I am soon going to make the decision to sell my HP TX2500 laptop, and invest into something more suited for my purposes.
I'm considering these netbooks because all I want to do with it really is emailing, word processing (but require most office applications), web browsing, music.
I've lost track since the Asus Eee came out, and I know that HP also have one as well that looks quite convincing. So, I need advise on what brand to get, and more importantly, what operating system. Some HP's come with MS OS's but what about the Linux OS on these machines - can they accommodate my requirements as I've mentioned?
That's the linux OS it has. It comes with most office apps you'll need.
EDIT:
Should also mention that you can unlock the Eee's from "easy mode" into full desktop mode, where it gives you a full blown KDE desktop. It's simple to do, there are tons of guides that explain it.
Ok, so I just got my wife one of these. It's an asus (I don't think in my right mind that I could recommend anything else) a 1000he I think (either way, the newest 10" version, 160gb hdd and xp). The thing is pretty nice. She has office 07 pro, and can even use access and power point without any trouble (upgraded the ram though).
Drawbacks: small right shift key drives me nuts (has the nice sony/mac style raised keys though). Also has a small screen (used to 24" and 13.3") and it is slow as hell. Now slow don't matter so much for web and simple word shit. But from my rig to the asus it drives me nuts. My lappy is a mac (it was her's too but the asus was "cute" and small, also, who can argue against 9 hours battery, my phone can't match that, tmobile g1).
Short answer hers does the trick and she loves it, and it was cheap ($350 at the egg), but it is slow, the screen is small, and I would rather write out my excel sheets by hand thanuse it.
Hasn't the Asus been overtaken by various othet netbooks such as the HP and some from Acer? The newer 10-inch ones appear to be running Vista, and some come with an option of XP or Linux (Suse).
The HP doesn't have that keyboard issue, they've made a 92% keyboard, which is almost the size of a full keyboard and more importantly, it has all the keys in the right place. Their 10inch systems are quite smaller than their rivals.
I like to use Outlook to manage my 7 mailboxes, not webmail. So, in other words, the closest I can get it to run programs of that of a normal PC, the better.
What about the OS - should I be wanting Vista, or XP, maybe Linux?
you should probably skip vista unless the netbooks have at least 2 gigs of memory. Linus would probably be faster than XP but linux can take some getting used to.
I would go for XP as its an OS I'm used to using and it can run pretty much any program unless the program is mac only (I don't know about linux).
Program is called WINE.
And 99% of the time there is a open source program that will read/write do anything to MS files you want. And 99% of the time the programs are better. (IMO I guess)
If your considering a Eee, the "easy mode" desktop is super super simple. They have a factory restore setting, so if you mess up anything you hold down [F2] while booting, make you selection, and literally like 15seconds later you have you fully restored Eee back to factory settings.
But Linux can be tricky in some spots, I admit. Just depends I guess on what your doing. But with what you described (email, office apps, etc) they are extremely capable, and easy to use.
I've had my first gen Eee for a good time now, and my biggest complaint is probably the keyboard. BUT, the new ones are larger, and much easier to type on IMO. But ours had been running like a champ. And while the main rig was down a couple months back I hooked up my 20" LCD, Razor mouse, and gaming keyboard and it actually was pretty nifty. Didn't have to do anything but plug them in and go.
Well I know my wife got the eee 1000he, which is the newest version that has a new keyboard layout (which overcomes the previous keyboard issues) and the fastest atom processor available (1.66ghz as opposed to the standard 1.6ghz). According to cnet the new asus is the fastest performing, and has the best battery of the netbooks currently available. In short, it does the job, but consider your purposes and needs, because a $500 standard size laptop will be able to perform better, though it will be bigger, heavier, and not get anywhere near the battery life.
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