The One
A good while ago I remember voicing my opinion on the show about those new Netbooks, the sub-compact notebooks/laptops that everyone was buying. It was my opinion that they were underpowered and pricey for what they actually offered. After all, why buy a mini notebook when you can get a fairly good regular notebook for the same price?
Well, things have changed a bit over time and so has my opinion. Dan was the first one on the band wagon with his EeePC, which he and his family loved so much, they bought a second. He kept touting that it was so convenient and easy to tote around and use. Next was Allan, with his Acer Aspire One, which he gave stellar reviews on (yes, Allan does speak occasionally). And in between those two was Pat, who didn’t get a Netbook, but DID get a wicked nice Linux laptop.
You see, after all this, I started to get laptop envy. Being a “man of some stature”, I find it extremely difficult to use a normal size laptop in a train seat. There just isn’t enough “lap room” available to me and I end up with the screen tilted toward me from the seat in front. Needless to say, it’s extremely difficult to work that way. I also thought it would be so nice to have an ultra portable to haul with me at work if there were notes I needed to take somewhere or information to reference (I hate hauling and generating paperwork). The Netbooks really started to appeal to me.
Then, this weekend it happened. I went to a computer show and saw a lovely IBM Thinkpad x31 (I think that was the model). It’s this tiny Thinkpad, gorgeous really. It was probably just the right size foe the job, and at $250, the price was pretty good as well. The only problem was that it had a slightly cracked bezel, would need more memory (only 512mb) and was, of course, used. Now there isn’t anything at all wrong with buying used computers, except in this case I knew for another $100 I could get a new one with a warranty, so I held off. I spoke at length about it over the weekend with my wife and noticed that the local Microcenter happened to have 4 of the Linux version of the Acer Aspire One left. My wife, after I teetered on the decision for a while, told me to just go and get one and stop procrastinating. I did just that.
So, at this count there are an even number of EeePCs and Acer Aspire Ones in the techshow family. 2 EeePCs for Dann, and both Allan and I have a One. I have to say that I really like this little thing. After a little tweaking, which I will detail later on, it does just the trick for me. It’s quick (again, more on that later on) and it is fantastic to use on the train. In fact, I am doing that right now!
The verdict, go get one! And stay tuned for more posts on the One as I get the time.