I have been idly browsing websites for netbook specs and prices. I think I want one in preference to tablet thingy - it's for brief spurts of websurfing, looking at a detailed itinerary (Excel probably) and storing / backing up photos.
The impression I am getting is that web prices are not really much cheaper than the likes of PC World etc. Or, as often happens, have I got it wrong?
Any recommendations too while I'm at it. The limit is maybe £200 so maybe I should look at refurbed ones - but what about the projected life of an older battery? Add £30 for a new one and you might as well get an entirely new machine ?
Questions, questions.
I suppose January might be the time for a better price too?
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I bought one of these last week.
www.idealkit.co.uk/products/medion-akoya-e1225-10-250gb-netbook?gclid=CJ2u_qLDgq0CFVQLfAodyEx2SQ
Its got the N570 dual core processor too, which is a lot faster than old single core Atoms when it comes to flash stuff. I ditched Windows and run Lubuntu on it though. A brilliant machine for the money.
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I bought one of these last month:
www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/ASUS_EeePC_1011PX-BLK070S_1108624.html
I agree with Rats the dual core processor is worth having.
His Medion will probably perform just as well as my Asus, although the Asus has decent battery life, don't know about the Medion.
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The Median is just an MSI Wind, not sure about the battery life either when I pull the plug Libuntu says I have seven hours remaining, but I have no idea how accurate that is.
If you have the extra money I would go for the Asus, but if you haven't then the Median is a bargain. I bought it as my SSD failed on my old N270 Acer One and decided rather than buying a second hand SSD (they not standard laptop SSDs) the dual core and 1" bigger screen would make a difference.
I can watch Iplayer perfectly on Libuntu with no lag at all, its a bit patchy on Windows 7. To upgrade the RAM on the Medeon its a motherboard out job :(, but with Libuntu 1gb is plenty.
On the Asus it should be a case of removing a little cover on the base, and with Windows 7 starter the an extra 1GB could make a big difference.
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Rattle, £175 compared with £225 is a no brainer for me. I value your judgement and will almost certainly get the Medion that you have bought - I'll wait to 26 Dec as I might get a couple of quid off -who knows.
Is Windows 7 starter any good for my simple purposes ? Putting on Lubuntu, Ubuntu or Linux is a step too far for someone who still thinks that computers work by magic !
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Installing it is very easy but getting the installation program to work might not be, as you have to download an ISO and then make an image of it onto a USB stick.
I am used to an I3 Sandybridge with 16gb of RAM, so of course Windows 7 will seem slow on the netbook for me. I would say Windows 7 is perfectly usable provided you don't want to watch videos/TV and aware of the limitations. For C4P, Facebook/Microsoft Office and all that its perfectly fine.
It comes with a basic version of Office too although it is very basic and I would just use Open Office instead.
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Thanks again Rattle.
I'll stick to Win7 starter.
I'll only really be using it for emails and web information for planning future trips and booking places to stay. Open Office will be handy for my Excel holiday itinerary and Word lists.
The 250gb is plenty for photo back-ups. The Adobe Photoshop Elements stuff can wait until I get home.
It's all got to be better than using an iPod touch.
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Yeah I would not want to run Photoshop Elements on it! That would be torture and they are really not designed for that.
Just be aware with the Medeon that to upgrade the RAM you need to remove the motherboard, so you're probably stuck with the 1GB if you don't fancy doing that.
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I ordered it today:
Medion Akoya E1225 10" 250gb Netbook £175.
Many thanks for the recommendation. Report to follow.
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It arrived near enough exactly 24 hours after I ordered it. Not mentioned in the package description, but a neat padded carry bag was included as well as a tiny mouse.
The on/off button is a blue glowing "crystal" which doesn't seem to move but somehow works - maybe Rattle can confirm.
It's not the fastest machine on the planet but once I've got rid of the trial Kaspersky Anti-virus it might speed up a bit. I presume MS Essentials is the way to go in-lieu. Also, you get MS Office 2010 Starter which is not a limited trial but the real permanent thing. The slight downside is a small advert which will only go if you pay for the full stuff - which I won't.
Is there any benefit in using Open Office instead ? I only need very basic Word & Excel for which even MS Office Starter 2010 is way, way too much. I could load on my old, very old Word/Excel 97.
