Single Subject Netbook

I have a hunch that a lot of people have been thinking about buying a quite little Netbook to do some light computing on. Netbooks were all the rage before the iPad came out in April and started the immediate comparisons. Trying to be different or smart I purchased two Eee 1005HA's for my house. I am happy to report that in general they function as advertised- small, compact and portable. Just like a single subject notebook -wide rule.

I suppose if you do not want much out of computer they are perfect, but if you want more than nothing do not buy one because you will be disappointed. The netbook is the digital equivilant of the single subject notebook- limited in its function and capability. If you think that you want to take more than a few notes think again, the up and down scrolling will kill you, and that is only if you are successful in closing enough tool bars to actually see the text box. Much like with the wide rule notebook- by the time you finish your heading you've got room for one , maybe two lines before you need to use the back of the page.

Audio- maybe, video maybe not. Some Youtube content plays but it is a choppy affair, and forget about HD completely- unless you like to see live action as stop-motion animation.

So am I mad that I spent money on netbooks and not an iPad- nope. I think these will make great machines for my kids to start typing on and they will provide a great platform to do some basic surfing and document creation. For grown ups as long as you keep your expectations low, there may be a netbook in your future.