thinking about getting a 10.1 inch netbook. just the cheap ones off fleabay or maybe a 7 inch just for when i’m at work or out and about for trolling the internet and stuff. anybody know if there worth having?
The no-name ones on ebay are trash and waste of money. the only Netbook i had that worked good was the Asus EeePC models.
well i have a cheapo irulu 10 i inch on the way with a keyboard case. but i like that the netbooks looked a little more durable
There are also bad tablets. Need to look through reviews.
I've had several eeepc's and my current netbook is a Samsung N220 which was only $ 57.00 on Ebay. (I'm hard on them - they get knocked around and dropped)
They are fast enough for most things you may want to do and the dual core versions are actually quick
They have good battery life.
I have done video editing on one.
There are a three things you need to do to make them great.
1. Max out the RAM - most have 1GB it's cheap to take them to 2GB
2. Change the HDD to a 120GB SSD for best speed and battery life.
3. get rid of Windows - I use LMDE on mine (Linux Mint Debian Edition).
Using Linux is the secret as XP is no longer supported and Windows 7 is too slow on netbook hardware.
Check out a Chromebook.
I got one with a hard disk, installed Ubuntu with XFCE alongside ChromeOS (via Crouton) and a larger battery, it’s perfect for travel now.
I hardly use my eeePC now.
Laptops = too heavy, stopped lugging them around in 2008 !
Got an Asus eeePC and have been happy. Mostly use my Nexus 7 tablet for surfing now.
I have one…work very well with netbuntu, in order to put 2gigs of RAM (single stick) you literally have to disassemble to get to the entire thing to get to the slot
I use mine mostly for my own SSL proxy 
Xubuntu is supposedly a VERY light linux distro that will work like a champ on 1 gig systems…it however has a learning curve
http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/2013/10/12-great-linux-operating-systems-for.html
Ubuntu has the Ubuntu Netbook Edition built in…so download the latest image, get Universal USB Installer and it will put the image (ANY image) on a bootable pendrive and viola…install it and enjoy
I’ve had my Dell Mini 1012 for almost 3 years and use it daily for work. It’s fine for most of my tasks and is much lighter than the 15.6” monster I used to lug around. I also carry a cheap portable DVD burner in the laptop bag for those rare occasions when it’s needed. Even with Windows XP, it can browse most websites just fine, but don’t expect to be able to do any heavy gaming or number crunching. I will say that the 10.1” screen is on the small side so if you have any vision issues, think a little bigger. I recently got a Dell 11.6” touchscreen netbook and the larger screen is helpful, but Windows 8 in its native form irks me too much, as well as being incompatible with most of my old school networking tools, so it just sits around keeping the battery pack warm most of the time. If you get a new netbook, it will come with Windows 8, so consider getting a touchscreen. It’s not an absolute necessity, but some netbooks have quirky touchpads, which just adds to the frustration of Win8. As for using a 7” netbook, I think most of those have low resolutions and would make browsing the current generation of media rich sites a real chore.
KuoH
I have one that ran XP, that’s why I got it. Dual core, 2G memory and 250G HD.
I just finished upgrading to Windows 7 and all the updates, 164 of them. The process took 36 hours, some of that over night while I slept.
I am about to start to use it for the first time. I wonder if it will be excruciatingly slow.
2 Gig is bare minimum…don’t be surprised if it a slug man
Good luck
They are junk, Bad resolution, Bad Performance, bulky in comparison to a tablet. I hate them.
But i know People who use an old net book as a main computer, if I only use it 1 minute I want to smash it on the wall because they are so slow…
Depending on the OS being used
I have the Samsung N220 - with a single core CPU
It takes 19 seconds from switch on to reach the login screen, and from pressing enter after login to completely finished and ready to go another 10 seconds.
I'm using the full LMDE, not a cut down OS, with an encrypted home directory.
I seldom do a full bootup as closing the screen suspends it, and it takes only a few seconds after opening it to enter the password and start work.
I have an Acer 100, for several years now, with an extended (large) battery. It came with Windows XP, but I now dual boot it, with XP and Windows 7. It’s like a 10” netbook.
As others mentioned, I replaced the original 1GB RAM with 2GB RAM. I wish it could take 4GB, but I think that when these came out, Microsoft was limiting makers to 2GB.
Anyway mine still seems happy with both XP and Win7, but I don’t think that it’d do well with Win8, so I’m staying with those.
I use a product from Terabyte Unlimited called Bootit NG (“BING”) for the boot manager and for partition management. They now have a newer product but I haven’t tried it since I have a bunch of licenses for BING.
I had one of the first netbooks when they came out, the original Acer aspire one. Upgraded to 1.5GB RAM and 1.8” HDD it was a really nice device.
But for today’s internet use, they are a little slow I think. If you get one, try the Pale Moon browser (firefox with Atom optimization). A user agent switcher that makes the websites think you are using a mobile device may help, too.
I’d at least get a dual core one which has or is upgradeable to at least 2GB of RAM.
(I bought one of those quad core Atom tablets you can get now relatively cheap. The performance is really nice. I wish that I had the option to buy that processor in a 10” netbook instead of a tablet, though. Typing anything beyond a text message on a touch screen sucks. Now they are offering a few of them. I miss my netbook. )
My experience with Netbooks hasn't been positive. I had a an Acer Aspire One I bought from Costco with Windows 7 Home Premium installed and it was slow as shit. I ended up giving it away. Been through a couple of tablets as well, a first gen iPad(sold) and a second gen Nexus 7 which I still own. Personally don't like them because I much prefer a real keyboard and REAL full fledged web browser, not the scaled down bullshit browsers tablets have. Bought a Asus ChromeBox I connected to a 22" Samsung TV/Monitor. It has limitations but it's fast as hell for what it does, and has real Chrome browser with all the extensions that tablets don't have . I'll be buying a ChromeBook soon since my experience with the ChromeBox has been great for basic internet use..
Agree with DenBarret. The Asus EEE notebooks are about perfect (and cheap). Well least they were back when I bought mine… They run great with Linux or Xp. You can do something like Windows XP with the older versions of Windows Blinds, make it look like 7. I used to even run vmware and it was responsive and fast- did fine. Has a lot of support from the Linux community and lots of mods too.
The garbage like in Rite-Aid, 78 dollar laptops. Stay clear of those.
I bought an ASUS EEEPC netbook for my daughter, it was a little slow (even with the memory at 2G) but otherwise a great netbook for a couple of years, until she spilled an ice tea on the keyboard.
I used an ASUS TF101 transformer (with the keyboard dock) for a couple of years. Not bad but I decided android isn’t for me.
I now have an ASUS T100T with the keyboard dock. Just about perfect, full windows 8.1, MS Office, easy to network/printers, good battery life, SD, USB and HDMI.
I had a 1005ha eeepc as my primary computer for 3 years - the keyboard broke and I didnt bother replacing it since I have a laptop from work I use.
overall it was good for web browsing and regular everyday tasks but not much more