John-
Here's the thing about the netbook: you get what you pay for, nothing less, but nothing more.
I had to replace my aging and dying Inspiron 8000 PIII machine. I had not even thought about what to do for that. I went to Best Buy to get DVD-R blanks, 100 for US$22.00. I saw the Acer end-cap display of this thing. I looked, I saw the right ports, I saw the Atom N270 processor, 160 gig hard drive, 1 gig DRAM and all for US$299.99.
In thbe end, I spent much more, "dressing it up" for home use: external DVD writer, 20" Acer VGA monitor, USB AC powered hub, Logitech mouse, Logitech keyboard. I am up over US$700.00. But I can just take everything off when I travel, and while I could get a much faster and more complete machine at the small size, it would cost much more than US$700.00.
All I wanted was something to manage my 1Tb external drive that I use for music and video (I have 300 gigs of data), and to "crunch" for BOINC and WCG projects (the Atom processor is hyperthreaded, so it processes two work units at one time, and each twice as fast as the PIII.
All that said, this is not a fast machine. Seconds go by opening Win Explorer or WMP11.But, it is great for travel. I am glad I got the Acer 150-1635, 8.9" display, because the newer units are larger. They are also more money, but the same processor, DRAM and HDD.
So, if one is used to a Core 2 Duo machine, Windows or Mac, this will not replace it.
>>RSM
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