Comments on: The Netbook is dead. Long live the notebook!

Many companies showed systems they called Netbooks at CES, but most of them were really just small full-function laptops. Here's why the show marked the death of the Netbook concept.

[Adam_in_MN]

I understand the author's points and he may be correct that the number of people ultimately happy with having a Netbook might be smaller than originally thought. That said, I and those I know are very happy with their Netbook for exactly the purposes Peter speaks of. They make a great supplemental computer that is compact, light weight, with good battery life. A Netbook fills the role of an easy to tote communication machine with superior Internet capabilities than a SmartPhone. Further, they are adequate for non-processor intensive software, increasing their value as the transportable computer that complements a more robust desktop or even higher end Notebook PC.

One last thing. I and a number of my friends are motorcyclists. Having a Netbook is ideal to take on trips were space and weight is a cruical factor. On my last major outing my Acer Aspire One D150 provided a great platform for scoping out local information for where we rode and also to update downloadable GPS maps when we opted to change our route for the next day.

I love having a Netbook and a Desktop PC. My old Lenovo Notebook is now my wife's machine and I don't miss it at all.

[tbowers1812]

I've traveled approximately 100,000 air miles since March 1st of this year. I used to carry a 9 pound Thinkpad which I love (for its raw computing power). Now I carry a 3 pound XP Netbook and a 2.5 pound Ubuntu Linux Netbook. I save 3 pounds (a big deal when traveling internationally) and have more computing capability and flexibility (from an application standpoint) than I had before. With more applications going cloud based (SaaS) I get the best of both worlds. I can even run two virtual machines and the host without performance degradation (due to the Atom's ring 0 support for VM)....so what was so bad about Netbooks again??? Oh and I get 8 hours of battery life on my Linux notebook with a 6 cell battery. The best I could ever do on my Thinkpad was 6 with a large battery pack. Pretty helpful when you're on a 14 hour flight to Dubai.

[helloworlder]

Recently I was travelling through Europe, and I carried a large backpack (over 10 kg). During my time overseas I wished I had a small and light laptop to access the Internet, because walking around looking for Internet cafes to book my next hostel was stressful. An ultra-light "netbook" in that situation would have been ideal.

Anyway I bought a netbook after my trip in Europe, not because I'm going on another trip anytime soon, but because I realized it was pretty ideal for web development. Yup, I use the EeePC for programming and it is more than powerful enough. The only real issue is the screen size and maybe the keyboard if you have large hands, but I don't program on it for long periods as it is not my main dev machine. For my main dev machine I use a desktop. On the road, I use the netbook. And the extremely long battery life is FTW!

[ww9rivers]

That was January. This is November. Netbooks are not quite dead yet. Want to predict again?

By the way, this comment is typed on a Asus EeePC 901.