Netbook – A Review

A Netbook is a very new kind of a laptop computer which was re-introduced by the Intel in February, 2008. We all are very familiar by the term notebook; but Netbook is referred to a small sized, cheaper, under powered laptop which runs on an unpopular operating system.

Netbooks are mostly seen running on Linux or Windows XP (Home Edition) operating system. OS X, Vista or XP Professional can not run on Netbook. Professional editions of XP are being restricted by the Microsoft and same is the case with Apple. They also restrict the OS X to be run on Netbooks.

Too much of horsepower is required for running Vista. HP is the only company who can provide Vista on a Netbook. However, it will become a debatable question whether it should be called Netbook because the price would be so high if they use Vista.

Netbook is very light in weight and it is basically designed for the use of getting wireless connection and access to the internet plus few simple computing programs like word processing, etc. It comes with a screen size of 7 inches to 10 inches max. It is expected that more than Fifty million of Netbooks will be circulated in the market by 2011.

Well, originally the Netbook was introduced by Psion in the year 1999. At that time “Netbook” was the general term given to a small form of computer looking like a portable form of laptop. The Netbook which was introduced by Psion was running on the customized version of Psions Epoc which was later termed as WinCE. Unfortunately, the Psion version of Netbook does not gain much popularity and the market share. Ultimately the production of the Psion’s Netbook was discontinued.

Microsoft’s Windows 7, the new operating system is basically designed to work on the Netbooks. This will provide users really good experience on this low powered device which was not possible with Vista.

IDC, a research firm has found that at the end of 2008, nearly ten million Netbooks were shipped as compared to near zero in late 2007. It is really an extraordinary growth in such a short span of time.

Intel has launched its Netbook with an Atom processor which is designed to use less computing power at damn cheap price. Intel has designed the Netbook by keeping in mind of the developing nations as their major buyer and market base. However, Asus has already launched its own category Netbook called Eee PC during the later part of 2007. The Eee Pc was supplied by a small 7-inch screen, a solid state memory, and running on a Linux platform instead of Windows.

In late summer last year, Dell, one of the largest PC makers of U.S. and the second largest in the world, also launched its new version of Netbook in the market. Dell Inspirion Mini 9 was a simple Netbook, while Mini 12 was little puzzling. However, grouping it along with the Mini line it is being sold as a Netbook. The 12-inch screen size of Mini 12 is very much close to small traditional notebooks.

Various PC vendors now days are trying to cast these Netbook in a way that it would fit with their own line of products. HP is trying to derive the difference between the Netbooks by software. HP’s Mini 1000 MIE has a customized interface design so as to hide the fact that it has been a Linux device. Sony is also putting idea to customize its own range of Netbooks.

Well, now every company in the Netbook business is tweaking some features from here and there in order to attract large mass of customers.

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Tags: Computer, laptop, linux, netbook, Operating System, Psion