Netbook craze pushes PC industry to rethink game plan

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tshirt at 07:10 PM JST - 18th September

It is not necessary to quote netbook.
tshirt at 07:14 PM JST - 18th September

I love the way Japanese businesspeople make free enterprise sound like a consumer conspiracy. The business people's response? "Buy our overpriced goods and nobody gets hurt."

Not only Japanese, notice Apple has avoided the market so far. IBM saw this coming years ago and got out of the PC and HD markets. Profits are hard to come by.
Cliffy at 08:45 PM JST - 18th September

Not too surprise to see netbook is so popular! A lot of people has more than one computer and while on the go, you want something light and small just to browse and check email.
doytsujin at 11:24 PM JST - 18th September

Sony Vaio P is not a netbook. The key feature of a netbook is discount price. Sony Vaio P does not seem to be so cheap. Usually, in order to reduce price, manufacture equips netbook with the most regular hardware. Sony Vaio P is surely not a regular hardware. That could be a reason why Sony Vaio P is incompatibile with Linux. The rest of netbooks are the cheapest regular Intel machines and they are very good supported in Linux.
passingthrough at 11:44 PM JST - 18th September

Have u ever tried multi-tasking on a netbook? Its so frustrating
GW at 09:09 AM JST - 19th September

passingthrough,

they aint made for multitasking dude!
rtega at 02:31 PM JST - 19th September

passingthrough, you most probably meant "multi-tasking on Windows" not "multi-tasking on a netbook"...
Disillusioned at 07:11 PM JST - 19th September
I have an Acer Aspire One and it is a very handy little tool. I have P/shop and Illustrator installed on it and it has handled just about anything I've throw at it, so far. The keyboard is a tad small, but I found it easier to type on than a full size keyboard after a bit of practice cos you don't have to move your hands at all. The built in webcam and mic is handy for Skype chats with the rellies too. The only negative point I have is, the heat. It gets uncomfortably hot after about half an hour, but a quick trip to Akiba solved the problem with a USB powered cooler pad for ¥1,000.
- BUT! It is just a convenient and portable toy. I have my Powerbook to use when I wanna do some real work.
pawatan at 10:33 PM JST - 19th September

Uhm, I'm not so sure about the Cheaper Linux models, but Linux can't even properly operate smaller netbooks. Take for example, the Sony Vaio P. Although, you can easily install Linux OS on it like Ubuntu, chances are you'll deal with unoptimal use, because of unsupported drivers.

I'm running Ubuntu on a low-spec netbook and it works great. In fact, it worked fantastic right after the install finished, which was super simple.
griff at 10:49 PM JST - 19th September

the netbook craze goes to show that people are starting to cotton on to the fact that one does not need the latest multi-core monster in order to send emails, browse the web a bit and surf websites. this completely undermines an industry that has (up until now) assumed that moore's law would guarantee growth for now and forever, amen
kokuryu at 03:03 AM JST - 22nd September

Apple should get into this market and put out a super cheap iNetBook. Their OS is infinitely scalable and fits on any processor and any configuration.
pawatan at 07:04 PM JST - 22nd September

Their OS is infinitely scalable and fits on any processor and any configuration.

Infinitely scalable? OK, let's slap it on an Altair 8800.
nuju at 11:47 PM JST - 23rd September

I have an lenovo s10e from japan (it has the japanese keyboard) and it came with xp but I have tri-boot windows xp windows 7 and mac osx and all three work great.

the windows 7 loads fine and works for all my work e-mail ssh/telent ftp and all my other things i need for work (network engineer) it run all apps i have loaded on it just fine with areo.

mac osx load fine with a guide all the apps run native and just works. only problem is mac osx does not support a small screen by default and had to be tweaked but the guide shows you how to dot that too.

i like osx for a lot of reason but i find myself using windows 7 cause of the screen issues and that fact that more japanese sites support windows more than mac very intresting.
inakaRob at 08:47 AM JST - 24th September

Netbooks are great. I am on one right now. n10jb! dedicated graphics nVidia card. but this one was 5man. I don't know how slow one of the much cheaper ones are. This one is fine, does everything i need with no speed complaints. What i don't get it, is why all the store i visited in Japan have some of the slowest and oldest models available. The n10jb is the fastest one you can buy. They don't even sell this exact model in the States, the slower similar one they do sell is 1man more!!! I had to dig and find this model on Amazon.jp.co. It has hardly sold any.
tsukki at 12:36 PM JST - 24th September

i bought the white asus eee pc. very classy and fast. it's very convenient too, but then, i mainly use computers for web surfing, microsoft office and skype only. i don't like laptops because they're large and heavy (relative to the netbook).