What I'd Like To See In A Netbook

[Michael David Crawford]

Just in case there are any netbook manufacturers listening in, or 
employees of such manufacturers:

What I'd really like to see is a netbook with a regular size screen. 
I've been shopping around some, and have so far been unable to find what 
I desire.

What I mean by that is that I want a notebook with a low-power, 
inexpensive processor and modest memory.  That will work fine if one 
runs an operating system such as FreeBSD.

But I want at least a fourteen inch screen, preferably fifteen inch.

The best advice anyone has been able to give me is to buy a "budget" 
laptop, or an older model, perhaps used.  The older Apple PowerPC 
laptops are the closest to what I want.

What I want to do with this "big netbook" is to troll community websites 
  while hanging out at cafes, as well as working on my own websites, 
which are predominantly text - lots of essays and articles.

I used to have a twelve inch Apple iBook, and it did work for me, but I 
now vastly prefer my fifteen inch MacBook Pro.  The problem with the 
MacBook Pro is that it is a very expensive unit, it is the main source 
of my livelihood, and I fear it being damaged or stolen if I use it to 
troll all those community websites using the WiFi at Starbucks.

So what I want is a second notebook just for cafe use, so I can leave my 
MacBook Pro at home.  This "big netbook" needs to be inexpensive enough 
that it wouldn't be that big a deal if it were stolen, or seriously damaged.

Just viewing web pages or writing in a text editor shouldn't require a 
lot of CPU power or memory.  It wouldn't need CD/DVD or floppy drives. 
It wouldn't need Bluetooth, just 802.11 networking.  It wouldn't need a 
webcam built into the lid.  It wouldn't need a very big hard drive. 
Because the electronics would be low-power, it wouldn't need a fan.

An Atom or ARM processor would be just fine for such a unit.  If it were 
running FreeBSD or Linux, I expect that 512 MB would be *far* more than 
enough memory.

I'm pretty sure that if someone were to actually produce such a "big 
netbook", there would be lots more potential customers than just myself. 
  I have actually considered purchasing one of the netbooks of today, 
but after looking them over, I have to say that their tiny screens would 
be very disruptive to my writing Muse.

Thank You All For Humouring Me On This.

Mike
-- 
Michael David Crawford
mdc at prgmr.com

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