I Got A New Netbook!

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I just bought an Asus Aspire One netbook from Wal-Mart. I absolutely love it. I can surf the web and play classic PC games (like StarCraft!) from the living room when my wife makes me watch TV shows I don't like! I'm so glad I got it. I was going crazy from being cut off from my primary Aspie obsession (computers) all of the time. I think this is one of my favorite purchases since I got my iPod.

Just wanted to share.

I really wouldn't mind a netbook, mainly to shove a whole bunch of emulators on, maybe a light linux distribution...

I begin to think most of our modern personal computers are way overpowered. I have 4 GB of RAM and a 2.2GHz 64-bit processor. I mostly use this machine for web browsing, e-mail, and word processing. The same tasks were completed just fine a decade ago with a fraction of the computing power.

I've got an overpowered desktop rig, too. I mainly use it for gaming and 3D modeling apps, etc. This little netbook is just great, though. And it runs just fine, too. There's really no difference in performance between this and my desktop as far as web browsing and other such tasks.

I think you meant Acer Aspire one. I bought one a few months ago and am still in love with it
even if it is a bit buggy with certain APPs.

Oops, yes, I did mean Acer. I haven't had any app problems with it. Did you get one with WinXP or a Linux distro?

Win XP, but I am thinking of making this machine dual boot. lau is running Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on his
after Linpus (a "Proprietary Linux" ditributed by Acer) broke down in the middle of an upgrade. He has had
a few minor bugs with it such as LEDs not lighting and he installed a script for dealing with the fan.

I thought about buying a netbook. are they relatively cheap? does anyone know what operating system comes installed on it?

Cheaper than a full laptop, in most cases. Mine was $300 at Wal-Mart. The OS depends on the model you buy. Some have WinXP, some have Linux. I think I've even seen some with Vista.

I reported elsewhere ( http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt89864.html ) that Microsoft
is developing Windows 7 for netbooks. If Win 7 is anything like Vista, this would be a travesty.
The whole point of a net-book is a minimum PC with a minimmal amount of OS for maximum
internet use.

The OS depends on the price you pay. It costs extra to downgrade from Linpus to XP.

It also costs extra to downgrade from silent SSD to noisy HDD.

Upgrading to 1.5Gyte RAM was somewhat of a nightmare, but doable.

i've never heard of linpus. is it its own version of linux or is it based on some linux distro? i try to avoid having to buy computer with windoze preloaded. would prefer something like debian preloaded.

Yes Windows 7 is going to be a lot like Vista

....except they finished it this time...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linpus_Linux

It's Fedora based. I played with it for a while, then let it do its "update", and that was the last I saw of it. I'm not too sure what went wrong. I didn't like it that much, although it seemed to present a pretty good front end for a newcomer to Linux - hiding most of the detail behind a straightforward UI.

From a game programming perspective though... It'd be cool if they were even more powerful yet. A lot of times decisions made have to be a tradeoff between memory usage or efficiency. A lot of "shortcuts" have to be taken(primarily with 3d games) and even though they try to do their best to hide it, sometimes it does show.