What I'd Like To See In A Netbook
Just in case there are any netbook manufacturers listening in, or employees of such manufacturers: What I'd really like to see is a netbook with a regular size screen. I've been shopping around some, and have so far been unable to find what I desire. What I mean by that is that I want a notebook with a low-power, inexpensive processor and modest memory. That will work fine if one runs an operating system such as FreeBSD. But I want at least a fourteen inch screen, preferably fifteen inch. The best advice anyone has been able to give me is to buy a budget laptop, or an older model, perhaps used. The older Apple PowerPC laptops are the closest to what I want. What I want to do with this big netbook is to troll community websites while hanging out at cafes, as well as working on my own websites, which are predominantly text - lots of essays and articles. I used to have a twelve inch Apple iBook, and it did work for me, but I now vastly prefer my fifteen inch MacBook Pro. The problem with the MacBook Pro is that it is a very expensive unit, it is the main source of my livelihood, and I fear it being damaged or stolen if I use it to troll all those community websites using the WiFi at Starbucks. So what I want is a second notebook just for cafe use, so I can leave my MacBook Pro at home. This big netbook needs to be inexpensive enough that it wouldn't be that big a deal if it were stolen, or seriously damaged. Just viewing web pages or writing in a text editor shouldn't require a lot of CPU power or memory. It wouldn't need CD/DVD or floppy drives. It wouldn't need Bluetooth, just 802.11 networking. It wouldn't need a webcam built into the lid. It wouldn't need a very big hard drive. Because the electronics would be low-power, it wouldn't need a fan. An Atom or ARM processor would be just fine for such a unit. If it were running FreeBSD or Linux, I expect that 512 MB would be *far* more than enough memory. I'm pretty sure that if someone were to actually produce such a big netbook, there would be lots more potential customers than just myself. I have actually considered purchasing one of the netbooks of today, but after looking them over, I have to say that their tiny screens would be very disruptive to my writing Muse. Thank You All For Humouring Me On This. Mike -- Michael David Crawford m...@prgmr.com prgmr.com - We Don't Assume You Are Stupid. Xen-Powered Virtual Private Servers: http://prgmr.com/xen ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: What I'd Like To See In A Netbook
On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 10:54:50AM -0700, Michael David Crawford wrote: Just in case there are any netbook manufacturers listening in, or employees of such manufacturers: What I'd really like to see is a netbook with a regular size screen. I've been shopping around some, and have so far been unable to find what I desire. What I mean by that is that I want a notebook with a low-power, inexpensive processor and modest memory. That will work fine if one runs an operating system such as FreeBSD. But I want at least a fourteen inch screen, preferably fifteen inch. That ain't a netbook. That is a fullsize laptop. jerry The best advice anyone has been able to give me is to buy a budget laptop, or an older model, perhaps used. The older Apple PowerPC laptops are the closest to what I want. What I want to do with this big netbook is to troll community websites while hanging out at cafes, as well as working on my own websites, which are predominantly text - lots of essays and articles. I used to have a twelve inch Apple iBook, and it did work for me, but I now vastly prefer my fifteen inch MacBook Pro. The problem with the MacBook Pro is that it is a very expensive unit, it is the main source of my livelihood, and I fear it being damaged or stolen if I use it to troll all those community websites using the WiFi at Starbucks. So what I want is a second notebook just for cafe use, so I can leave my MacBook Pro at home. This big netbook needs to be inexpensive enough that it wouldn't be that big a deal if it were stolen, or seriously damaged. Just viewing web pages or writing in a text editor shouldn't require a lot of CPU power or memory. It wouldn't need CD/DVD or floppy drives. It wouldn't need Bluetooth, just 802.11 networking. It wouldn't need a webcam built into the lid. It wouldn't need a very big hard drive. Because the electronics would be low-power, it wouldn't need a fan. An Atom or ARM processor would be just fine for such a unit. If it were running FreeBSD or Linux, I expect that 512 MB would be *far* more than enough memory. I'm pretty sure that if someone were to actually produce such a big netbook, there would be lots more potential customers than just myself. I have actually considered purchasing one of the netbooks of today, but after looking them over, I have to say that their tiny screens would be very disruptive to my writing Muse. Thank You All For Humouring Me On This. Mike -- Michael David Crawford m...@prgmr.com prgmr.com - We Don't Assume You Are Stupid. Xen-Powered Virtual Private Servers: http://prgmr.com/xen ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: What I'd Like To See In A Netbook
Michael David Crawford m...@prgmr.com writes: Just in case there are any netbook manufacturers listening in, or employees of such manufacturers: What I'd really like to see is a netbook with a regular size screen. I've been shopping around some, and have so far been unable to find what I desire. What I mean by that is that I want a notebook with a low-power, inexpensive processor and modest memory. That will work fine if one runs an operating system such as FreeBSD. But I want at least a fourteen inch screen, preferably fifteen inch. You're not likely to see anything like that until something new happens in display technology. The screen, small as it is, is already most of the parts cost of those netbook units, so putting a big screen on one would make it as expensive as a low-end real notebook. -- Lowell Gilbert, embedded/networking software engineer, Boston area http://be-well.ilk.org/~lowell/ ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
