Over the past few days, I’ve been putting an Asus 1005 HA through it’s paces and I must say that I’m impressed with it – with a few caveats. When I got it, the first thing I did was ditch XP Home for Win7 Enterprise. Yes, a 1Ghz Atom with 1GB RAM ran the big Win7 really well. Well enough to make me ignore the fact that I was using Windows. Sure on my Mac-centric network, there were a few hiccups on convenience elements (VNC would not connect across the network, but I have a hunch about that), but almost everything that would be required for “work” just clicked. SMB functioned great and the battery life was a real winner. So what is the one thing that didn’t quite “work”… the keyboard.
The smaller, or cheaper the computer, the greater the compromises that must be made. Netbooks, even with technology improving all the time, still require these trades. Some of these considerations are dealt with through software. Asus for example ships a suite of apps on it’s netbooks to help thinks along and provide some extra value. Those same apps might have helped the keyboard issue. I found that on Win7, the cursor was very jumpy. I don’t know if that was an issue with the OS or the hardware, but I’m suspecting the former. In addition to the cursor, many of the fn-X key combos also died off after the update. I’ve got a hunch that there is a way to get the keyboard functionality back, but the cursor might be another matter. This part of the equation will almost certainly be remedied with future Win7 updates and certainly it’s going to be interesting to see what it going to happen with ChromeOS hitting the interwebs by the end of the month.
So what is my overall impression? I will certainly be getting one, as soon as I can find one with HDMI out (I know the Dell mini 10v is out there, but then I’d be getting a Dell 🙁 ). Why HDMI out? Well, that way, I can hook it up to a TV and use it as a streamer, or hide it away and through Bluetooth keyboards let the kids play their games and watch their Silly Songs on YouTube.
Now would I get these for a classroom, a lab or similar environment? Certainly. The cost has them being less than some textbooks in higher ed (a quick survey through the student areas on campus last week saw netbooks:Macs:PCs at about 6:2:1) In K-12, they are tough, and the keyboards are sized well for smaller hands. As to the applications that can run on them? Well, there is a reason they are called netbooks. With 802.11n and greater connectivity most apps will run just fine from the cloud, so the power sipping Atom is more than up to the task. But what about the screen? Well I think the first netbook with a built in pico projector should be showing up within a year, That screen could certainly be more than 1024*600 – project that only a popup screen on the table, that limitation is gone as well. In addition to the pico projector, it would be good if more netbooks offered alternative interfaces (we’ve got a tablet netbook in the office to try as well), eliminating the cramped keyboard issue for those with larger hands (or the need for an external keyboard).
All tolled, these devices are certainly the future. Between smartphones and netbooks, the future of computing is going to be able to fit in your pant pocket (moving from the jacket today), likely within a few years. I think it would be folly for those involved with school computing and labs not to start looking at these “high powered OLPCs” not for rollout over the next few years. It it also folly for a certain fruit company to continue to ignore this form factor.
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