Aquinas | The University of Scranton

Acer netbook good second computer
JOSEPH CASABONA
November 13, 2008 issue

Two weeks ago Tuesday I decided to purchase something I've been looking at for a long time: a netbook. As you might recall from an earlier article I wrote here, a netbook is like a sub-laptop: tiny, cheap, a little weak on performance, but perfect for doing web-based stuff. After two weeks with the Acer Aspire One, I'd say for $400 this machine is worth it.
Let me get the gripes out of the way first: The keyboard and trackpad are somewhat tough to get used to, which should be expected. The battery life could be better, but I could always buy a spare. And the WiFi at times is flaky, a problem that can be solved by restarting. Other than that, I've had a very pleasant experience.

When I got it, I was curious to see if I could manage with just this device during the day while I was on campus. My day-to-day work includes web development and other programming, instant messaging, checking e-mail, and listening to music. The last three can be taken care of on the web, using Meebo for IM, GMail for e-mail, and Pandora for music. My concern was software development. Eclipse, a program I use to write software, is pretty heavy duty. As it turns out, Eclipse takes some time to start up and at times runs slower than desired, but it doesn't hinder my productivity. I actually slightly underestimated the performance of this little machine.

However, there are some things to consider. As I mentioned, I run a lot of programs from the browser. I can do e-mail, IM, music, Office (using GoogleDocs), and much more using just my web browser, and for that I use Google Chrome, which is by far the fastest browser I've used. So being conscious of performance constraints, I was able to come up with some easy substitutions and get more bang for my buck.

There are several limitations working on a netbook. For one, if you can't work on a small (less than 9") display, this might not work for you. Also, I haven't tried running more than Google Chrome and my development environment on it — but I don't have a lot of faith. While my development environment is pretty demanding, I have a feeling once you read more than four major applications — Internet Explorer or Firefox, AOL Instant Messenger, Microsoft Word, and iTunes for example — you will see a big degradation in performance. That's why I rely heavily on my browser. If you don't use a lot of web-based resources, you might want to look into them before purchasing a netbook.

My conclusion is just what I thought it would be: this is great machine for web based stuff (and even some heavy lifting), but I could never make it my primary computer. I have several tools on my primary computer that just wouldn't work on this netbook, and furthermore goes beyond what I think it was created for. All-in-all, it was a very good purchase for me, and I think it would be a good purchase for someone looking for a cheap second machine.