Netbook replacement?

Hello,

I'm still sticking to my two Revos even though they are in many ways
outdated. But I'm looking for options to replace my Netbook. Do modern
laptops have instant-on like the Netbook does? My brother has a nice new,
light, small Dell with WinXP. But he says doesn't use the sleep feature or
similar because it's too buggy. Booting it up doesn't seem to take all that
long though.

I'm open to Mac, Windows XP or Linux. Does anyone have experience with these
platforms? I'm not in any rush, so if I consider WinXP, would it be worth it
to wait for Vista, perhaps Vista having a better sleep feature?

Battery life also seems to be improving with the new laptops.

The Ultra-mobile PC/Origami seems a little smaller than the Netbook which is
not what I want.

Thanks in advance.
--
Erik Sandblom
my site is EriksRailNews.com
for those who don't believe, no explanation is possible
for those who do, no explanation is necessary

Erik Sandblom wrote:[color=blue]
> Hello,
>
> I'm still sticking to my two Revos even though they are in many ways
> outdated. But I'm looking for options to replace my Netbook. Do modern
> laptops have instant-on like the Netbook does? My brother has a nice new,
> light, small Dell with WinXP. But he says doesn't use the sleep feature or
> similar because it's too buggy. Booting it up doesn't seem to take all that
> long though.
>
> I'm open to Mac, Windows XP or Linux. Does anyone have experience with these
> platforms? I'm not in any rush, so if I consider WinXP, would it be worth it
> to wait for Vista, perhaps Vista having a better sleep feature?
>
> Battery life also seems to be improving with the new laptops.
>
> The Ultra-mobile PC/Origami seems a little smaller than the Netbook which is
> not what I want.
>
> Thanks in advance.[/color]
You could try a netBook Pro - similar in size and shape to the netBook
(I believe), running Windows CE, so all the familiar instant on etc.,
with reasonable office suite, WiFi compatibility. I don't know where
you'd get one though

Stuart

i artikel C04FFFF8.196F0%eriks@operamail.com, skrev Erik Sandblom på
[email]eriks@operamail.com[/email] den 06-03-29 09.12:
[color=blue]
> My brother has a nice new,
> light, small Dell with WinXP. But he says doesn't use the sleep feature or
> similar because it's too buggy.[/color]


My mistake, he says it works fine! He writes:
[color=blue]
> - Standby sets the computer to very low power so you can return to your
> work very quickly. Because it draws some power, I think it can only
> standby for 10-12 hours.
> - Hibernate writes the state of your machine to disk and then shuts
> down. It can boot back up very fast and all your programs are exactly as
> you left them.
> - It has a built in wireless card that works great.[/color]


Erik Sandblom

Erik Sandblom wrote:
[color=blue]
> ...But I'm looking for options to replace my Netbook. Do modern
> laptops have instant-on like the Netbook does?
>
> ...would it be worth it
> to wait for Vista, perhaps Vista having a better sleep feature?
>
>... Battery life also seems to be improving with the new laptops.
>[/color]

Undoubtedly a Win XP laptop would be much more capable than a Netbook.
But, for me, the touch screen and the instant-on win the day.
And the EPOC office suite is much more practical than Microsoft's
Office xx.
I was looking at a $2,000 Sony mini laptop at CompUSA t'other day -
asked the salesman to hibernate it and bring it back. It took a good 30
seconds, even though there were no running applications and the wait
from one state to the other was less than a minute.
And there's also the battery problem. I have a spare one for my
Netbook (you can get them for $50 these days) - a spare one for your
laptop would cost you $200. And they don't last long, maybe a year or
two. And even if you had a spare one, you'd have to shut down your
laptop and re-boot to replace it.
Lastly, as you say, Vista's around the corner - buying XP now will cost
you a bundle in depreciation in a few months.
At any rate, it all depends on what you need to do. If you need to be
online all the time Windows is the way to go.

