>$500 budget. > >Should we go with win xp? I fear that 7 would be too much for the specs. > What about the ones with linux? Not sure if I would want to recommend that >because of the learning curve.
Personally for a $500 budget, I'd get a netbook with 2 gig Ram and Win 7. The Asus 1201N is one of the best out there now at that price, with a dual core Atom, 2 gig, and Win 7 Home Premium, and sells for just under that price. I have a 2 gig gateway myself and it runs Win 7 Home Premium just fine. I do disable a lot of the Aero features to eek out the best performance I can get. Battery life on the better performing units will tend to be lower, but still easily outdoes your typical laptop. I would estimate 4-5 hours on mine. Ubuntu is certainly an option if you go with a 1 gig device instead, whether it comes installed or not, but yeah, it does have a learning curve particularly for less computer-savvy users that may be very used to Windows, and your experience can vary. My trial period with it was pretty rocky, and I finally went back to Windows (after 7 was released). Many people though love it and it certainly is very well suited to the netbook specs. They do even have a special netbook remix version, although I personally preferred the normal desktop version. Many of the 1 gig netbooks are using Windows 7 Starter which has been pretty universally panned, so definitely avoid that if possible. --- Mary Jo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:313046 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
