Hi,
My daughter spilled my entire cup of coffee on top of my Asus 901 the other day ): So I'm looking for a replacement. There seems to be a lot of development activity the netbook market right now. The Atom N280 can be had for a premium - it's got a 667Mhz FSB (The Z550 operates at 2GHz!). Then there are the ARM chips coming down the pipe. The Cortex-A8, available soon, but to be immediately supplanted in the spring by the '-A9 (Apple iTablets, anyone?). I would like all of the above so that I don't feel like I'm missing anything of course.

I use the netbook for it's designed purposes, mostly, but I would also like to use it for data analysis periodically. Does anybody have any recommendations on which netbook (past or near future) that would suit my needs? Currently I am looking at the Dell Mini and the Asus 1000 something. I didn't like the Xandros distro on the 901 much since it slowly broke over time, and it handled the wifi terribly. The ubuntu netbook remix worked great on it, though, which is why I'm looking at the Dell.

...And I do not know how to delete it.

No worries -- I'll request that it be moved to "Laptop & Netbook" for you.


Sasha

Be careful with the Dell Mini 10. There are 2 versions, a Mini 10 & Mini 10v. You should get the Mini 10v. Cuz the Mini 10 uses the Z5XX chip with Poulsbo graphics which are horrible on Linux.
I'd say avoid the Z chips entirely.

My dad recently got himself a netbook..

I actually definitely recommend getting an Asus 1000 series... preferably the 1005.. If you can find the 1005 Premium, that would be a good choice.. It uses the N70 chip I believe.. Atom N70. Which is a fairly good chip.

The netbook also has good battery life (incredible actually).. it "boasts 8.5 hour battery life".. I'd guess it comes very near to that.

And Ubuntu Remix works like a charm on it (and i LOVE THE INTERFACE! (: )

If it's unusable, you might consider slowly pouring a bottle of club soda over it to try to revive it. Club soda is a good solvent for sugar and most water soluble contaminants. It's especially good for old-style keyboards with sticky keys. Use a hairdryer to dry it afterward. Don't overheat with the hairdryer. Remove the battery first, of course.

When you say data analysis can you expand a little? I had a netbook but got rid of it because it just could not do everything I wanted it to. But for surfing the intertubes, email, and all that good stuff it worked. It even made a good portable dvd player

And one suggestion, get one that has the shift key in better placement. That was my biggest frustration. (Just looked up the dell 10v and the shift key looks to be normal size.)

Thanks for your reply, jstephens84.

I am an Optics Technologist by trade. This job requires a lot of test and measurement where I need to manage fairly large data sets. Currently, I perform most of my calculations in MS Excel, which can be excruciating at times. I've since discovered SciLab and would like to learn how to utilize it in place of spreadsheet calculations. Generally speaking, the most sophisticated functions I perform on the data are FFT smoothing, curve fits, interpolations, and the like. Most of the time I am using simple statistical functions.

I hadn't gotten around to working with SciLab on my EEEpc 901 so I don't know what it was capable of in terms of my number-crunching requirements. I believe the upcoming ARM processors would suit my requirements more than the Atom chips, but I have no frame of reference. Do you have any insights that may help me?

Well I don't think I will have a lot of insights that could help you. But if you require processor intensive stuff I think the netbook might have you wishing for a little more.

Again my only experience with it was using it for programming, ripping cd's, and the normal web and email stuff. But there were several times it just seemed like it wasn't enough for me.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Laptop & Netbooks and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.