Computers & Networking

[Gina-BBY Community Manager]

I went to Best Buy to look at netbooks.  I'm thinking about picking up one to use at work -- lugging my laptop around is sometimes bothersome.  The store had some nice ones, but I wish Apple would make a netbook.  According to a recent Yahoo! News article It appears Apple isn't planning on doing that anytime soon.

Do you a think a PC netbook with a 160gb harddrive and 1gb ram would be sufficent for me to run Office 2007 and CS4?

Thanks,

Gina

[hockeycanuckjc Trusted Contributor]

Office yes , CS4 , No because of the graphics card built into most netbooks.

[inutel]

Mine works with Dreamweaver and Photoshop, it just gets slow with large files and complex plug-ins. Netbooks will choke on video editor and motion graphics like Premier and After Effects .

[Terrence]

Netbooks are design for their portability, not their processing power.  They are ideal for secondary computers that you can grab and run out the door with easily.  They are really only ideal for the basic web browsing, email, and document usage.  They will run MS Office just fine, and handle the occasional photo or audio blurb okay.  Unfortunately these items do not do well at all with anything that is in the least bit resource intensive.  So I would recommend staying away from netbooks if you plan on doing anything graphic oriented like video editing, gaming, graphic design, or anything that leads to multitasking like music or audio editing.  They really don't do well downloading multimedia from the web either.

Have you considered getting a more portable laptop.  I know there are quite a few to choose from at sizes of 14" and smaller (although the price is higher than a netbook).  Take a look at this particular HP: dv3510nr

That one would do nicely for the work you will be doing and is nice and portable.  It isn't quite a netbook price, but definitely comes close to netbook portability.  You really do have to pay for power.  That is exactly why Apple hasn't announced any plans for releasing a netbook.  It is hard to get the power and design Apple is known for in a small package that costs less than $400, which is the whole appeal of netbooks.  There are unofficial rumors going around in the Apple Specialist circuits that Apple does in fact have a netbook in the works though.

 

[BB2580drago]

apple started the trend with the apple macbook air

[Gina-BBY Community Manager]

CS4 is my dream state, but I can't afford it.  Most likely I would put on Macromedia MX.  While the program is from seven years ago, Fireworks, Dreamweaver and a little Flash is really all I use.

I've looked at the Apple Air, but I'd prefer to spend about $200 rather than $2000.  While I have an HTC Tilt, I'm looking for something more functional that is a grab and go.  I'll keep pondering this.

[hockeycanuckjc Trusted Contributor]

Lets not forget about our wonderful free alternatives here.

Theres the following:

1. The Gimp (Photoshop Alternative)

2. Inscape (Adobe CS Alternative) http://www.inkscape.org/

3. Open Office (Now the Latest version opens and handles 2007 documents with great sucesss)

These are just some of the free things out there and Im sure a lot of you will find some use for these  programs.

And remember like the paid counterparts, these programs also support plugins, you just have to

download and install them and work with them to see what you do and dont like.

[Terrence]

By all means, keep pondering.  According to this article in the Wall Street Journal prices for higher powered and smaller laptops should be dropping in the near future.  They are also surmising about the demise of netbooks when the economy recovers.  I guess the thought is that the only reason these lower performance machines have gained in popularity is due to the price point.  We shall see... 

[Nokia]

The MBA isn't a netbook.