Michael Dell Talks Up Windows7 - Trashes Netbooks

Dekoth said:
No, it isn't. A small laptop is just that. Netbooks don't have anywhere near the functionality of a laptop. That 97% that keeps popping up, is far more significant then people want to claim. Just because it is 97% the same size, doesn't make it any more functional.

As for why I own a gaming laptop is simple. I can't exactly haul my desktop on a plane easily. While I don't prefer gaming on it, it does serve in a pinch. The added bonus of course is it handles all my work functions as well as my desktop. I gained a couple of pounds on it, but since it does everything that isn't a huge issue.

I use Voip services all the time. Voip + bluetooth headset is not the same thing as a cellphone. Nice try though.

Again there is a SMALL percentage of netbook users that have a legitimate use for them. My point is the overwhelming majority of them are fad users. I will say the same thing about gaming laptop users. The overwhelming majority who buy one, just did so because they thought it was cool, not because they really have a use for the thing.
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What is the more common niche within america, people who want a small, cheap, ultra portable laptop for every day tasks and are willing to put up with a small screen for the small and cheap part?
or
People with an occupation that requires them to constantly travel and also happen to be avid 3d computer gamers.

I have 4 laptops. None with gaming cards in them. There is nothing they can do that my netbook can't EXCEPT youtube HD, for some reason youtube HD is really friggen demanding. Something to do with flashplayer not being good at whatever codec they are using since I can DL the stuff and play with with low cpu usage in VLC player.
 
I'd like to see any full sized laptop even come close to the 10 hours of battery life I get on my Ideapad S10 (13 if I then pop in the 3-cell).
 
FoxhoundOp said:
Dekoth your arguments don't really make any sense and it seems like you're just babbling on about what netbooks can't do because you don't like them for whatever reason. What is this oh-so-important functionality that netbooks don't have? They can do basic office work, play videos, surf the net wirelessly, play music and do pretty much anything a low-powered "laptop" can do with better battery life, less weight, and less volume.

Another thing, how the hell do you know why the majority of people bought netbooks? Did you take a nationwide survey or something?
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You took the words right out of my mouth.

If I needed a laptop in a hurry I can walk into Best Buy right now and pick up a netbook for $250. The cheapest notebook is $100 more and is over twice the size without enough difference in functionality to really notice for every day computing. My biggest gripe about laptops and computers in general is that people overpay for the performance they actually use.

The other thing I love about netbooks is their evolution into nettops that are the size of your hand and play 1080p video at a relatively cheap price. Netbooks are great for their intended use and people need to stop comparing them to markets they aren't intended to compete with.

As far as netbooks being a fad.....I wouldn't call them a fad but I do think their popularity will die down as the gap between smart phones and laptops narrow.
 
FoxhoundOp said:
Dekoth your arguments don't really make any sense and it seems like you're just babbling on about what netbooks can't do because you don't like them for whatever reason. What is this oh-so-important functionality that netbooks don't have? They can do basic office work, play videos, surf the net wirelessly, play music and do pretty much anything a low-powered "laptop" can do with better battery life, less weight, and less volume.

Another thing, how the hell do you know why the majority of people bought netbooks? Did you take a nationwide survey or something?
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No kidding.

The wife just wanted a cheap laptop to use for surfing, email, etc around the house, operate with one hand on the arm of the chair (like when sitting with kids), etc. Also to toss in her purse. (No offense, but a 9"-10" netbook fits in a purse. 14-15" laptop? Not so much). Her Vostro 1500 wasn't exactly good for that.

And guess what happens when a toddler gets ahold of a 6lb , 15.4" laptop? Whereas the netbook can take a fall a lot better, and if the HDD gets screwed up, who cares? I didn't have anything important on it anyway.

A netbook is smaller and does the job for basic web browsing tasks. Not everyone is running around with a state of the art smartphone. Nor personally do I have the patience to screw around with zooming and typing on tiny fingertip keyboards or touchscreen keyboards.

She uses her ipod touch for most of this stuff, now, admittedly, and it's 80,000 apps or whatever and passed the netbook to me a while back.

I don't. I have her passed-down ipod touch but surfing on it sucks. I like the netbook. I've replaced it with a 12.1 HP touchsmart laptop I got on clearance for $499. I couldn't resist such a cool touch screen /tablet gadget. But if I hadn't gotten that (normal price $800) I'd still be using the AA1 for internet-ing and the occasional paper writing while the kids are up and about.

