<p>Well at the end of 2008, Netbooks have become a big craze.</p>
<p>Small 8-10 inch mini-laptops with good processing power and good battery life. Anyone considering one for the upcoming Fall of 2009?</p>
<p>They don't have good processing power.</p>
<p>Their processing power is more than sufficient for the average college student.</p>
<p>I would not buy one for college, as the small keyboard and small screen would make doing work very difficult.</p>
<p>I wouldn't say that the Intel Atom processors are sufficient for the average college student. For example, for engineers (who make up a sizeable portion of college students) who need to run processor-intensive software, that might not be so sufficient.</p>
<p>^I doubt engineers make close to half of college students, so they don't make up the average. And of the engineers, okay, civil and mechanical engineers need modeling software, and... yeah, I think that's it. Correct me if I am wrong, though.</p>
<p>I have an MSI Wind and it's a dream. I do have a (very old) 14 inch Toshiba Satellite M55-S325, but the Wind is better at everything except lacking a CD drive and having a slower processor. I specifically choose the Wind because it was the only netbook I tried that had a big enough keyboard to allow regular typing. The battery lasts forever, it has not problem running everyday software like OpenOffice and Firefox, etc...</p>
<p>I keep my Toshiba hooked up to my wired internet, but everywhere outside the dorms I use the Wind. I could easily do with it as my only computer, and I suspect students of humanities, sciences, etc... could do it easily as well.</p>
<p>No, engineers don't make up half of college student, but they don't even have to in order to skew the average, they only need to make up a large enough portion. I don't think my statistics is that rusty just yet. </p>
<p>As for software requirements, I'm personally a BME and I use Matlab. While not usually an intensive software, I have had to process large amount of data and and run codes that take a while on occasion, a low end processor just doesn't cut it. It's the same story with many of my engineering friends. </p>
<p>I'm not saying that college students should never consider netbook, I'm merely pointing out that making blanket assumptions about "the average college student" without considering common differences in needs and requirements is not good advice.</p>
<p>I was actually referring to the college student who uses the laptop to take notes in class, write papers, browse the internet, use IM software. You know, the average college student.</p>
<p>Of course, because the average college student never games, watches movies, run specialized software required by their major/departments, multitasks, edits photos/videos, etc. </p>
<p>Even a few ordinary program running at the same time plus a few background programs can drastically slow down a machine. I'm sure the average college student has never had firefox open with 6 tabs, music playing on iTunes, a paper on word and some references on PDF, as well as 3 chat windows open and an antivirus and firewall running in the background right?</p>
<p>I'm not saying that netbooks aren't good for college students, they are good for on the go computing and note taking where there's not much demand for performance. But as a primary computer? Probably not so great.</p>
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Of course, because the average college student never games, watches movies, run specialized software required by their major/departments, multitasks, edits photos/videos, etc.
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You can do those on a desktop.</p>
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I'm sure the average college student has never had firefox open with 6 tabs, music playing on iTunes, a paper on word and some references on PDF, as well as 3 chat windows open and an antivirus and firewall running in the background right?
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A lot of the netbooks use Linux because it doesn't have any problems with running all that at once. You don't need antivirus or firewall, media players available on Linux are far better than and use a fraction of the memory of iTunes, and the PDF readers don't hog RAM like Adobe Acrobat Reader does.</p>
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Even a few ordinary program running at the same time plus a few background programs can drastically slow down a machine. I'm sure the average college student has never had firefox open with 6 tabs, music playing on iTunes, a paper on word and some references on PDF, as well as 3 chat windows open and an antivirus and firewall running in the background right?
