Okay,
So this is one of those opinion choices, but I'm a bit confused at what to buy.
So I am looking to buy a netbook for under 300 dollars, or as cheaply as possible, but I don't want to lose all of the possible features. So what I'm asking is, what is the best "bang" for the buck in terms of netbooks? What netbook is worth the cost?


Thanks,
Mitchell

Expected uses:
General Web Browsing/Word Processing
Web Design
Some Photo Editing.
--I hope its not too much to expect from a netbook.--

This couldn't hurt... unfortunately, it will only last until midnight tonight.

http://woot.com/ Acer Aspire

Okay, this one I can answer. Netbooks are one of the things that I sell at my day job. A netbook's primary function is for internet browsing - hence the moniker "netbook." That is an obvious statement and I don't mean to sound patronizing, but as nice as they are to have, don't expect them to pull the same load as a regular notebook computer.

I will grant that several netbooks are more powerful than some of the older notebooks lots of people still use.

The one biggest thing that I tell people who are thinking about one of these is to consider the CD/DVD drive. Usually, it ain't there and you have to use an external drive. Unless you're willing to pack along one of these of course, or just do without and work with what's on the HDD - something to keep in mind.

Web browsing and word processing, and probably the web design, should be no sweat. Photo editing, well, depending on the sizes and resolution of the files you will be editing, you might possibly run into some issues. Memory is not always upgradable in a netbook - some have the memory chips soldered into the motherboard. The bigger the source photo file, the more memory you'll need to manipulate it. Whichever model you're thinking about, research it and see if the memory is swappable or if it is soldered.

cheers...

Okay, thanks for the advice.
Since you sell them, which ones do you recommend I should look at for my "budget"? Any brands of preference?

Acer.

Dells are not bad but they tend to be the ones that have the soldered memory. Granted, all will have at least one model with that ailment. I'm not too crazy about the HP ones - but that is my personal opinion.

I was liking the Acer models myself,... I think that's what I'll be looking out for. Thanks,

Not a problem! Have fun - and tell me what you think about it when you get it.

I have an Acer Aspire One, which is not bad. I have the one that came with Windows, 8.9" screen, 1gb, 160gb hd...which I split in half to add Mandriva Gnome on it.

But I preferred a MSI Wind netbook. It comes with a 10" screen, alot of others do now. The keyboard is somewhat bigger than most others from what I hear.

I'm happy with my Dell Mini9 with OEM Ubuntu. I did spring for some extra RAMs and a larger HDD.

I wrote about it here:

http://www.geekazine.com/news/franks...netbook-review

I've since installed Opera on it, to my great satisfaction.