I'd have zero interest in a 14" laptop. About 12" max is all I'd want.
 
the biggest problem with netbooks is the screen size. most people out to buy laptops wont even think about a 10" screen. i try to push 14" laptops on people and they always tell me "i want the biggest screen possible". then i tell them, "the bigger the screen, the bigger the laptop" and i get in return "i dont care, i want a BIG screen!":rolleyes:
 
Jakalwarrior said:
What is the more common niche within america, people who want a small, cheap, ultra portable laptop for every day tasks and are willing to put up with a small screen for the small and cheap part?
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its still america, most of us like bigger anything. the green movement has brought out a lot of treehuggers that like little things, but for the most part were still a country of oversize.
 
Netbooks are great for people who need portability... Students (use them in class to take notes). Road warriors who are always on the go. etc.

Laptops are for people who need portability in their HOUSE or OFFICE. Sitting on the couch doing something while the tv is going. Sitting in bed working on something. Going to a meeting in the conference room.

Gaming Laptops are for those people who like to go to Lan Parties and don't want to drag a full sized PC around.

I see netbooks being superseded by functional, CHEAP tablet PC's with good handwriting recognition, with a form factor similar to the leaked Microsoft tablet design. This will ONLY happen if the price is inline with current netbooks. People like CHEAP when it comes to their computers. Not everybody needs a monster cpu or vid card. I used to think like a lot of you when I was looking at laptops. I got a laptop for my son last summer, and I use it more than my 17 inch gaming laptop because it's much more convenient. I don't have a need for a netbook, but I can see the usefulness of it.
 
I own two netbooks. I sold my 2 1/2 year old Dell Inspiron E1405 w/ Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz to buy one.

I got less for my C2D notebook on eBay than I did buying the Samsung NC10 from Newegg.

I love my netbooks. F the haters
 
Chalk up another for the anti-Netbook bandwagon. Been using an ultraportable long before Netbooks were cool, and I can't see any reason to go smaller than 12" (not to mention the added strain on my eyes and typing).
 
vengence said:
??? what does that have to do with netbooks not being a nitch now?
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It has little to do with it being a nitch today.

But this "nitch" is influencing much of the entire notebook market. And this nitch will never go away and only gain in popularity as they perfect the nitch. Once they get this nitch to the point where they have a duel core, SSD, 1600x900 res at under 500 bucks I see little reason for anything else.
 
I really don't understand the anti-netbook bandwagon. If anything, it drives the prices of other notebooks down. I never had an ultra-portable get anywhere near the battery life that I got with my Mini 10v even with the 9 cell batteries that were huge.

The only reason why netbooks are limited to 10" is because Intel doesn't want bigger screens in them to eat away at their regular notebook CPU's. If anything Intel is the reason why people hate netbooks.

A 12" netbook with a decent resolution and great battery life would be something I would buy. I see the 11.6" Acer and Gateways with the Core 2 Solo, but the battery life is a question mark in my mind. You can go all day on 1 charge with a netbook.
 
I'm waiting for netbooks to go dual-core. I was really, really interested the IdeaPad S12, but after hearing it would be delayed... I ended up buying a MacBook instead. 13.3" vs. 12"... I'm ok with that. I would love a focus on powerful, yet small, machines, though. I don't 'get' the purpose of a notebook larger than 14" unless it's your ONLY machine.

That's not the case for me. I have my overpowered, huge desktop for gaming and crap, but for getting work done on the go, I have the notebook. I like the 13.3" frame because it's powerful (2.0ghz C2D w/ GF9400M. On par with my old desktop, easily) and portable.

I don't like most netbooks today because they're underpowered. I don't want C2Q's in them, but a dual-core Atom or some such thing would be great.
 
I fail to see what tasks the Atom is much worse at that a Core 2 Duo. Yes, you have to wait a few more seconds for things to happen, but in my opinion, writing an email on a Core 2 is a complete waste of power. On machines using intel integrated gfx, Atom is usually enough anyway. And it gets better battery life.
 
ordovician said:
I fail to see what tasks the Atom is much worse at that a Core 2 Duo. Yes, you have to wait a few more seconds for things to happen, but in my opinion, writing an email on a Core 2 is a complete waste of power. On machines using intel integrated gfx, Atom is usually enough anyway. And it gets better battery life.
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spreadsheets, powerpoint, flash to name a few.
 
vengence said:
spreadsheets, powerpoint, flash to name a few.
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Heavy heavy flash is about the only thing I've had slow my netbook down during general use. When I get to the ten billionth level of Bloons, the browser will slow down. Same for my P4 2.8 office computer at work.
 
I do not mind netbooks. They have their place in the market. My wife wanted a pink netbook, so I got her a Dell Mini10v for her. She loves it. It does everything she wants it to do (not that much to be honest) and it is light. That is all she cares about.
 
