The Netbook is King

I'm sure most people reading this have experienced some poor PC performance in their time. Programs slowing down, applications crashing, simple tasks like powering up taking an ice age and then some. For the last 4 months I have been no stranger to this.

I've had nightmares about my computer at home. That desktop is now over 3 and a half years old. For most PCs that is a good innings. For the computer that was the cheapest Dell did at the time it's astounding. Honestly, I don't know how I put up with it for so long.

So 2 months ago I decided to buy a new PC.

Now, I've been out of the loop for a long time now. It used to be that I understood every bit of jargon that a PC whizz could throw at me. The problem now is that although I can tell with most things what's good and what's not. I have no idea what is good value for money, and just how any particular PC will perform is a mystery to me if I'm reading it on paper.

So I did what any self respecting, time-constrained writer would do. I asked around for other people's opinions. Tried to gauge what was good and what wouldn't work for me and who knew their stuff and who had no clue. In the end I found that one of my closest work colleagues really knew his stuff - software and hardware. His advice was to wait for Windows 7.

I want to make something perfectly clear now: I am always wary of a new OS offered by Microsoft. If you count the unsuccessful, poorly built ones over the years, and compare them to the ones that have actually worked on a consistent basis with few errors and bugs it does not leave you brimming with confidence.

But he assured me it was worth the wait. He's been involved in the Beta testing. Apparently it's very smooth, very quick and exceedingly pretty to look at. So I followed his advice. Well, sort of.

I decided that the need for a new PC was too great, and after deliberating over it with close friends once more I decided to go for a "best of both worlds" solution. A new laptop that I could use for NaNoWriMo (more on this in coming posts) in November and would last me a little while because I would only use it for surfing and writing. And when the nice shiney new version of Windows is out for a while and confidence in it is strong (and when I've saved up some more dough) I can buy a new desktop to run more taxing applications.

After reading several review websites my attention was slowly turned away from traditional laptops and towards the small, lightweight, super fast world of the netbook. After reading several other websites and garnering reviews left, right and centre I finally settled on the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE. I'm using it now and I must say, it is amazingly quick. Everything boots up in an instant and shuts down in no time at all.

Of course downsizing comes with it's fair share of problems. For instance there is no optical drive (CD/DVD), and the keyboard is a little smaller than even that of a normal laptop, But still I must maintain that I made the right choice. Despite it's reduction in size, the keyboard is still comfortable to use. And the lack of an optical drive is actually something of an advantage. With my old PC still in such disarray, if my netbook had an optical drive on this one I'd be making the same mistake I made last time - installing and uninstalling programs to my heart's content, and wearing out my brand new toy.

My only other complaint is that the multi-touch tracker pad has some issues. The multi-touch functions are sometimes confused and I find myself zooming when I want to be scrolling and vice versa.

All in all though I really couldn't be happier with it as a machine. You might well have seen it in my profile picture. I am indeed using it now. Not just because my old PC still makes me scream profanities, but because this PC is probably the best I have ever used.

We'll just have to see if the poor thing survives NaNoWriMo in November...