New member of the computer family
One lesson learned from CES. Light weight is key. After schlepping around an Alienware monster 15 laptop all week, I decided that it was critical to have something smaller before my next trip. Since that could happen at any time, I started shopping.
Due to a lucky combination of some unexpected funds coming in and a great deal found on Craigslist, I was able to pick up a Dell Mini 10v for a great deal. After I got it home, I started to do research on it and found out that you can install Apple’s OSX on it. So in the interest of experimentation, I’m currently working on getting it set up.
For anyone looking at a netbook, I’d recommend the Mini 10v. It’s small without being a toy, the keyboard has a great tactile feel, and the screen is very crisp and clear (albeit a bit small). I haven’t noticed any performance issues, and it’ll stream video from Hulu with no problems. I am planning on upgrading it to 2gb of ram (even though that process is quite complicated), the performance upgrade will make it a pretty much perfect machine.
So for around $300 (from Dell), you can get a great machine for general web surfing, checking email, playing web based games, and some light gaming. You can get fancy with it if you are so inclined (by changing it to OSX or Linux), but it’ll work great with XP or Windows 7 starter edition. The 6 hour battery life doesn’t hurt either.
Update: Got OSX working perfectly. Once I fixed a PEBKAC issue with the BIOS setup, it installed and started working with absolutely no issues. Of course, this is my first experience with OSX, and the first mac I’ve used since 1991, so there may be a bit of a learning curve.