I would never get a netbook unless I had a reason just to go places with it to only view the web and nothing more. I guess I would be happy with it if I had already wasted money on it too...
 
I love my Dell Mini 9 netbook. I have always wanted an ultra portable machine to carry with me to surf the net or watch movies or tv shows on. One of the UMPC's I wanted was the Sony one, but at over $2K was way too much money. I have a blackberry as well but I can't surf the web on it and enjoy it, I just use it for email, talking, and occasionally looking up phone numbers on the net with it.
 
Netbooks are not fads. I own a 15.4” laptop and a Smartphone. I’m able to view emails on my Smartphone but web browsing is torture on the damn thing. Also, the screen is still too small on the smart phone for any real multimedia purposes. Not too mention that Windows Mobile based Smart phones Crash all the time, are not responsive to inputs (sometimes) and can give you drama when all you wanted to do was make a call.

Lugging around my 15.4 inch laptop would be too much just for web surfing and the Smartphone is awful for web browsing IMO. What should I do? Buy another laptop that is still going to be too large for me to carry around? Or get a Netbook?

I’m going for the netbook because:
1) They are much easier to carry around than laptops.
2) You can still connect a Aircard to it for Mobile Broadband websufing
3) The Battery life for netbooks are much better than laptops.
4) The netbook screen is much larger than the smartphone screen.

I’m not sure why some folks here are against netbooks. To each his own.
 
Jakalwarrior said:
Then down at basement prices you can get a netbook which in all reality can do as much as the average office work system. It can't game and cant encode video but who gives a rats ass about encoding video on the go. It doesn't burn your lap, its batteries actually last, and It has a bit of durability since its own weight doesn't destroy it. Plus with all that money you saved yourself you can stop kidding yourself about the novelty of playing games on the go with a flaming hot laptop that has to be plugged in to a wall outlet... and build yourself a real gaming computer...
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I agree with this.

Build a good desktop that can actually play games and do hard computer work, and then have a cheap netbook for travelling and doing office stuff.

When I travel I sure dont want to be carrying around a full laptop with me, a netbook fits better and doesnt weigh my manpurse down which is already crammed with my concealed handgun and other stuff. lol.
 
Pyroja said:
I'm waiting for netbooks to go dual-core. I was really, really interested the IdeaPad S12, but after hearing it would be delayed... I ended up buying a MacBook instead. 13.3" vs. 12"... I'm ok with that. I would love a focus on powerful, yet small, machines, though. I don't 'get' the purpose of a notebook larger than 14" unless it's your ONLY machine.

That's not the case for me. I have my overpowered, huge desktop for gaming and crap, but for getting work done on the go, I have the notebook. I like the 13.3" frame because it's powerful (2.0ghz C2D w/ GF9400M. On par with my old desktop, easily) and portable.

I don't like most netbooks today because they're underpowered. I don't want C2Q's in them, but a dual-core Atom or some such thing would be great.
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Those are totally different classes of computer. I had a 13" Macbook unibody, and it's overkill when all you really need is a web browsing, office machine. I sold it and got a netbook.
 
vengence said:
Or you can spend the same price on a netbook and get a fully functional laptop with a 14 or 15" screen instead of a 10" screen. And it also doesn't burn your lap.
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really? because i got my S10 for like $250... where can i get a 14"~15" notebook thats $250?
 
vengence said:
Cheapest 12" is 429.99

So for 150$ (50% more, not 50% cheaper) you get a 60% bigger screen (at 11.6inches vs 15), twice the HDD space, a DVD drive, a MUCH more powerful CPU (2.0Ghz dual vs an Atom). To each thier own I suppose
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To each his own? Exactly! Most people that use a Netbook use it ONLY to surf the net. You don't need all the crap in a notebook to do that.
 
The funny thing is... those 15" screens aren't any higher resolution than my 11.6" screen (1366 x 768).. battery life is worse, DVD drive is pointless with .iso files and my GPU can decode 1080p movies and the CPU is fine for everything else I need (which isn't much). Along with 6+ hours of battery means I don't need to worry about finding an outlet if I need to use it for a few hours. I can get through multiple movies on a battery charge vs. barely getting through 1 movie with a larger notebook.

Talking about an Acer 1410T btw which is ~$400 11.6" CULV style, similar to netbooks but a little better.
 
I gave my Mom an MSI Wind for Christmas.

She's used it practically every day this past year, its one of the best gifts I've ever bought for her.
 
