I really like my netbook. For me, they are the perfect PCs, apart from my Commodores. They do everything I need a desktop PC to do, yet are comfortably mobile. They’re also low on the power requirements scale, easily compatible with our home’s solar power system. I like my netbook so much, I’m well stocked up on replacements.
From left to right, here’s my collection of netbooks, which I’ve been able to hobble together:
- 2 Asus EeePc 701s
- 2 Acer Aspire Ones D257 (the top one has a custom skin on the lid)
- 1 Acer Aspire One N214 (AOD255E)
- 1 Norhtec Edubook.
All of the netbooks are in excellent working order and, apart from one EeePc 701, all run a version of Linux as their OS. My “daily driver” is the N214, and my wife will occasionally use the blue D257, when she finds her full-sized Lenovo laptop too cumbersome to use.
I have been able to find a really good battery replacement on Amazon, which fits in all of the Aspire Ones. I bought two, which we just swap between netbooks when needed. The batteries in the EeePCs are doing pretty well. They can still hold a charge and keep operational for just under two hours on battery power. But, I don’t use them very often right now. One of them has MS Windows XP installed as the OS. I use that one to sync up to my Franklin eBookMan and will sometime use it as a disk server for my C128 and Retroswitch Flyer, or backup my old floppy disks with the ZoomFloppy.
I’m very glad that I’ve been able to “stock up” on them when I did. Recently, I took a look on eBay and it seems like these little netbooks are getting pretty pricey. And with each passing year, fewer become available. But, this small collection should last me a good while.
These little netbooks do everything I need a “modern” PC to do. They have a keyboard that I can type on and a screen that I can easily read; unlike those blasted “smart phones” and tablets everyone uses today. They even have USB ports! Good luck finding even those things on today’s tablets and laptops. And since I use ALT-Linux as my operating system, the limited resources of the netbook (compared to today’s standard) is not a problem. ALT is very efficient at utilizing system resources and can perform all of the things I need done. It’s a great feeling not being forced to spend my hard earned money constantly upgrading hardware and software, simply because the manufacturers say to do so. It’s even a better feeling to use a device the way I want to use it, and not have to fight with or “compromise” my needs to fit the technology’s framework. Who’s in charge here, anyway?! 
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[tag]netbook, eeepc, aspire one, edubook, collection[/tag]