Hey everybody,

I'm trying to figure out what to do: upgrade my PowerBook or buy a netbook. Good thoughts are appreciated!

Currently I have a 12" PowerBook G4 (1.5 Ghz) dual booted with Ubuntu and Tiger. Ubuntu works well, but I must use IBM Java (I don't know if that's a problem yet), no Flash, no sleep mode, no right clicking, no two finger scrolling (but that's not a terrible). Tiger works as expected, but I'm stuck with Java 1.5. The battery currently lasts about 30 minutes and I have 512 MB of RAM installed. Also, I've been randomly getting kernel panics here and there.

If I were to upgrade my PowerBook I'd wipe the drive and do a fresh install of Leopard. I'd also buy a new battery and upgrade the RAM to a Gig. This would put me in the hole $300 + shipping and taxes.

Pluses: Cheapest of my two options. Extends my PowerBook's life for another 2 years or so. I get Java 1.6 with Leopard.

Minuses: Snow Leopard will probably not include G4's and that will probably be released in June. Being said, it never seems to be a good idea to run OSX for too long without having the latest release.

If I choose to keep my PowerBook as an over-sized semi-stationary iPod and go for the HP Mini 1000 that I've been eying, that will put me in the hole $550 + shipping and taxes. This gives me an Intel Atom 1.6 Ghz CPU and (seemingly) a very linux friendly system. I would get the 16 GB SSD (I wouldn't care to store much music or media on my netbook), 2 Gigs of RAM, Bluetooth, 10.2 in. screen, Intel wireless g, Intel graphics

Pluses: New! So, new 6 cell battery, 2 Gigs of RAM and a SSD. It has a nearly full sized keyboard (92%). Very light. Color = Black!

Minuses: More expensive but still on budget. Screen resolution is 1024x600, so I'd be loosing 128 pixals of vertical screen real estate -- compared to my PowerBook. Doesn't come with wireless N but neither does my PowerBook. No DVD drive, but I could care less. I'd only use it to install Zenwalk on it anyways :P I'd also have to wait until January to get the 1000.

Either way, I'd be using my (Power|net)book to take notes in class, surf the web, check e-mail, and program (specifically in Java).

This is a tough decision for me. I could go either way, both would be great, but for that, I'd be getting close to the price of a new MacBook. If you were in this situation, what would you do?

I'm thinking real hard about the acer aspire one. Second place, the classmate pc that's coming out with a touch screen. Supposed to be out in January. The aspire one is prettier.

I'd go with the newer machine of your choice....

David

You may wish to refer to this review of various netbooks for additional input:

http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20081105...nto-their-own/

You could also grab some extra memory off of crucial or kingston.

Yopu could also grab a scratch and dent of the dell outlet.

Another alternative is:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...L0B-_-34114528

Use Promo Code EMCBBAEDB for an extra $50.00 Off

Total Price $549.00 plus shipping.

Try this eeepc from tigerdirect/Compusa.

Thanks for the replies!!

I've decided to buy the HP Mini 1000 and keep my PowerBook around for my iTunes needs. I may still do the PowerBook upgrade down the road (maybe just the RAM and battery) if I ever decide it needs to hit the road with me. At the very least, it'll be nice to have a notebook that I can be confident that it will be in stable condition all the time. Then also have another to play around with. I can't tell you how many times I've re-installed Linux and Mac OS X on the PB. :P