I’ll start this with a quick definition of types of computer “form factors” or the amount of floor or desk space a computer takes up.

First, the one that most of us are most familiar with, the desktop which takes up a larger amount of space on your desktop or possibly floor.  Next, the one that (this comment will generate disagreement but I’m right on this one) people mostly confuse, laptop.  A laptop was around for a short period of time in the early ’90s and due to battery size it took up your entire thigh…therefore the name.

Next in the list is the notebook that most people incorrectly refer to as a laptop.  It was named because it is about the size of a spiral bound notebook although much thicker than most of the paper ones.  In actuality it is larger than a notebook but much smaller than a laptop, again due to battery sizes now being much smaller.

Finally, we arrive at netbook which came about from the “One Laptop per Child Association” last year.  These were originally called sub-notebooks but that changed in 2007 when ASUS came out with their ASUS Eee PC.  For my birthday & Christmas (yes, one week apart) I got an Acer Aspire One netbook.  The size is small and I like it.  It measures about 10.75″ x 6.75″ x 1.25″ and weights a little under two pounds.  Compared to my now dead notebook it is super small and light and that makes me happy since I usually carry it around with me.

It also has a 120GB hard drive and decent speed and memory.  I really can’t complain as it suits all of my needs.  Now I have to come up with a few cons since I am really pro-netbook!

The keyboard and screen are a little smaller than I am used to.  It took less than an hour to get used to them but I find both of them very satisfactory now.  Due mainly to the 1GB of RAM it will run Windows XP perfectly but VISTA would be a no-go for now; though, I bet that will change soon as these continue to catch on.

The biggest con, in my opinion, is that they do not have a DVD/CD drive.  You can plug an external one in one of the three USB ports.  However, that would require hauling something else around.  My workaround to install MS Office was by copying the DVD to a thumb drive and then installing it from there which worked perfectly.

My review would be that it runs all of Microsoft Office applications, any browser I have tried, surfs all websites, writes this column and does everything I could ask of it.  However, I am not a game player so I don’t need to put “Call of Duty” on the system, which is good since I don’t believe it could handle many of the modern games.

If size and cost are factors I highly recommend a netbook.  Most all of the major computer manufacturers have this form factor now so feel free to look around for a good deal.  Just make sure you read what comes with each so that you recieve what you intend to get.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 at 5:49 am and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.