The speed, or should I say lack of speed, is noticeable - but I made the decision to only spend £174.99 for a model you can't easily upgrade, so I'm happy enough.
Interestingly it's now out of stock on the main IdealKit site but at £199 on its eBay site - curious. Amazon want £199 too - so maybe another vote of thanks to Rattle is due.
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Can't see the point of Open Office if Word Starter does the job, although you've plenty of room for Open Office and it won't slow the machine down.
Incidentally, there's talk of Open Office no longer being supported after it was bought by someone.
Some of the Open Office lot cleared off and started Libre Office, which might be the better long term bet.
I've not downloaded either to my netbook yet, but might go the Libre Office route provided this post doesn't spark any strong opinions not to.
www.libreoffice.org/download/
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>> Can't see the point of Open Office if Word Starter does the job
It dont - severely crippled.
>>although you've
>> plenty of room for Open Office and it won't slow the machine down.
>>
>> Incidentally, there's talk of Open Office no longer being supported after it was bought by
>> someone.
It was dumped into the open source world by Sun many years ago, who had their own version - Star office.
Since the take over of Sun by Oracle, who hate open source with a serious passion, they announced restrictions and agro with the open source license.
hence
>> Some of the Open Office lot cleared off and started Libre Office, which might be
>> the better long term bet.
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It is a good little machine, but I did find it runs ten times fast with Libuntu. Swapping the Kaspersky trial with MSE will help matters.
As for Open Office, if you just need a basic word processor then the basic office is ok, for anything else Libre Office is the best bet.
There is couple of annoyances with the machine, one is the power button as you say its a bit strange but it should light up blue when its on. The other is there is no caps lock LED, maybe on Windows it tells you but on Linux I have no way of telling.
Other than that its a brand new dual core netbook for less than a single core netbook would cost in PCWORLD. Its actually a rebadged MSI Wind too so parts shouldn't be an issue although its probably too cheap to be worth fixing.
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I didn't know about Libreoffice - thanks Iffy.
Should I uninstall my last installation of Openoffice before installing, or, does Libreoffice just behave like an OPenoffice update?
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...Should I uninstall my last installation of Openoffice before installing, or, does Libreoffice just behave like an OPenoffice update?...
Entirely separate programme, so there's no technical reason not to have both.
Best idea would be to install Libre Office, check it works OK and you get along with it, then ditch Open Office.
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>> Entirely separate programme, so there's no technical reason not to have both.
>>
>> Best idea would be to install Libre Office, check it works OK and you get
>> along with it, then ditch Open Office.
Iffy is half right, but there are very good reasons not to have both. It is a "separate" program, BUT as they both share a similar core, they may well be sharing or using the same shared libraries of code. Except one may now be at a different level to the other.
If it were me, firstly I would decide to either stick with OO, or move to Libre office (and that choice is not yet crystal clear) and if it were a move I would delete OO and cleanly install Libre.
There is a third option. IBM has a product called Symphony - Its another OO clone www-03.ibm.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home and currently has full vendor support. Its a much cleaner and simpler version of OO, ideal for non power home users.
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Thanks,
In my defence, I've been searcing the Libreoffice site, and I can't find anything that describes how to migrate from Openoffice to Libreoffice.
It's a bit confusing, as LibreOffice have kept the version numbering sequence from OpenOffice, implying it might work as a simple update.
However, I think a clean install is the way forward....
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Document compatibility is at least (for the moment I cant vouch for how long) assured.
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...Iffy is half right...
Thanks Zero, half-right is a good score for me in Computer Related.
I'll take a look at Symphony because 'non power home user' fits my bill.
Words, spaces, and the ability to open poxy Word attachments to emails is all I need.
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Shared libraries should (MUST) be path dependent ie. the loader/linker should distinguish between mylib.a in one directory and mylib.a in a different directory. If not, the Operating System is crippled and imagine the security nightmares!
Unless the developers of Libre have made a serious mistake, (which should be reported as a bug), I can't see any reason why it shouldn't co-exist with OO on the same machine.
>There is a third option. IBM has a product called Symphony..
My own personal choice and now pretty much standard within the company. I use it almost exclusively despite having a full MS Office installation on my laptop for the odd occasion when one of MS's deliberate gotchas get's through.
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Netbook prices / specs. New / refurbed ? - RattleandSmoke