Bob G wrote:[color=blue]
> Erik Sandblom wrote:
>
>[color=green]
>>...But I'm looking for options to replace my Netbook. Do modern
>>laptops have instant-on like the Netbook does?
>>
>>...would it be worth it
>>to wait for Vista, perhaps Vista having a better sleep feature?
>>
>>... Battery life also seems to be improving with the new laptops.
>>[/color]
>
>
> Undoubtedly a Win XP laptop would be much more capable than a Netbook.
> But, for me, the touch screen and the instant-on win the day.
> And the EPOC office suite is much more practical than Microsoft's
> Office xx.
> I was looking at a $2,000 Sony mini laptop at CompUSA t'other day -
> asked the salesman to hibernate it and bring it back. It took a good 30
> seconds, even though there were no running applications and the wait
> from one state to the other was less than a minute.
> And there's also the battery problem. I have a spare one for my
> Netbook (you can get them for $50 these days) - a spare one for your
> laptop would cost you $200. And they don't last long, maybe a year or
> two. And even if you had a spare one, you'd have to shut down your
> laptop and re-boot to replace it.
> Lastly, as you say, Vista's around the corner - buying XP now will cost
> you a bundle in depreciation in a few months.
> At any rate, it all depends on what you need to do. If you need to be
> online all the time Windows is the way to go.
>[/color]
Windows online? No thanks! With the original XP, you would have had a
virus and/or spyware before you'd downloaded SP1. I'd plump for Linux
or eComStation any time. (Rider: the latest discs of XP come with SP2
already installed, which reduces risk to the usual crappy state)

Stuart

"Erik Sandblom" <eriks@operamail.com> wrote in message
news:C04FFFF8.196F0%eriks@operamail.com...[color=blue]
> Hello,
>
> I'm still sticking to my two Revos even though they are in many ways
> outdated. But I'm looking for options to replace my Netbook. Do modern
> laptops have instant-on like the Netbook does? My brother has a nice new,
> light, small Dell with WinXP. But he says doesn't use the sleep feature or
> similar because it's too buggy. Booting it up doesn't seem to take all
> that
> long though.
>
> I'm open to Mac, Windows XP or Linux. Does anyone have experience with
> these
> platforms? I'm not in any rush, so if I consider WinXP, would it be worth
> it
> to wait for Vista, perhaps Vista having a better sleep feature?
>
> Battery life also seems to be improving with the new laptops.
>
> The Ultra-mobile PC/Origami seems a little smaller than the Netbook which
> is
> not what I want.
>
> Thanks in advance.
> --
> Erik Sandblom
> my site is EriksRailNews.com
> for those who don't believe, no explanation is possible
> for those who do, no explanation is necessary[/color]

Hopefully Psion will soon release a Linux netBook that can use ER5 Data
files etc?
(at least before working EPOC netBooks become vapourware :-)

Paul.
---
7Book
2GB CF card, 67% used, 1775 ER5 Data files.
After recent BST time change: Backup completed in 2225 mins (37 hours over
115200 serial link!)

On 2006-03-29 08:12:24 +0100, Erik Sandblom <eriks@operamail.com> said:
[color=blue]
> Hello,
>
> I'm still sticking to my two Revos even though they are in many ways
> outdated. But I'm looking for options to replace my Netbook. Do modern
> laptops have instant-on like the Netbook does? My brother has a nice new,
> light, small Dell with WinXP. But he says doesn't use the sleep feature or
> similar because it's too buggy. Booting it up doesn't seem to take all that
> long though.
> I'm open to Mac, Windows XP or Linux. Does anyone have experience with these
> platforms? I'm not in any rush, so if I consider WinXP, would it be worth it
> to wait for Vista, perhaps Vista having a better sleep feature?
>
> Battery life also seems to be improving with the new laptops.
>
> The Ultra-mobile PC/Origami seems a little smaller than the Netbook which is
> not what I want.
>
> Thanks in advance.[/color]

I would recommend a Mac PowerBook, iBook or even the new MacBook,
having moved from a netBook some time ago. They wake from sleep mode in
a couple of seconds and can do almost anything a Windows PC can do.

