This morning I took my car to the dealer for routine maintenance recommended during a prior visit. I’d been told it would take 1.5 to 2 hours so I brought along both a book and my Acer Aspire One netbook to occupy my waiting time.
Normally I’d just wonder around the new car lot to pass the time. However, it was cold outside this morning and these days when you walk a new car lot you get attacked by swarms of desperate car salesmen each who want to give you their business card and then go to great lengths explaining what a great trade-in deal they could make on that car you’re having serviced. Yea, I stayed in the service waiting room. :-)
Connecting to the available free Internet with the Aspire One, running Fedora 10 Linux, was a snap and soon I was checking email and surfing the web with the netbook on my lap.
The Aspire One attracted more than a few stares and one gentleman sat down close by to ask questions about it and its capabilities. I answered his questions as best I could and he jotted down the make and model and said he was going to check it out. He needed something to do email with his children and grandchildren without spending a fortune.
There’s a sweet spot of portability, cost and capability netbooks are filling. High sales in this category should provide incentive for manufacturers to continue expanding netbook offerings and capabilities while maintaining or even improving portability in the future.
Now that’s why I like coming here often. I always learn something. I didn’t even know that this little doodad existed! And, at only $379 (Amazon), it’s quite a steal! You’d pay almost that much for a copy of Windoze XP Home. I’m not in the market for one of these, but it sure is cool! I’m still saving my pennies for my Macbook Pro.
I’ve been following the commentary about your aspire one. It resonates with my experience with the Dell Mini 9 (running Ubuntu 8.10). It’s taking me time to learn to type effectively on the keyboard, but the size and weight are opening up new avenues for my use of a computer afield. I just take it places that I would not drag my laptop–even though my MacBook 15″ is not that big or heavy in it’s own right. For example, I’m typing this from Japan, and it was a no-brainer to bring it on this trip, even though I needed to pack light.
This thing is the size of a book, something you can throw in a bag almost without thinking about it, especially since the replacement cost is so low. If it had built in 3G access it would be especially compelling, much like way that enables the iPhone so effectively. I agree that this is an exciting market segment.