Have you heard of netbooks?

If you haven’t yet, you will. A netbook is basically a smaller notebook computer that is CHEAP and miniaturized. How cheap you ask? 

Well I just picked up an Acer Aspire One this weekend from Staples for $299 US [Model: AOA150-1635]. This model included a 120 GB HD, webcam, 2 card reader slots and that includes Microsoft XP home as part of the package [which aint free!]

Why the Aspire One? Well I tried the EEE PC that Target had for $249 US and was horrified at how unusable the keyboard was. Sure it’s got to be smaller than a normal keyboard but it also has to be usable! That and the build quality left a lot to be desired.

Some folks recommended the Dell Mini 9 netbook which is getting a lot of press. The Dell looks like a good machine but when I added in all of the peripherals that the Acer had the price shot to above what I wanted to pay. My price point for a netbook was sitting at around $300. Above that and it seemed to be too close to the price of full laptops nowadays.

When I stopped in at my local Staples store, they had the Aspire One on display and the build quality, looks, and keyboard feel were way ahead of the EEE PC making it well worth the $50 premium over the EEE PC. I got mine in blue.

Being somewhat of a glutton for punishment, within hours of taking the Aspire One home, I was installing the Linpus lite distribution that Acer created for the Aspire One. I would have bought it over the XP version Acer sells but no one had it locally so I had to install it as part of a multi-boot system. After a few hours of tinkering and with a lot of reference material from the excellent aspire one users forums. After a day or so I had a triple boot system that had XP Home, Linpus Lite, and Ubuntu.

Of course my glory was short lived when Nerstalker a.k.a. @aforonda said:

“meh, get mac os on there then i’ll stand up and salute”

Not today I wont.

There’s always tomorrow though.

You may be asking, as some friends did, why a netbook when you have a Macbook white 13″?

Well, to be honest, I use the macbook as my main machine. Having to unplug it and plug it when I want to browse and tweet from the couch was overkill. That plus the heat of the machine made it uncomfortable for extended use on my lap. It is just too much machine for the light browsing and tinkering one does when vegging on the couch. That plus it is not really one to throw in the bag when travelling without feeling like you’re taking your life in your hands. What if it got stolen? Of course I do time machine backups but who wants that drama?

I took the netbook into the city recently and couldn’t help but notice that my anxiety about having a computer on the road was greatly diminshed. The difference between having a $299 laptop or a $1200 laptop stolen is HUGE. These netbooks are as close to disposable as one can get while still being useful.

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