There is no serial port, so connection to your Revos would not be
straightforward if you need that. It's not impossible though, see
<http://website.lineone.net/~john.montgomery/psionlink/>

Linux on a laptop is rarely a straightforward exercise in my experience.
--
Cheers,

Steve

The reply-to email address is a spam trap.
Email steve 'at' shodgson 'dot' org 'dot' uk

In article <C04FFFF8.196F0%eriks@operamail.com>, Erik Sandblom wrote:[color=blue]
> My brother has a nice new,
> light, small Dell with WinXP. But he says doesn't use the sleep feature or
> similar because it's too buggy.
>[/color]
We have the same experience too. And the admins will only send out
the laptops with "sleep" as the response to 20 minutes inactivity, or the
lid being closed, which means at least one crash per day.

[Later] Your brother says it works fine? Well, not for us. We use
dongle-protected software (at thousands of dollars per seat to install, plus
a per-year-per-seat licensing fee ... it's worth it !) and the dongles don't
like talking to a running program across sleep periods. Crash. Bye-bye to
several hours of real-time work, unless you develop the Ctrl-S twitch again.
Other programs get bolshy when the hard drive has gone to sleep when you
wake them up.

There's still sufficient 5MXs on the market, and the impending POS
5MX-alike, that they're worth considering if you're looking for something
with more grunt than a Revo.

--
Aidan Karley, FGS
Aberdeen, Scotland,
Location: +57d10' , -02d09' (sub-tropical Aberdeen), 0.021233
Written at Wed, 29 Mar 2006 20:42 +0100

> You could try a netBook Pro - I don't know where you'd get one though

We sell the Netbook PRO in english version, new boxed units, 1349 EUR.
Shipping worldwide.

PSION shop [url]http://www.pulster.de[/url]

Christoph

In article <C04FFFF8.196F0%eriks@operamail.com>,
Erik Sandblom <eriks@operamail.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
> I'm still sticking to my two Revos even though they are in many ways
> outdated. But I'm looking for options to replace my Netbook. Do modern
> laptops have instant-on like the Netbook does?[/color]

I use a Macintosh Powerbook, the G4 model, before they moved to Intel
chips. Waking from sleep is nearly as fast as on my mBook or Psion 7.
Battery life in sleep is several days (some Windows notebooks can
survive longer in hibernate mode, with the memory state written to disk,
but then take longer to restart). You can sleep that model Powerbook,
and then hot swap the battery. Battery life (for me) has been about
3h20m in low demand use (I wouldn't expect that life if playing a DVD
for example). I expect similar from the MacBook Pro (Intel models) but
would check reviews on specifics, just in case.

No serial ports, so connecting a Revo may involve some hardware, plus
you do not have PsiWin. Having 5mx and mBook rather than Revo, I just
transfer files using the compact flash card. I didn't have much problem
moving my Psion files, but I don't do syncing.

Apple will doubtless release more new gear around 6 April, as part of
their 30th Anniversary news. Maybe one of them will be a smaller
notebook model. I went for the 15 inch model, as a compromise between
portability, and desktop replacement, plus that model had a PCCard slot
which I wanted for easier Psion and camera card use. Good points
included backlit keys (great during plane flights at night or in
darkened hotel rooms when someone else is trying to sleep). At home I
have a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and a 24 inch display, so I can set
up the notebook just like a desktop (except it lacks the drive space).

Unfortunately the Apple iCal is not yet a complete replacement for
Agenda (does some things better, but you can get Agenda into action a
little quicker, and the Agenda alarm is better).

I dumped an IBM Thinkpad when I moved to Apple (after using Windows 3
and up). I also got advice from people who really knew Linux that
convinced me Linux was not suitable for my needs. An Apple isn't a
replacement for a NetBook, but it does a number of similar things very
well, and does a lot a NetBook can not do. Oh yes, most models cost
more also. Since you have some time, maybe work out some more questions
about what you want to do with a notebook computer.

--
[url]http://www.ericlindsay.com[/url]

[color=blue]
> Linux on a laptop is rarely a straightforward exercise in my experience.[/color]


just for balance - i'm a heavy windows user, but i'm replying to this
with linux on my asus laptop which dual boots to windows or linux (fedora
core 5). i'm not an expert but after an afternoon of googling i got
everything on the laptop working perfectly - including sleep mode :-)

i particularly like the fact that i get nearly an hour extra from the
battery with linux - i guess not running antivirus and firewall apps helps
a bit there.

just my 2p worth :-)

fiev

Hi Eric,

Bit off topic but I got a coupla questions about your Mac/Psion
experience:

Which version of OS X are you using?

