What's the difference between Netbooks and notebooks?

And he meant it. Here is an example:

Model: Dell Mini 9 Netbook
!!!Price: $399!!!
Screen: 8.9? Screen
Weight: 2.3 lbs.
Bat. Life: 4 hours
Processor: 1.6ghz single Intel Atom
Memory: 512meg
!!!Disk: 8gb Solid State Drive!!!
OS: Windows XP Home
Options: Camera, Bluetooth

Yes, some of these Netbooks have small SSD's and run Linux. But these are not the high-end SSD's you and I are coming to love, and they do not deliver the performance or reliability you would expect. In fact, this class of SSD is nothing more than some NAND flash sitting behind a Compact Flash controller. In one early Netbook (which earned the genre the telling moniker "Crappy-Lappy") there were actually two of these SSD's, one for OS and apps, and the other for user data. These types of SSD's are notoriously slow and tend to wear out the NAND quite quickly.

In SSD-land we measure something called "write amplification" which is a metric of how much writing to NAND occurs for a single write to the SSD. The CF-controller-based SSD's often have a write amplification of 8 to over 200(!!!) compared to a write amplification of 1.1 or less in the higher end SSD's from Micron, Intel and Samsung. Obviously this has an impact on the endurance of NAND and on the performance of the SSD's.

It is a fact that these early, low-end CF-based SSD's have done much to hurt the image of SSD's. A report by Avian Securities based on industry experiences with CF-based SSD's was widely quoted by SSD skeptics as proof positive that SSD's were unreliable. The Register similarly found the early crop of SSD's to be less than impressive.

With the recent rapid dropping in NAND memory pricing we can expect to see more impressive SSD's from the NAND flash manufacturers and at prices that will start to get reasonable.

larger capacity say 128 gig compared to the smaller size SSD's on notebooks.

with a backup kit( Cloning software and a external drive case) for 224.00 with a $75.00 rebate.

Netbooks have less powerfull processor which leads to better battery life. The are usually much smaller then notebook and usuallu too small to have an internal optical drive. They tend to have integrated graphics so solitaire may be the only game anyone would want to play on them.

The are fine to do email, web browsing and even using spreadsheets and docs. High intensive processor tasks won't work well with a netbook. Speeadsheets and docs do require intensive processor usage unless scripts and VBA apps are used in the spreadsheet.

RE: "The last difference is that most netbooks can run
>>either Linux or Windows XP."

Actually, this isn't a difference. ANY computer can run either Linux or Windows XP (even Macs!) It just so happens that Linux is often offered preinstalled on netbooks because, it's cheaper than Windows.

Oh, and since many netbooks are less powerful, they will run much better with Linux which uses far fewer resources than Windows XP. FYI, if you have an old, slow computer and don't know what to do with it, install Linux and it will perform nearly as well as your new PC, maybe even better (if the new one has Vista on it). (disclaimer: I am not one of those Linux-head Microsoft-bashers, and don't want to start a flame-war)

Linux and its apps (like OpenOffice) are good and all until the one day you discover you need a feature that full-blown PC's do easily and readily... and usually you need that feature right then and there. Print a tri-fold invitation? Connect to that Scanner/Printer combo that you just bought? Visit a particularly advanced website that goes beyond what the (relatively limited) W3C "standards" call for? You're stuck. And, there's more.

Many of these things CAN be done on Linux.... but only after a lot of headache, scouring the web for help, and wasting hours of your time. WinXP and Vista have their problems for sure, but it's not lack of features.

"Print a tri-fold invitation?"

Who does that? And who does that on a netbook? I've never had the urge to try this, but I'm sure Scribus can do it. If you're trying to do it on OOo then you're using the wrong class of program - it's like complaining that you can't print an invitation using Final Cut Pro.

"Connect to that Scanner/Printer combo that you just bought?"

Plug it in, open your printer management program, and tell it to look for a new printer. Do the same with your scanner management program. Remember, like any sane person, we're buying a printer/scanner combo that is Linux-compatible and has drivers out-of-the-box. Dude, the process on Linux is *quicker* than on Windows and doesn't require any rebooting.

"Visit a particularly advanced website that goes beyond what the W3C standards call for?"