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I've had that setup in my Wind (well, not exactly... I don't use iTunes, for example, but I do use Windows Media Player and I tend to have way more than 6 firefox tabs open at any given time). The atom processor and the 1 GB of RAM were perfectly able to handle it. In fact, they handled it better than my old Toshiba with a better processor but half the RAM has handled similar circumstances; the latter tended to slow down a lot, but the Wind just kept on trucking.</p>
<p>I hadn't watched a movie on my netbook yet (unless you count YouTube videos), but I hooked it up to my external hard disk drive and watched some half hour of Fight Club just for this post (well, I was planning on watching less but I really like that movie so yeah...). The movie ran with absolutely no problems. Now granted, it can't play DVDs because it lacks a drive, but if the movie is online streaming (such as Hulu or YouTube) or if a file of the movie is acquired (for example, by purchasing through iTunes) there is no problem at all.</p>
<p>Games, okay, that's one area netbooks simply aren't made to handle. It could probably run old games up to the very early 2000s, but anything modern would be out of the question. However, I doubt netbooks was ever intended as a serious solution to computer gamers, though... as long as the student doesn't game or games in a console, or likes to game in the PC but is willing to limit himself/herself to older games due to the money savings because s/he is short on cash for some reason, netbooks work fine.</p>
<p>So yeah, if the college student is willing to sacrifice DVDs and very modern computer games in the name of a portable, frugal laptop with more battery power, the only problem that needs to be addressed are computationally demanding applications required by a student's major and classes.</p>
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computationally demanding applications required by a student's major and classes
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You can generally use desktop workstations provided by the university for that.</p>
<p>I think something a lot of people are missing is that a netbook doesn't have to be your only computer, or even your main computer. It is useful because of its portability. When you are at places where computers are already available, there is no need to use your netbook.</p>
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You can generally use desktop workstations provided by the university for that.
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Oh yeah, I didn't mention that. There are like 3 computer labs in my campus, at least one of them open 24/7. I think other campuses probably have comparable facilities.</p>
<p>srunni, the problem with linux is the lack of support by colleges, meaning that a student running linux will often have to troubleshoot his/her own problems. As for not needing firewall/antivirus...some colleges will ban you from the network if they detect inadequate protection. </p>
<p>As for using the campus computer labs, my campus is huge (multiple campuses split into residential and academic uses connected by buses) and the nearest computer lab is far away from the residential section. Most people would not want to go there if they have something to do late at night. </p>
<p>Like I said, netbooks aren't meant to be primary computers, to imply that they have the performance to meet the demands of a college student for day to day needs as one would be false.</p>
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srunni, the problem with linux is the lack of support by colleges, meaning that a student running linux will often have to troubleshoot his/her own problems. As for not needing firewall/antivirus...some colleges will ban you from the network if they detect inadequate protection.
I know for a fact that they can't ``detect'' inadequate protection. All they can do is force you to go to the tech center and register your MAC address, and in that case, you can just spoof that MAC on the netbook. That's just FUD. Lack of support is true, but usually if you're running it, you don't need help. Besides, it's much more difficult to mess up Linux.</p>
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As for using the campus computer labs, my campus is huge (multiple campuses split into residential and academic uses connected by buses) and the nearest computer lab is far away from the residential section. Most people would not want to go there if they have something to do late at night.
Don't procrastinate :P But speaking from my experience, at my university, there are computer labs in the basements of all the residential halls.</p>
<p>Besides, I already said that it's an option to also have a desktop in your room as well.</p>
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Like I said, netbooks aren't meant to be primary computers, to imply that they have the performance to meet the demands of a college student for day to day needs as one would be false.
That's exactly what I said as well.</p>
<p>The problem with the "running linux = don't need help" hypothesis is that linux comes standard on many netbooks instead of the user having to install it themselves, so a lack of support for linux by colleges can be problematic for those students who buy one.</p>
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The problem with the "running linux = don't need help" hypothesis is that linux comes standard on many netbooks instead of the user having to install it themselves, so a lack of support for linux by colleges can be problematic for those students who buy one.
Well, a lot of the people who get those netbooks don't even realize it's Linux, and they never really care. It's not even treated like a ``real'' computer. Just like you don't regularly need support for your MP3 player, you don't regularly need support for your netbook.</p>
<p>HP is releasing a new netbook that is made out of solid metal with the Atom processor and a very good keyboard. It is wide and big. And the screen is covered with glass like the Macbooks.</p>
<p>Priced well too. I am definately going to look into it. </p>
<p>1.6 Ghz Duo Core isn't that bad.</p>
<p>If you get a netbook, do not under any circumstances get a screen smaller than 10 inches. You might want to buy an external monitor, mouse and keyboard for when you use it in your room, otherwise the tiny form factor will drive you mad after a while.</p>
<p>I own a 12" Powerbook which was my main computer for 3 years. 12 inches is just barely big enough to use full time, so I really recommend you follow my above advice.</p>
<p>On the Linux discussion above, I wouldn't recommend someone get a netbook with Linux if they have never used Linux before, if they are going to use it as their main computer. A lot of netbooks may come with Linux, but plenty more come with Windows XP so it really isn't that much of an issue.</p>
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1.6 Ghz Duo Core isn't that bad.
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<p>The atom processors aren't as fast as the other mobile processors with the same clock speed</p>