I Miss the Netbook That Made Me Feel Cool for a Summer

I by no means owned a netbook, however I performed with them continually after I was interning at Maximum PC journal. I labored there in 2009, through the peak of the netbook’s recognition. The thought of a tiny laptop computer with the essential performance of my customized desktop PC at house was genuinely attractive to my nerdbrain. Not to say, it was a laptop computer that slot in my purse! I had a honker of a 17-inch Gateway laptop computer, and although it was my workhorse in faculty, it was too heavy to hold round.

Netbooks have been additionally very cute—one thing that Windows laptops have been decidedly not on the time. The Asus Eee PC wasn’t the identical sort of magnificence as, say, the Apple iBook G4, but it surely was darling in comparison with my plastic grey honker of a day by day driver. My love for netbooks solidified after I borrowed one for the summer season from my finest good friend. I used to be going overseas to go to my different finest good friend, and it was then that I noticed the tiny little laptop computer was the right software for embarking on a journey of self-exploration. It even helped me ease into the fantasy of what would finally turn out to be my actuality.

Unfortunately, netbooks weren’t lengthy for this world. They declined in recognition within the early 2010s, eclipsed by more and more succesful tablets and ultra-light laptops. There are loads of smaller laptops operating Windows or Chrome OS, however they’re too underpowered for at the moment’s multitasking past homeschooling and video playback. Those similar causes are why netbooks didn’t final. But I nonetheless can’t assist however really feel a nostalgic affinity for the Eee PC I carted round with me for a summer season.

The Eee PC for Me

My finest good friend invited me overseas one summer season, so I wanted to pack effectively. She was in class through the day, so I additionally needed to discover a technique to go the time between her courses. I requested one other shut good friend to borrow his white Asus Eee PC 900 netbook, one of many extra fashionable fashions on the time. It had an 8.9-inch show, a 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, and a measly 4GB of SSD storage. You may select whether or not it ran Windows XP or (when you needed any semblance of battery life) a model of Linux the producer was hawking. I don’t bear in mind which distro that Eee PC was operating, however I used to be acquainted sufficient to haven’t any points acclimating to the interface.

I didn’t have a smartphone on the time netbooks had reached their peak in recognition. Instead, I had a locked function cellphone that didn’t operate abroad, so the netbook proved important for staying linked whereas I used to be away. The Eee PC had an 802.11 b/g wifi modem, which helped me go surfing at a bit Swedish cafe the place I penned a fast e-mail to a love curiosity again house about my adventures. There was additionally an Ethernet port, which I utilized after sneaking right into a enterprise room on the Copenhagen Airport. I used the wired connection to analysis actions earlier than hopping over to our vacation spot for the weekend. The show was minuscule in comparison with different laptops, however with a 1024 x 600 decision, the display screen was crisp sufficient to look at a few films on the highway. I labored my approach via each a part of the unique Star Wars trilogy, plus the Julia Roberts traditional My Best Friend’s Wedding, which I watched snuggling up with my finest good friend on one of many nights we stayed in.

Many of the recollections I made on that first journey alone overseas have been helped partly by that little netbook I took with me from place to position. It additionally had its flaws, which turned more and more obvious as my journey neared its finish. For one, if I wanted to reply any work emails (I used to be additionally job looking on the time), I’d ask my good friend to make use of her full-size 15-inch laptop computer whereas she was out. Her keyboard had the identical variety of keys as mine, however the bigger actual property made it simpler to sort longer paragraphs than the Eee PC’s cramped keyboard.

The Eee PC’s battery was additionally gnarly, as most software program again then wasn’t optimized for cell use. I used to be fortunate to get via a two-hour film earlier than the netbook wanted a cost, which meant I needed to ration that point on the 11-hour aircraft experience house. The lack of space for storing was additionally a difficulty, and the flicks I watched have been all saved on a flash drive.

When I returned house that summer season, I promptly gave the netbook again to its authentic proprietor. But regardless of all of the concessions I needed to make to journey round with the Asus Eee PC in tow, your complete expertise left me thirsting for a robust however transportable laptop computer that I may comfortably carry in my bag.

Who Killed the Netbook?

You can partly thank the good recession of 2008-2009 for reinforcing the gross sales of netbooks. At $400, the netbook offered all of the web entry and performance an individual wanted to get by. But simply as analysts expressed optimism that netbooks would eclipse PCs and notebooks in gross sales, they crashed as arduous as they got here in. The iPad had stormed onto the scene, bringing a few new type of portability in a pill format. As Charles Arthur reported in The Guardian on the time, PC makers additionally realized that netbooks have been dangerous for enterprise, as they didn’t make a lot revenue after accounting for licensing charges. Manufacturers finally shifted focus to creating lighter and extra highly effective laptops. The closing holdouts have been Acer and Asus, which ceased making any new fashions by 2013.

My Perfect Laptop

The solely different laptop computer I’ve ever beloved as a lot as that little netbook I had for the summer season was the 2012 Ivy Bridge model of the 11-inch MacBook Pro. I cashed out unused trip time to pay for it, and it adopted me on the job for about 4 years. Unfortunately, it suffered comparable points because the netbook that preceded it; it didn’t have the most effective battery life or space for storing for the large RAW information I wanted to course of. But, on the similar time, it may course of these information within the full model of Adobe Photoshop! And as a result of the keyboard was across the similar measurement because the 13-inch MacBook Air, it was snug for prolonged rounds of typing. That machine remains to be in use; it’s serving to my cousin get via her faculty courses, the identical approach it helped me file tales and do my analysis on the highway.

I’ve to thank the netbook for uplifting me to pursue machines which might be small and mighty—maybe that’s why I’ve pivoted to protecting cell phones and different gadgets that allow me to get away from my desk and out into the world. There are some 11-inch laptops you should purchase from HP, Acer, and Lenovo, that price lower than the $400 price ticket of the unique netbooks. They have a lot higher specs, and a few of them even swivel backward to turn out to be useful tablets. I’d personally hoped for a revival of the netbook to happen inside the Chrome OS realm as a result of the platform lends itself so nicely to the shape issue. There are 11-inch Chromebooks that you would be able to purchase, however they’re configured finest for the school-from-home crowd.

I don’t know if any trendy laptop computer will ever recreate the sensation of freedom and functionality the tiny Eee PC afforded me. That’s most likely as a result of my time with the netbook occurred throughout a interval in my adolescence the place I felt not solely stifled and inhibited, however uncertain. The netbook let me think about myself, briefly, as a younger journalist on the highway, penning her ideas from wherever she may plug into the web. Damn it, it simply felt cool to pre-write a LiveJournal submit within the airport. The netbook let me dwell out the fantasy of what I needed to pursue after graduating from faculty. This is why I’ll all the time have a keenness for the little laptop computer that attempted.