Does OS X write a file into every directory of the 5MX CF card when you
connect it via the USB?

I'm using an iBook G4 OS X 10.4.3 and 5MX. I email files between the
machines. Occasionally back up via PsionLink

My previous experience with sticking a 5MX CF card into a Mac resulted
in a new file becoming written to every directory. An experience I
found disconcerting.

Cheers

On 2006-04-02 03:44:44 +0100, "Noah Spamm"
<hahayoutakethisonebill@hotmail.com> said:
[color=blue]
> Hi Eric,
>
> Bit off topic but I got a coupla questions about your Mac/Psion
> experience:
>
> Which version of OS X are you using?
>
> Does OS X write a file into every directory of the 5MX CF card when you
> connect it via the USB?
>
> I'm using an iBook G4 OS X 10.4.3 and 5MX. I email files between the
> machines. Occasionally back up via PsionLink
>
> My previous experience with sticking a 5MX CF card into a Mac resulted
> in a new file becoming written to every directory. An experience I
> found disconcerting.[/color]

You will always get these hidden (at least on a Mac) files when
connecting a CF to a Mac. I generally see he same thing when I connect
a camera or transfer files on a memory stick. There is generally one
for each file - ._filename stores the resource fork etc, .DS_Store
stores information about the Finder window such as the view options etc.

They are slightly disconcerting but one learns to live with them.
Unless there were some way to hide them under ER5 or to quickly 'search
and destroy' the files (Macro5?) they would get in the way.
--
Cheers,

Steve

The reply-to email address is a spam trap.
Email steve 'at' shodgson 'dot' org 'dot' uk

In article <1143945884.535710.275030@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,
"Noah Spamm" <hahayoutakethisonebill@hotmail.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
> Hi Eric,
>
> Bit off topic but I got a coupla questions about your Mac/Psion
> experience:
>
> Which version of OS X are you using?[/color]

10.4.5 (but I started with 10.3.4 or something around then[color=blue]
>
> Does OS X write a file into every directory of the 5MX CF card when you
> connect it via the USB?[/color]

Yes. The Apple file system is notorious for sticking the invisible
files it uses for trash and resource forks into directories. If your
files don't have resource forks (photos, text and html do not) then it
doesn't get too annoying.
[color=blue]
> I'm using an iBook G4 OS X 10.4.3 and 5MX. I email files between the
> machines. Occasionally back up via PsionLink
>
> My previous experience with sticking a 5MX CF card into a Mac resulted
> in a new file becoming written to every directory. An experience I
> found disconcerting.[/color]

From the Psion I am mostly using the CF cards to back up my Psion files.
A script will handle that easily, if you don't just copy the whole card
(having a 400GB drive is making me lazy about disk space). Plus
sometimes I want to move a text file or two to the Psion (say for
working on while away). Actually I often move a whole directory of
files, on the basis I may need some of them.

I now often use the digital camera as the USB reader - you do need to
tell iPhoto to butt out - from Finder. After I get all the transfers
done, most of the CF cards end up in the camera, and when I put them
back in the camera I almost always just reformat the CF. So on a day to
day basis I don't often see the weird Apple files.

I have been using my Psion a lot less since my travel became less
frequent. The mBook display isn't really able to cope with the light
level here in the tropics (and my room is very bright). The Psion is
easier to use for certain things than anything I've found on Apple. So
I still keep my appointments in Agenda, which has a better alarm system
than Apple. I also keep my banking in ABP, again because I haven't
found anything as easy on the Apple. Also I have a handful of
spreadsheets and data files I keep as masters on the Psion (for example,
DVDs and book lists). But my use of the Psion is very much in decline.
For example, except when travelling, I no longer use the Psion for
email, web, text entry, word processing.

--
[url]http://www.ericlindsay.com[/url]