What does the "netbook" craze tell us about the future of laptops | Hacker News Reader

What does the "netbook" craze tell us about the future of laptops

slate.com

13 pointsraghus10 comments

"More importantly, netbooks need better operating systems - in particular, a very fast, mobile operating system that can download and install trusted applications on the fly, over the air."

Dell netbooks _already_ ship with Ubuntu installed.

The fact that he hasn't given it a go speaks to two failures:

- Most system builders putting WTF Linux distributions on their devices. Some are really bad.

- System builders advertising Windows as the high end choice and mostly only making Linux available on crippled hardware configurations.

Still, at least the hardware is all Linux compatible, so I can sit here installing trusted apps over 3G with one click while he waits for his perfect OS to show up :)

I've given Linux a go, it's a bag of crap even ubuntu. I'll stick with a real product like Windows or OS X where I don't have to do BS I haven't needed to do since DOS.

I'm glad you're happy with Linux, but I believe the rest of the world just doesn't care about it and never will.

People tend to make simple things too complicated, and also completely misunderstand the market. Netbooks are selling for two reasons:

1. They are small 2. They are cheap

That's it. People want small laptops so they can take them to school, and those same people are the people who don't have money.

The people don't want linux on their laptops. People just want things to work the way they are used to, and that would be either Mac OS or Windows.

I can barely write with a pen anymore. I sure as hell don't want to use a table PC, which is as slow as hell.

The last paragraph however has something interesting - android could very well be the new OS for small PCs, if an app store comes up there, and the google does not control this store too tightly.

Am I the only one who bought a netbook, realized it was so small that I couldn't fit a complete thought on the screen and had problems trying to type with it, so decided it was of more use to me as a paperweight than a portable computing device? (Kidding about the paperweight bit -- it'll be going to my nephew).

You aren't the only one. I can't use a netbook, even a macbook (11" keyboard) is uncomfortable (my shoulders are 24"). I barely notice the weight of a macbook, however.

I recently met a girl who can fit both of her hands into one of mine. Her 12-13" shoulders probably fit an 8" keyboard very nicely. Her first thought about my macbook was "heavy". Netbooks are made for her, not us.

When you see ads for a netbook emphasizing cuteness, buy shares in whoever is selling them.

7'' touchscreen tablet that can run a browser : Dont the Archos 7 Internet Tablet fit the bill? (Its sadly a closed platform though. No SDK which is really sad).

http://www.archos.com/products/imt/archos_7/index.html?count...

At the moment, the laptop market is dominated by two kinds of machines: a bunch of cheap netbooks that don't do much, and a bunch of expensive Apple notebooks that do a lot and do it very well.

Huh? Oh, okay:

(Seven of the top 25 best-selling laptops on Amazon are MacBooks.)

Word to the wise, Slate: Serious people don't buy laptops on Amazon.com. newegg's bestsellers consists of computers of roughly equal or greater power of MacBooks:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE...

What makes you think Amazon is less reflective of the market as a whole than NewEgg? The lack of netbooks in NewEgg's top sellers would seem to suggest otherwise.

Also, define "serious people". Are people who buy MacBooks or netbooks "not serious"?

the article suffers from 'bigger is better' and 'expensive is better'

back around 5 years ago, the smaller the laptop, the more expensive it was -- eeepc would have sold for $2000+ if she was available back then ... see sony vaio prices etc

asus disrupted the industry by following apple (smaller mac is cheaper) pricing model

basically making luxury into commodity

so imho netbooks win not (solely) because it's cheap ... there are bigger, more powerful laptops priced like netbook but those don't sell as much ... what gives?

3G netbooks will win big (against cellphones), disrupting telecommunication (now you can be online anywhere, and make cheap long/international call using skype and/or usual way using SIM card, paying carriers if you wish)

Is the TechCrunch crew still planning on releasing a tablet?

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