Kao

I've never really been one for laptops, but I'm intrigued by the small size, portability, and general basic-ness of netbooks. It seems like it would be a nice little machine to own if one simply wants to access the internet, write some documents, watch some movies on the go, do a little programming, or have a computer on hand while on a trip to Japan (or something ).

I've done a little shopping around, and I have found a system I hope would suit my needs fairly well. The price and battery life are good, and the system specs seem alright as well.

One of my main reservations, however, is that this particular system (and many of these netbooks now, actually) comes with Windows 7 Starter, which I'm not thrilled about. Unlike XP Home (the other OS these netbooks seem to come packaged with fairly often), it doesn't have any DVD decoders built in. While there is no disc tray on this system, I was planning on copying over some of my iso files and using Daemon Tools to mount the disc images for DVD playback. Although Windows 7 doesn't come with any decoders, this particular package states that it comes with Cyberlink DVD, which should have decoders... right?

The other thing I don't like about Windows 7 Starter is you don't have the option to change your desktop image. What's that all about?

Still, even if these things prove to be issues, perhaps I could install the copy XP Professional that came with my desktop? Or maybe I could install my copy of Windows 7 Professional (but do you think a system like this with 1GB of RAM would even handle Windows 7 Pro very well?).

Do any of you have any insights or related experiences you could share with me? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Ben

You picked the right one, I was just going to post "Acer" and leave it at that if you weren't sure what to go with.

Windows 7 Starter is a joke, so you do want to upgrade. I don't think you'd run into any issues with Windows 7 Pro, it's actually pretty lightweight, the minimum requirements are even less than Vista.

Muffin Mage

You could polyboot OSX and every Linux build ever made and it'd take less system resources than Vista.

And speaking of Linux, you should be able to get most netbooks with some build or other. I only got mine with XP because I'm still too lazy to learn Linux.

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Current mood: Slaying your children, stealing your women and cattle, and setting fire to your miserable collection of huts.

Gizmo the Airman

Kao, you should convert those iso files to mp4 with something like Handbrake. Handbrake is primarily an OS X app, but there are Windows and Linux builds as well.

Because of the netbook's small screen size, you can also wind the resolution of your movie down to save a lot of space. It also saves precious battery life.

Other than that, I guess any netbook is fine really, nowadays. You can probably get an even cheaper netbook if you find one with Linux rather than Windows.

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Coffee, tea or me?

Kao

Thanks for the tips, guys.

I don't think I'd want to make the switch to linux, but I'm hopeful that should Win7 Starter be too lacking, I can just put XP or 7 Pro on there without too much trouble. I'd just hate to drop money on something only to find that it's not capable of what I hoped to use it for.

The Teej

I have an Acer Aspire Laptop, and they're awesome. I have no doubt the netbook variants are of a similar quality. Go for it!

EDIT: Unless, of course, you can hold off for a year - we'll eventually be getting dual-core 1.5Ghz SnapDragon processors running Google Android by this time next year, almost guaranteed.

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Gizmo the Airman

Alternatively........

Apple is going to announce the iPad next week. It's a tablet computer and their answer on the whole netbook craze. However, considering this is Apple, you're probably going to have to bring a considerate amount of money with you.

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Coffee, tea or me?

Muffin Mage

The point of the netbook is that it's cheap. Get your shitty overpriced Apple crap out of here. No one wants it.

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Current mood: Slaying your children, stealing your women and cattle, and setting fire to your miserable collection of huts.

ifm2181

This. A netbook is a small, relatively cheap, bare-bones miniature computer.

If you can find a slightly older one, it'll usually come with XP SP3, stripped down for netbook use. Though I don't mind Windows 7, obviously stick with what you're familiar with.

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Kao

I put in my order on Friday for that one I linked to earlier. I'll probably install Win7 Pro or XP Pro on it. I think it will work out very nicely I'll let you know when I get it.

Pinflan_Jinglewit

A netbook should probably be able to handle 7 Pro well enough if you turn off most of the eye candy.

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Kao

I am now watching Lawrence of Arabia on my awesome, new netbook.

This thing is pretty cool! I'm getting used to the touch pad and the new Windows 7 interface, but it hasn't been too terrible of a hassle so far. Mostly I've just been breaking the system in a bit--uninstalling all the default crap and putting in my own stuff (i.e. installing Chrome, copying music and video files to the system, etc).

My biggest frustration so far, however, has been getting DVDs to play back on this thing. Windows 7 Starter doesn't have DVD support built in, so I bought a DVD decoder and installed Daemon Tools so I could mount the disc images on a virtual drive (which was being detected by McAfee as a virus until I updated). However, despite all my efforts, Windows Media Player continued to insist that the discs were of the wrong region. Fortunately, I finally got it working by using a different media player.

All in all, I am happy with my purchase and I'm excited to be able to play media and access the internet in places I wouldn't normally be able to.

but really, irc is great

If you are set on using WMP, try installing the ffdshow tryouts codec pack. Just an idea, don't know if it will *really* work.

ifm2181

Or if you want to use something better, try the K-Lite codec pack, which comes with Media Player Classic. I can play anything on that thing, and it's better than VLC.

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Gizmo the Airman

Congrats on your new purchase Kao good to hear things are working out as they should!

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Coffee, tea or me?