I was wondering if anyone here on the forum using a netbook as their only computer? How will it work in the long run?

I did a while ago - I was abroad for work and broke my laptop but I still had EEE PC netbook. I worked on it for 2 weeks and it was absolutely awful in nearly every respect - I typed slower, I couldn't multi-task well (it did not have the power to handle heavy Java applications simultaneously) and some applications simply did not fit well on the screen slowing me even further (Inkscape was one of them).

Hi linman321,

I do use netbook but not as my only system. I do have other system which I use as per my requirement. Netbook is good for traveling. I mean if you want your small lab setup with you on the move then netbook is good. It is good for things if they are at small scale. I would prefer a powerful laptop/desktop if I am looking for something that will involve high end graphics or a big lab setup under VM or any other similar stuff.

Netbooks usually come with less powerful processors and less RAM. So they are good for small scale stuff, you know what I mean.

In a nutshell for people who keep traveling and want to travel light then netbook is pretty good. If you are planning to use netbook as your primary machine then as per me not a good deal to go with.

I am considering it. The main reason is that compilation time on my netbook is just about as fast as on my desktop, so there's not much need for my desktop except for encoding videos, which I don't do much anymore.

I would have liked a better video card, but the current ION2 that I have can play 720p h264 videos without problems, so that is enough. Flash games are sometimes slow as well.

I've tweaked the performance on it a lot and it has gotten pretty fast. I think it is good enough, but I would have liked something faster.

@linman321

I use an Asus Eee PC frequently (i.e. daily) for work. But it's not my primary - or only - computer.

Answering your question anyway, because I want to point out a couple things:

• Intel Atom is a nice low-power CPU, but if you have processing needs greater than watching a streaming video, you're not going to be happy.
• If you are going to need to RDP to Windows servers or VNC to desktop environments, you're going to pull your hair out. (Netbook resolutions are too small, and it's maddening to try to navigate a remote environment larger than 640x480.)
• The keyboard - even the recent generation, larger type - takes some getting used to. If you have big hands, like me, expect to lose ~30% on your WPM.
• Unless you get the SSD (which, sadly, are much more rare now), disk I/O sucks. This manifests itself in annoying ways - like making regular package updates take an extra long time.

That's the list of caveats and warnings from my perspective. But there's good news, too -- netbooks are inexpensive! They're light and easy to carry everywhere. And they allow you to run a full-on, real OS, with a full QWERTY keyboard (unlike the iOS device bull%#$* everyone seems so fond of).

I use my netbook mainly for two purposes:

1. Run a web browser (which means I can check email, and access all manner of web apps)
2. Run a terminal (which means I can ssh in to any system I need to manage)

For that use, it's a beautiful thing.

*I just wanted to hear what people on this forum said to use a netbook as their only computer. For my part I have a asus eeepc and a samsung galaxy tab that is my hardware at the moment. Can say it's my tablet that is mostly used.

I use an Atom N280 netbook. It's plenty fast for basic routine tasks. It originally had XP on it, but runs much better with Linux. Flash is slow, but if you use a low quality flash plugin, it plays 360p content ok.

Now if you're looking for something now, the newer netbooks run A LOT faster than the older ones. I just got the HP dm1z and it runs as well as a lot of the laptops out there. Even better if you need graphics acceleration. The open-source graphics work great with the recent releases as well.

The biggest bottleneck in todays netbooks are the hard drives. The HP Dm1z I got had a 7800rpm hard drive as an upgrade option. That's definitely one you want. And graphics, you want something with a Zacate APU, or an Intel Atom with Nvidia Ion graphics.

I use a netbook as my primary (not only) computer.
I have a full-size monitor and keyboard for it, when I'm at home.

My netbook is an asus eeepc 1001px with a 40 gb ssd and upgraded to 2gb of ram. it work ok. but the resolution that cold be better.

I use my netbook when I travel, and although the screen is small, there often is an LCD screen at the hotel that is bigger and that has an HDMI port, so I usually use that. Of course, there are hotels that have old TVs.

My Asus EeePC 901 has been my main computer since I bought it new in 2008. It has the old Atom n270 1.6ghz, Intel 945GME chipset, 2gb of RAM and 20gb of SSD.

As others have said, Flash video performance is not ideal, 360p is smooth and if I overclock the video chipset 480p is fine too. Of course, that is Flash's failure, with plain h.264 in mplayer2 I can play 1080p smoothly.

I do have a home server for file storage, so the 20gb SSD is not an issue.

The keyboard is smaller than most netbooks, but I find I can type just as fast on here as I can on a full size laptop or desktop keyboard. It is all about getting used to it.

It all depends on what you use it for, I don't need very much power, so it suits me very well.

Same here. When my C2D died on me, I had to use my AAO as main computer until I bought the IBM listed in my sig. I used a full size keyboard and monitor and it took a licking and kept on ticking.