible with Linux. (e.g. the wiki for the E220 shows which kernel works automatically)
ZTE ones are not meant to be so easy to get going but very very simple to unlock for free.

For the netbook I'd suggest the 11.6" size for the best of both worlds..
The HP DM1 (Intel 2300 dual core version) for as cheap as £269 cannot be beaten with its fuller fast capability..

Alan F · 04/12/10 - 13:51

Have you considered a used 12" HP nc4200 or nc4400 which can be bought for £120 - £180 on Ebay.

These are a bit larger than a netbook but solidly built business laptops which would have cost £1000+ 4/5 years ago.

Now excellent value and much better for the 10 year old.

Hey there!

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