I love my netbook, but I also got it with a purpose, ive got my desktop for gaming at home.
a gaming notebook for my lan parties, and ive got my netbook in my work truck for taking onto customer sites, as a console terminal,writing up invoices, downloading updated drivers to a usb key etc.

its the perfect solution for what i need it to do. because its where I need it to be, and its where I need it to be because its small and lite and portable. there wonderful devices, IF you have a need for them, if you don't, then look elsewhere.. simple as that.
 
I got an eee 1000he and love it, I use it as my primary computer. I have no problem typing on the keyboard, at worst there may have been a brief learning curve. I have no problems staring at the screen for hours on end. There are only a very few situations I have found it to be underpowered, typically it involves trying to watch HD video on youtube or something, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

I love the portability and long battery life. I had a 15.4 inch laptop before and it was an absolute pain to carry around, especially since the battery lasted an hour if you were lucky which meant you would have to cart around a huge powerbrick also. The eee is the first computer I've owned that has enough battery life that I can leave the cord at home and not worry about it. Even if I do decide to bring the cord the powerbrick is so tiny it's hardly even noticeable.

It was cheap enough that I cart it all over the place and don't really worry too much about it getting broken or stolen. Much nicer than babying a $1500 laptop all the time to make sure nothing happens to it.

I have owned inexpensive laptops before; I had an Acer Aspire. What I've found though is that cheap laptops are generally poor quality. For whatever reason they use that ugly gray paint on the chassis that invariably gets worn/scratched exposing black plastic underneath. Fit and finish is poor as well and they seem to almost purposely hobble performance. The thing I like about the eee is that it was very cheap but, at least in my opinion, seems like a quality, well made product. Support is good, it's been very durable, decent performance, etc.

What I find more encouraging is that the qualities I like about the eee will only improve as the technology matures. The next generation Atom chips are going to be a much more integrated solution that use considerably less power and space than current offerings while costing less as well. That means slimmer, cheaper netbooks that have even greater battery life.

I have been using computers a long time and I really like my eee. If you don't like netbooks for whatever reason that's fine but your long description of why I'm wrong and it's just a fad don't really mean anything to me and a lot of other users.
 
I'm happily using my EEE 900A w/10hr battery and feel no need to ever buy a laptop with larger than 12" screen again. that is all
 
Windows 7 is running super great on my old Notebook, a Dell Inspiron 6000 model. I simply install the intel drivers for the wireless connection, then windows detected and install the ATI driver. Dell audio drivers works fine with win7 even though it reads win2k. The only driver that popup saying not compatible was the touchpad drivers, I install it anyway, ignore the message and it works.
 
kirbyrj said:
Those are totally different classes of computer. I had a 13" Macbook unibody, and it's overkill when all you really need is a web browsing, office machine. I sold it and got a netbook.
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I completely understand that they are different machines. Ultimately, it turned out I needed a little more than what a netbook could offer me.

In general, I love the idea of netbooks. I still want one. However, I'm waiting for them to become a little more powerful. Again, I'm not asking for a huge amount of power in a netbook, just a little dual-core Atom love ;)

Believe me, I'm on your side here. I think netbooks are great, and the fact that manufacturers realized that 90% of normal users out there don't NEED all the horsepower being offered to them is nice as well.
 
Netbooks with the dual core Atom's are just around the corner. I believe we will see them for sale before the year's end. We may have to wait a little fore the 1600 x 900 resolution but it won't be long.

My coworker got an Asus netbook with Windows XP not too long ago for $300 on woot. It's an N270 or N280 (don't remember), 2GB of RAM, and has > 100 GB harddrive and built in wireless (b/g/n). It has, virtually, a full size notebook keyboard (I'm 6'3" with large hands and have no trouble typing on it), a 10 inch screen you can see with no trouble, and it can play back 720p HD movies with no trouble. The 9 hours of battery life is pretty nifty as well.

It is very impressive and it can do everything my notebook can do, even modeling in google sketchup.
 
Pyroja said:
I completely understand that they are different machines. Ultimately, it turned out I needed a little more than what a netbook could offer me.

In general, I love the idea of netbooks. I still want one. However, I'm waiting for them to become a little more powerful. Again, I'm not asking for a huge amount of power in a netbook, just a little dual-core Atom love ;)

Believe me, I'm on your side here. I think netbooks are great, and the fact that manufacturers realized that 90% of normal users out there don't NEED all the horsepower being offered to them is nice as well.
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Yeah, I can see that. I'm looking at the Gateway/Acer 11.6" Core Solo machines with the GMA4500 graphics. For the $449 price point, it seems to have a good balance of battery life/processing power. I'm just waiting to see what happens with the move to Win 7 though.
 
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