I have no idea what you're talking about. Any website that runs in Firefox on Windows runs on Firefox on Linux. It's the SAME BROWSER. Any website that uses Flash on Windows will work with Flash on Linux. It's the SAME PLUGIN. Java? Cross-platform. Web video? It all works. The only difference is Microsoft Silverlight, which of course almost no websites use (and there is a Microsoft-sponsored open-source equivalent which can run quite a bit of the extremely-rare Silverlight content).

"Lot of headache and wasting hours of your time"

This is 2009, not 1999.

I call FUD on this whole post. Some people need to join this decade before it ends.

First, Linux is no more new age than any other OS. The main three have been around for quite some time now. Second of all, if there is something to be joined, then in communication terms, it ought to be with the largest part of the world as possible.
Sorry, that means Windows.

And while it is true that you can tell your OS to look for a new device, Windows generally does it automatically. When it doesn't the majority of my customers call me. Even though I've taught them every time, they do it so rarely that they always retort, "they forgot".

Now about Linux? I have several copies of linux that I try to put on "last years computers", and the result? There is something it always doesn't like and requires replacing. Usually a network card or soundcard. This makes it to annoying to deal with in terms of cost and I usually wind up putting some version of Windows back on it.

Apple and Linux are very cool systems, but they have yet to show me that either are world class enough to connect anywhere and everywhere to anything.

Linux is great for the cyber tweeker and Apple is good for the rebel without a cause and the "teenage Brittany's" wanting to show everyone their galleries.

But if you want to connect to more people, more businesses and do so without having to spend time looking for fixes and tell your computer every little thing it should do, then stick with an OS that does that.

And let Apple and Linux keep working on it.

I guess I was using the wrong program. But considering MS Works (yes MS Works, MS Word, and MS Publisher all can do it beautifully and easily, I figured OpenOffice could handle it. I tried to help my daughter create an invitation for her party. A folded invitation (with front/inside-left/inside-right/back) that she has been able to do all her 9 years on this planet using MS Works and MS Publisher. I scoured OpenOffice's pitiful online templates. No go with OpenOfice. I then downloaded the free Serif PagePlus. Great program- a lot like MS Publisher... but in the end, it couldn't really do it either (not in a way that she could understand since it displayed sections up-side-down etc). I saw that Google Docs had some templates that came close. But, in the end, they they didn't accomplish what she wanted either.

You're being disingenuous with the printer/scanner thing. You know full well that the manufacturers add many features to the drivers beyond the basic capabilities. If you've never realized this, you haven't used much hardware in your life. In fact, even on Windows this is apparent when you compare the built-in drivers (for printers for instance) and the ones you download from the OEM site. Linux drivers are (usually) the absolute bare bones.

Anybody that does web development knows the W3C standards are extremely behind-the-times and are missing A LOT of features that browsers try to overcome each in their own way (IE, of course, more aggressively). Often it seems the standards throw you back to the stone age by breaking things that used to work quite well in old HTML (XHTML and 100% height, anyone?).

Computers are suppossed to get to easier to use. Not harder. That's why Linux fails despite whatever technical things it might have over Windows.

I wrote the response that you are replying to. Yep, you're right; an ordinary laptop or desktop can run Linux and Windows as well. I meant to say "A netbook can come preinstalled with either Windows or Linux". I think I said the word "preinstalled" later on in the post.

Apologies to anyone who might have thought that only netbooks could run Linux.

I have a new Toshiba NB100.. I paid 350 Euro for it (about 437USD, 16% Tax included). It works better than my older P IV 1800 Mhz.
It came with WinXP Home installed, 1 GB RAM, 160 MB HD, WiFi, Bluetooth audio in/ot stereo ports and three 2.0 USB ports.

I use it now as my desktop unit. And I do more than surfing the WEB, like using a sound editor (Audacity), a Music Notation Software and a few others applications.

This Intel Atom dual core CPU is amazing and it takes about 10W of power instead of the 150+W of the PIV.

Small screen? yes, just 8.9". So I connected my 19" AOC TFT.

Small keyboard and tricky touch tablet? Oh yes!. So I use a 10USD Logitech 102 keys USB kbd and an optical tiny USB mouse, also 9 USD.

No DVD/CD burner? Yes. That is the only reason I keep my old PC in a a corner. But certainly not a major drawback, as almost everything conceivable can be done with USB interfaces, so the CDs and DVDs are to be used somewhere else, not with the netbook.

