I have never heard of Netbook Computers until I was in Staples the other day. It looks like it may be handy for the wife to work on her homework at work or at her parents house. She would pretty much just need to run MS Word on it, no games or anything and the $299 price seems about what we could spend right now.
I've seen some similar computers for about $199. If you catch a sale you can get a full featured laptop around $300 to 350.
I am talking to you from one right now and i sure love mine
. Runs Xp and has a 120gb HDD. I use it to type notes for class and mine is small enough to slide right into my back pack. Only weighs about 3 lbs. If you just need a computer for just work type stuff then they are about perfect. Battery life is also extremely good. I get about 4-6 hours on mine. I would buy an Asus Eee PC.
They are good for what they are - cheap internet/email utensils.
If she plans to do a lot of word processing, have her try one at the store (make her type a full page or two, and navigate around whatever other apps she'll use for school). The keyboards can be cramped and often have keys placed in odd spots on the keyboard. And the monitors are small (duh). So, for "hard-core" office use, they aren't the greatest.
I have a 9" Dell Mini. For couch surfing and solitaire, it's great. I don't mind the keyboard, but I don't use it for work.
My wife prefers her 14" Inspiron - larger screen is easier on her eyes, full size keyboard is more comfortable. It was not much more than $400, so not that much more than a netbook. And it's not as heavy a full-size 15 or 17 inch "desktop replacement" laptop.
I love my Mini 9 (on it right now), but of course I am one of those kooks who stuffed his full of win (Mac OSX, that is). I just scored another one off the Dell Outlet site, it will be a Mother's Day gift for mom. This thing should be perfect for her. It will be "her" first computer, as in the first one that isn't my Dad's. She was jealous of the one I set up for Dad with OSX. Got an amazing deal on this one too, $143 after coupon. There probably aren't any more at this price, and for those who want to run windows only the low-end Linux installed machines go that cheap. But there are still great deals on the windows ones too. The coupon code I used was 4XC$$4J2ZFXH4S, if that helps anyone.
Using my Aspire One at the moment.
It's great, does everything I need it to.
I don't do desktop publishing and I'm not a gamer so I don't need a big beastly computer.
This thing replaced my 5-year-old desktop and I'm happy with it. I just plugged in a real mouse, keyboard and monitor.
Shawn
I love my Mini9 hackintosh also. The new Dell Vostro A90 is the same thing in an all-black case. You can score new A90s from Dell for around $199 with XP that'll do what you need. You can also pick up similar Mini9s in the Dell Outlet for similar if not less money. I highly recommend putting OS X on it, but a buddy is still happily running his with XP for exactly the kind of thing you are looking for Wally.
The keyboard layout is a little funky but it's not that bad. The biggest pain in the balls is that the quotes key is in a bad spot. If the keyboard really bugs you the European part corrects a lot of the layout issues and is pretty cheap from Dell (around $20 I think). Battery life is great at 2:45 to 3 hours, the screen is nice and clear if a bit small, the 8GB SSD that came in mine is also a bit small but the integrated memory card reader works great for supplemental storage (I've got an 8GB SD card sitting in there now). I like the Dell over the competition because it seems better put together and I like the SSD vs a traditional hard disk in these, and of course for me the fact that it runs OS X like Apple built it.
So the A90 makes for a perfect donor in an automobile application then?
Looking at a small screen for guage display and Megasquirt plus internet accessability for the passengers among other things.
Thanks. She is a bit pickey about keyboards so i will have her try a couple out before we buy anything. She will probably keep windows in it because the online courses with her school only accepts papers in Word.
Yeah, def try a few different brands, as they all approach the limited keyboard size differently. She may be ok with one and hate another.
Also, many of the netbooks that come with XP have the RAM limited to 1gb. Most are easily upgraded to 2gb for <$50 bucks (way less if you catch the memory on sale online). Makes a world of difference, as Windows tends to be a resource hog.
Any of the 10" frames have pretty good keyboards.
The Aspire One is an 8.9" built on a 10" frame, so I like the keyboard. If I could swing the money, the Lenovo is the best one out there.
Don't like the eeePC, the Dell and HP ones are sleeker than my Acer.
We have an Aspire One. I use it to serve internet at home with a USB cell phone based dongle. The keyboard is a bit cramped, but if you are using it at home, plug in a USB external KB/Mouse and you'll increase your productivity a lot.
Spend an extra bit of cash and get a 10" model instead of the smaller (8.9"?) ones. My wife has an Asus EeEEeeEEEE that she uses as an email/surfing applicance. Works pretty well for her and the small size is nice.
As far as I'm concerned, one of the really big advantages to them is that they come with XP and not Vista :) All of the XP ones are only going to have 1 GB, that's part of the licensing for Microsoft to allow the old OS to be sold. Janel's is still at 1 GB (like my full-size laptop) and it's not as crippled as everyone implies. The biggest downside is that the baby processor struggles to keep up with HD video files.
One suggestion for saving a few bucks - grab a copy of Open Office instead of springing for Word. Honestly, she may never notice the difference.
And if you do choose Open Office it works just as well on OSX or Linux too :).
Another vote for OpenOffice. It handles MS Office files very well, and you sure can't argue with free.
Wally, thank you for the post title and your excellent grammar!
On topic, we were considering getting a netbook for my daughter but she has a manga drawing program that she uses a USB tablet and pen with and I doubt a netbook could handle the graphic requirements.
We ended up getting her a desktop from a local college doing some upgrades - AMD 3500+, 1 GB Ram, Win XP, Keyboard, Mouse, 17" LCD monitor for $150 + tax. Can't beat that even if it is a 2-3 year old desktop.
I bet she has a hell of a time stuffing that in her backpack though 
.
No need too, the only real reason we were considering the netbooks was because of their price.
My big hands do pretty well on the Dell Mini 9 keyboard I'm using right now. There are a few weird keys, but most are "normal".
And the battery life is great.
Open Office is excellent too.
I keep meaning to pick up a USB mouse for it.
Mine will mostly be used as temp storage for digital photos when we're away at races, as well as e-mail when traveling.
Seems to pick up wireless networks better than my regular laptop.
Mine is the cheapie Dell with Ubunto instead of WIndows. Bought it for $199.
Can the memory be upgraded on the MiniDells?
Yeah, it takes about 30 seconds if you have a little screwdriver handy. It takes plain old laptop 200-pin PC5300 DDR2.
I want one as a couch and travel computer.
Want so bad.
They're really nice at the track when combined with datalogging 
What are you logging, how fast someone can eat the cookies (or whatever those are)?
If you will note, the laptop is not actually connected to the cookies. You will also notice some cones setup in the background in what appears to be a large open space, perhaps a parking lot. Seeing that his avatar is a Miata and knowing what Miatas are know to be popular for, I am going to guess:
He is logging the movements and speed of a gay marching band that likes to be rewarded with cookies when they do a good job.
How close am I?
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