Netbook advice

[davidn]

As part of a very planned-in-advance and non-surprise birthday present this year, we're thinking about getting me a netbook to replace my increasingly confused and decrepit laptop. The idea is to get something light and with a good battery life to do MS Office and Internet-type things, run Dosbox and possibly MMF, as I'm still going to be using my desktop for anything heavier than that.

The trouble is I've no idea about netbooks, other than (now) that 1024x600 seems to be a pretty standard resolution for them. We went out today to Micro Center, an electronics place that was somehow transported forward in time from the late 80s, and the Acer Aspire One d255e seemed like it fit most of the above requirements, though reviews for it online are a bit mixed. Does anyone have any brand recommendations over any others?

Thanks for any thoughts.

Comments

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

1 GB of RAM is not enough, even for a netbook. My parents learned that the hard way when they bought that same model.

[davidn]

I saw a lot of 2GB upgrade instructions for it as the first Google result...! I can already tell this isn't going to be as easy a decision as the graphics card was, when I asked about that - perhaps I'll take the suggestion for more memory and combine it with some other brand names other people have put forward...

[goodbyebartleby.livejournal.com]

I really love my Asus EEEPC. It does everything you say you want to do, even runs MMF via Ubuntu and Wine. And this is the old 900 model. The newer ones are probably amazing.

[ethelfleda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not technically inclined but my eeepc has put up with a lot of abuse over the past couple of years (being in the bottom of my bag a lot) and is still working great. Tough little bugger :)

[davidn]

I'd actually sort of overlooked the EEEPCs, though they look pretty good by specification. The operating system hurdle would be my only hesitation (though at the same time I'd wondered if getting a Windows-capable machine would be too much for what I'm going to be using it for normally, if MMF's workable).

[dr-dos.livejournal.com]

As Ravenworks said 1 gig sounds awful for running Windows 7.

I've got a nice little Aspire One that's running XP with a gig of ram and it will fill up if firefox decides it needs to bloat.

Plus I was under the impression netbooks had moved on to 1024x768, an actual resolution instead.

I love my little netbook though and have definitely done plenty of schoolwork on it in the past, and in fact I bring it and use it at work since all I need is Programmer's Notepad and Firefox (and I have a 2nd monitor to connect it with).

Keep watching woot, as they seem to sell netbooks every other week.

[davidn]

Perhaps I'll look for the larger resolution... though perhaps not, if it means going up in physical size as well! Part of my problem here is I'm torn between getting something very, very light and portable, and getting something with a small amount of clout behind it.

And that's a decent idea, thanks!

[stubbleupdate.livejournal.com]

In the last 6 years I've not looked beyond Acer for laptop/netbooks

[davidn]

I've got two monitors with their name on them, I know that much! Though I can tell that this isn't going to be an easy decision, with a lot of conflicting ideas... I'll have to look at some more of them "in person".