Which Netbook?

[FaeMinx]

Now, with my laptop broken and my new i7 desktop sitting far away in St. Francis Bay (I refuse to bring it to Coffee Bay due to the severe rusting and breakdown of electronics that happens here)... I've had to make do solely with my Pandora.


It hasn't been that bad, with swap enabled, I can do some basic internet and downloading... But I'm not very skilled tech wise and can't get around and use Linux with the same level of productivity that most of you do.


I miss the familiarity of windows. There were many tasks I useto do on my laptop to make life on my Pandora easier and faster.


I'm starting to think a compact Netbook running, say for instance, WinXP with good battery life would be a good companion to my lifestyle and be an ideal go-between for my Pandora and Win 7 desktop.


My primary use for it would be as a writing device (hence the need for a sufficient battery), browsing the internet with a fair but not unreasonable amount of tabs open, and downloading / decompressing content.


I have no experience with Netbooks whatsoever, and will be looking to get one in about 4 months time.


So can anyone give me suggestions regarding best value for longest battery life with enough ram and processing power to be useful?

 

[mattman]

http://www.genesi-europe.com/store/eu/


i havent heard anything Terrible about these.


also anything Toshiba or Acer are good netbooks/laptops


acer own e-machines so you can get a good product there and have a high build quality.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Lenovo thinkpad. Simply the best laptops. Try to find one with mate screen.

 

[slaeshjag]

http://www.genesi-europe.com/store/eu/


i havent heard anything Terrible about these.


also anything Toshiba or Acer are good netbooks/laptops


acer own e-machines so you can get a good product there and have a high build quality.

I beg to differ, Acer is the lowest quality brand I've ever had the unfortune to be a customer of. Asus netbook like has pretty crap build quality as well.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Indeed, Acer and Asus are not really good. Dell, Sony, Packard-Bell are ugly too. I always perform lspci, lsmod etc. when having a PC to repair. Sony components are incredibly cheap.


I'll also add that everybody should avoid "multimedia" computers. They are designed to fail after two years.


Buy only pro series if you go for a Toshiba or HP.


And i say again: do not but glossy screen, choose a matte. Reflections just kill the eyes.

 

[TDT]

I used the acer aspire 1 netbook for a few years, then sold it to a friend who has used it well over a year.


I, personally, like them. They are dirt cheap (US 350-450ish) and "get the job done" when it comes to at least basic computing. Then again, I installed Arch linux on mine, and use a tiling window manager (bypassing the trackpad..which kinda sucks on te acers).


Since you're in an area that has high corrosion issues, getting the cheapest you can find is probably the wisest thing...that way, if it breaks early, then so be it.

 

[slaeshjag]

Acer seems to be miles ahead on netbooks that on normal laptops, but still not good imo. Hardware is really quirky and so far, my keyboard has failed mechanically twice. Luckily, it's easy to replace and not very expenisve, unlike my EEEpc 901's keyboard... One drop of water and it's ruined, and a new one is like $70 + shipping...

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Seems you had your own private tsunami ^^.