RE: Re: Netbook support - status update?

[Joel Carnat <joel%carnat.net@localhost>]

Hi,

That would be an interesting thread to read because most of the dedicated blogs 
keep wondering what is a netbook :)

It used to be a "small, light and cheap laptop".
The first publically known netbook would be the ASUS Eee PC 701. This is a 7" 
wide screen running a Celeron 900Mhz with 2, 4 or 8GB ramdrive.
Then we got 9" screen from ASUS, running about the same specs.
Then Intel released the Atom and everybody start selling "netbooks", from 9" to 
11".
Those machines have been shipped with either Windows XP or some kind of Linux 
distributions.
Most of them could run NetBSD. The only issue were LAN and Wireless support.

What is commonly stated (on specialised blogs) is that SONY VAIO P is not a 
netbook (too expensive) but SONY VAIO W is.
There are a lot of discussion about 11" laptops. One claim it is a netbook 
because it runs Atom. Other claim it is too big to be a netbook. Most of the 
time, $500 is claimed to be the maximum price a netbook can reach.

With time and technology (nVidia ION, Broadcom HD PCI cards, Intel PineTrail), 
those machines became nearly as powerful as, for example, my Dell XPS M1330 
(with GM965) for daily (Mail, Web, Chat, movie watching...) usage. They now 
claim to be able to read HD movies and accelerated Flash stuff.

As PowerBook 100 were shipping 9" LCD and iBook were 12", I tend to consider 
that "netbook" is the short way to say "a small (<= 11" screen wide), light 
(less than 2KG) and power efficient machine (hear not running the latest 200 
cores processor requiring water-cooling and being able to last at least 4 hours 
on battery) that is far enough to read my mail, surf the web and do a bit of 
chatting".

I think a laptop is a netbook if the commercial says so.
In any case, it's just a computer :p

My two cents.
     Jo

-----Message initial-----
De: Richard Ibbotson <richard.ibbotson%gmail.com@localhost>
Envoyé: lun. 04-01-2010 10:40
À: netbsd-users%netbsd.org@localhost; port-i386%netbsd.org@localhost; 
Sujet: Re: Netbook support - status update?

> > For example, what is there about the EeePC 701 that makes it a
> > "netbook" but, say, my Tadpole 3GX, or Eurocom 2700T, or IBM
> >  WorkPad z50 not?  Size?  Weight?  Battery life?  Power
> >  consumption? Designation as such by its maker?
> 
> Size and weight.  You usually find that the screen is between 7 inches 
> and 10 inches.  Like all things in this world you get what you pay 
> for.  You want a brick that breaks your back whilst carrying it 
> through an airport ?  Get a laptop.   If you travel a lot you want a 
> netbook.  I carried a full size laptop for two years.  Life is a lot 
> easier with a smaller netbook.  10" screen.  Does everything I want it 
> to do.  Another example...
> 
> http://lemote.kd85.com/
> 
> OpenBSD version.  Earlier versions of the netbook had limited 
> hardware.  You have to look for cut down versions of software for 
> them.  My 701 only had a 4Gb hard drive.  My 1005HA has 160Gb hard 
> drive.  2GB of RAM.  Can do everything a full size laptop can do.
> 
> -- 
> Richard
>