Needless to say I am very happy with my new toy. Or I should better say, my new jewel...

I'm enrolled at UNCP taking online classes and I need a laptop.
I would like to know which would be best and last me for years a Netbook or Notebook?

Thanks

Cindy Locklear

Interesting comment as my netbook, an Acer Aspire ONE, came with a 120GB HDD, Windows XP Home SP3, 1GB RAM and the MS Office 2007 suite. I use this netbook with the Office suite and I have not seen any measurable differences.

Granted, an Atom based system is NOT a gaming system nor should someone expect very high performance. However, from this to stating that it's pratically useless for anything but net surfing is questionable.

Not all netbooks are made the same... SSD based computers with Linpus do offer limited uses but a 120GB HDD verion with XP satisfies many other needs.

I agree with you - to go from the extreme of gaming to saying that they are only useful for interent access is underestimating them. I also have an Acer Inspire with 120gb hard disk/1.5gb memory. I have loaded all the programmes I like to use including Photodex and Adobe and Office and can use them just as in PC, but as far as I am concerned the best bonus is the weight being only 1.1kg - I can put it in my handbag ! When you have a back problem and No Frills airlines are increasingly restricting weight, it is a real treat.

how did you move the programs from your desktop pc to your netbook

I read the ads, I compare the prices, the speed, as much as I know to look at. It seems so obvious that it is a comparison similar to a 3-ring binder, with a zippered pencil pouch, pockets inside the covers to hold papers (That would be the Notebook) versus a 40 page, wide-rule spiral notebook with a cardboard (or thinner) front and back cover, no added luxuries. But you can buy Post-its...Ok This is the Netbook, the post-its might be a removeable or portable hard-drive.

That's where I reveal MY ignorance. Can a person use a Netbook, and if they discover its like a 3-inch notepad for the back pocket, can an addition of a portable hard-drive (500gb-$169.00 somewhere)make the Netbook useful and not just another gadget for next years garage sale?
If my simpleton analogy is correct, then are the netbooks a tool our kids can use for school? Or do they need the programs available to the Notebooks, and then, are Netbooks more for chatting and shopping? Don't need that for the kids, or even me. There's a market, but yeah, it is discouraging when technology is confusing. I started with a Mailstation. ONLY did email, and only short ones. But back then it was all I needed.

Then as a generous gift I was given a Viao laptop with spectacular rating (How?) with a Celeron M processor. My grand finale:

Is my Viao really an early NETBOOK? With its 40 GB hard drive and 512 mem? (VGN_??? model) 2 years old.

The developments in netbooks nowadays which include an internal graphic card, HSDPA, bluetooth, etc., generally tends to blur the distinction and leaves the difference to Notebooks having a faster processor (however dual core atoms are coming out soon) and Netbooks having no integrated DVD drive and of course size however there are new Dell netbooks having a 12" screen which also starts to blur that distinction. Another difference also would be the price (Netbooks prices also are starting to rise due to the added features). So far the main difference is what it was primarily designed to do, if it was primarily designed to be ultra-portable and for accessing the Net regardless of it's features and pluses, then it's a Netbook. If it was designed to be a portable desktop, then it's a Notebook.

This could be true if there were a solid definition as to what does "designed to be a portable desktop" really mean? I am sure that is is only time before some of the Netbooks start getting DVD drives too. But none of this is really any different then trying to define the difference between Workstation and Desktop or Notebook and Laptop. The industry advances so fast that the definitions are constantly changing.

is not a netbook a simplified version of a notebook, it's just one ladder rung down from a desktop then. Therefore regardless of what upgrades are put on it, or if they become better than notebooks, they'll still be that ladder rung down so stop making a big deal, they're meant to be two different things

I completely agree with you regarding 'don't underestimate the netbook' I too have recently purchased an Acer Aspire One netbook, purely on the ground of weight. Initially I hadn't realised there was no DVD drive, but when I thought about what I wanted to do with it, there was no reason why I couldn't use a flash drive instead and finish off on my home PC. That is what I have done. Regarding loading programmes I already have on home PC onto it, I loaded the disk on PC and copied onto flash drive, then loaded it onto the Netbook and opened the folder/selected 'autorun' and that has worked so far. So I am pleased with it,don't be discouraged. It is quite fast though I did buy an mini usb mouse because I can't stand the tiny touch pad !