The Case for The Linux Netbook

I have been thinking a lot, lately, about what I really do with my computer, and I have pretty much realized that, as far as mobile use goes, I would probably be happy with a netbook, so long as I could be assured of having desktop access when the going gets rough (I do processor heavy simulations as part of my research assistant job, I work with my photographs, and I like to PC game).

Let me consider what I do most with my computer (Excepting those three things and folding at home, all of which I don’t really do on the go). By far the program I use most is Firefox (big surprise, given how much functionality has been ported into browser-accessed cloudspace). The next most common is instant messenging. Both of these are not terribly heavy on processor use, especially if I were to back down to Opera (which I will admittedly NEVER do…). I also use a PDF reader regularly, since I loves me some eBooks. This too is a very light process. Rounding out my common use package is VLC, for watching all my shows, Amarok, for music (although increasingly I just use Pandora and Last.fm), and an office suite. Oh, and bittorrent to go with VLC.

None of these things are particularly demanding processes (although admittedly running them all at once could eventually become problematic), and in fact, many of the lightest weight solutions run in linux. Firefox works in Linux, but some users might prefer Opera since it will have a smaller footprint. VLC, Vuze, a very good and lightweight Evince for PDF’s, Open Office.org, an excellent office suite,  Amarok for music, pidgin for IMing, all of which work extremely well with next to no footprint on your processor. To be honest, for these day-to-day uses, you do not need a processor that large. Netbooks might have trouble running all of the above at once, but in reality very little is going to slow you down: of all the programs I just described, only OpenOffice has ever given me any speed troubles, and that was actually on an osX machine.

A netbook seems an excellent solution for someone with a good desktop hoping to gain some mobility. They can save their processor heavy photovideo editing and gaming for when they are at home on their desktop, and use an incredibly inexpensive, small, lightweight computer very efficiently on the go. There is certainly a lot of appeal there. In addition, increasingly these notebooks are gaining access to 3G networks (sadly for an exhorbitant fee…), which will further allow you to go anywhere with your computer. Netbooks can never be a primary computer for a power user, but they provide a very good option for someone hoping to get a more mobile experience.