<p>My daughter was telling us that she heard that you can’t open multiple windows on a netbook. Is that correct? If that’s the case, then maybe we should look for a smaller laptop (notebook) for her to carry around vs a netbook. Can someone state the pros and cons between a light-weight, smaller laptop and a netbook? Thanks!</p>
<p>It really depends on how much you’re willing to carry, and whether you need carry a computer at all. I’ve been using a 15" laptop for the last few years but am switching to a netbook because I like its portability. Lower end notebooks can be had for as little as $250 up to $380 for those bluetooth+wireless n+6 cell battery EEE PCs.</p>
<p>You can open multiple windows on a netbook, but you don’t have much screen space to work with. I suggest keeping an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse as a “dock” for working at home</p>
<p>Thanks! I’ll have let her know this. She will have a desktop for her dorm room so this will be mostly for toting around and taking advantage of the wifi on campus or maybe at eateries downtown.</p>
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<p>At one point, Microsoft considered imposing a limit of 3 applications at a time. As the other poster and this link point out this is no longer the case.</p>
<p>That being said, I still recommend Linux for on-campus use.</p>
<p>In our house, we have PCs, Macs and Linux, but Im mostly going to address PCs here. Im not much for netbooks. The keyboards are cramped and the screens are too small. Go to the store and try them out.</p>
<p>When Im checking my email, its easy to have 4-5 windows open with several tabs open at once. Sometimes there are videos to watch or jpegs/photos to open. Sure a netbook might be able to adequately handle that but any mid-priced laptop will easily handle that as well as having other programs open at the same time.</p>
<p>With laptops you have the choice of what kind of processor to get. The two core processors (Core 2 Duo or newer i3/5/7s) run faster and cooler than the cheaper single core processors. You dont have to pick the fastest machine, but any mid-priced laptop will do for the first few years.</p>
<p>Your student might have a class that involves group projects (meet outside of the dorm) or class presentations (projected onto a large screen) and a laptop will not have any problems. Also, if your roommate is noisy or the apartments livingroom (or the neighbor above) is loud, just take your laptop to another room and do your school work.</p>
<p>This usually is the students first time away from home so there are some hard lessons to learn about losing your stuff. Netbooks and laptops are easily stolen so you might consider how much to spend on a machine.</p>
<p>A good (not cheap) laptop is not that much more than a netbook and will be more versatile. Good luck on whatever you decide.</p>