Windows 7 on a Netbook

I enjoy my netbook. I have an Acer Aspire One D150 model. It is very convinient for me to use. It comes in handy on plane rides, trips to class, and any other small computing task that I may have for it.

Recently, Lifehacker had a poll on the top 5 netbook operation systems(see here). So far I've used Windows XP and Windows 7rc. I plan on giving Ubuntu's Netbook Remix a try next. I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience with Windows 7.

If I had to describe my time with Windows 7 on my netbook in one word it would be SMOOTH. I installed Windows 7 on my netbook to give it a test drive as an OS, not just for the netbook experience. It surprised me with how good it was. I expected it to be good, but slow on the netbook. I never had an issues with speed or memory usage. Granted, I did mostly web browsing and writing, but I never got the feeling that the OS was bogged down by underpowered hardware. Even when waking up from sleep, it always seemed snappy.

Once the OS was installed, everything worked, with the exception of multitouch. I had to go to the Acer website to get drivers for it, but once installed I had no problems. Connecting to wireless networks or printers was a snap. I always got over 5 hours battery life, which is perfect for cross country flights. Windows 7 has a lot of new features that I didn't really take advantage of because I didn't do much heavy lifting on the Netbook. I'm sure they can be useful, but most of my time was spent in the browser.

The main programs I used with it were Chrome, Darkroom, Firefox, Notepad++, Putty and Skype. I've never tried to do any coding on it, but I'd rather code in a Linux environment anyway. None of these programs really stressed the computer, but my intentions were never to do that.

Sometimes I'd notice programs would crash after coming back up from sleep mode. Also sometimes the ATI driver would fail, causing me to lost my custom colored theme, but those were both minor issues.

Windows 7 as a netbook operating system is a great choice. I'd recommend it to anyone who has a netbook and doesn't want to use Linux or XP. I'm giving Ubuntu's Netbook Remix a try once my RC begins its decline on March 1, and it will be my first crack at a "Netbook Oriented OS", but that will be a post for a later time.

The great Netbook - MacBook Debate

So this may not seem like much of a debate to most, but this one plagued me for a couple months. Why would anyone put a netbook and a Macbook Pro in the same debate, let alone the same sentence, yet I did. Each machine has it's strengths and weaknesses.

So I got both. Pretty sad I know. It didn't happen the way I would've liked it to go down, and I didn't get exactly what I wanted either but in one form or another I was able to get them both. Now I need to figure out how to use them both effectively and together.

So far the netbook has been great for traveling. I took it on a flight home with me, and on the airplane ride I was able to watch two whole movies and still have about 30 minutes of battery life left. Mind you the flight was 5 hours long, so I was pretty excited. Also the netbook is the size of a James Patterson book, which isn't that big ( < 11 inches). I was able to get the netbook running the evaluation version of Windows 7, which is pretty cool. I haven't done too much with the operating system other than test out the media center streaming to my Xbox 360. Sadly it didn't work as well as I hoped it would, but it's a netbook not a full scale laptop so I didn't have high hoped. For the most part on the netbook I open a text editor and a web browser.

On the other had I got a 2007 edition (I don't know the generation) 13 inch white Macbook. I was able to get it for $350 and it's running a fresh copy of Snow Leopard. I've been mainly using it to take notes in class and soon to be writing code on. Mac OS X is a lot different than windows, and I've been learning a lot of quirks that it has. It soon will be my default OS for most things but for right now I'm still working my way into it, slowly. So far it's pretty cool though. I'm actually writing this on it right now.

I've discovered a few apps to keep things working between the now current 3 laptops I have. I've discovered Dropbox to keep my school notes in sync between each laptop. I'm searching for an editor I like and a way so share music between the three. I've heard of Airfoil and look forward to giving it a try eventually, but so far I'm taking it easy. I'm slowly defining roles for each one, and hope to use them to their fullest potential.