Recent advances in small form factors and high efficiency processors and chipsets have given birth to the newest class of portable computers, netbooks. These devices have become very tempting with their diminutive size and price and are gaining increased popularity.

Netbooks 101.

Let’s start by taking a look at what constitutes your average netbook and how to spot one in the wild. There are a lot of options available, but your typical netbook comes equipped as follows.

• Screen size is between 5-10″ in size
• Powered by highly efficient processors and chipsets such as the Intel Atom or Celeron platform
• Typical netbook does not have an optical drive (no CD/DVD capabilities without an external drive)
• Storage ranges from 4-160gb and beyond. Can be solid state or hard drive based
• Memory capacity is typically 2gb or less
• Built-in wi-fi and possibly cellular broadband capabilities
• The devices weigh in at about 2lbs or less
• Compact keyboard
• Price typically runs below $400

Looking at the specifications you’ll see that they aren’t terribly powerful, but their compact size and power sipping chipsets and processors make them very handy to carry on a daily basis. Due to their specialized nature there are a few drawbacks that you need to be aware of, chief among these are their compact keyboards which make extended typing uncomfortable (some models are better than others in this regard) and the limitations of the smaller screens. Netbooks also lack an optical drive which makes loading software a chore as you will need either an external optical drive connected by USB, or will need to share the optical drive on a desktop and access it over the network.

So what are netbooks good for? For one, they are great to have around for web browsing, and e-mail. They also work well in a pinch for word processing, have pretty decent multimedia capabilities, and can even make nice little gaming machines for older games.

Operating Systems.

Netbooks have become a bit of a battlefield between the well-established Windows XP and Linux, although ~90% of netbooks come pre-loaded with the latter (up until last year the market was split 50-50.) Linux is expected to regain a large portion of the market thanks to some special builds that are made specifically netbooks, namely Ubuntu: Netbook Remix and Moblin. These alternative operating systems were designed from the ground-up for netbooks and are able to make the best use of their unusual screen sizes and power saving technologies and feature special interfaces that make navigation very simple and intuitive. In addition they are also distributed freely and netbooks pre-loaded with them usually cost a bit less than one that includes Windows XP. Coming later this year we will also see the release of Windows 7 Starter Edition which was created specifically for netbooks and other small form-factor computers. Currently it’s just a simplified version of Windows 7 and Microsoft hasn’t made any netbook specific changes to the interface.

Choosing the right Netbook.

With all the available options you shouldn’t have an issue finding a netbook that will meet your needs, let’s take a look at the available options so you know what to look for. The first thing you’ll need to decide is which screen size you want to go with. The two most common screens are 9″ or 10″ conventional LCDs, the small LCDs don’t mean a smaller chassis, they just mean more plastic between the edge of the lid. Because of this I highly recommend going with a 10″ screen.

The next item of consideration is the processor and chipset the unit runs on. The king of netbook processors is the Intel Atom which will give you the best clock speeds and power consumption characteristics. The other popular choice is the Intel Celeron platform which will still function well but won’t be as quick and won’t provide the same battery life as the Atom. AMD has also jumped into the game with their new ATI RS690 chipset and Conesus-class processors which offer quite a bit of punch in such a small package.

Once you have narrowed the choices down a bit there are only a few other items to keep in mind. The most important of these is the size of the battery included with the unit which can range between three and nine cells. The rule of thumb is that more cells is going to give you longer battery life, but you may want to stay away from the nine cell units unless you really need the juice as they stick out about 1 1/2″ from the bottom of the netbook. Also try the keyboard out and see how it feels, the best keyboards are those without the beveled keys that run to the very edge of the netbook chassis. Memory isn’t too terribly important when choosing your netbook, your typical machine will have either 1gb or 2gb of RAM which can easily be upgraded to suite your needs. You’ll also want to consider the operating system the device includes. Chances are it will be pre-loaded with Windows XP, although there are still quite a few Linux-loaded netbooks floating around. Depending on the release the Linux machines can work just as well or better than the XP netbooks but will not run Windows software and may quire a little more technical knowledge to maintain.

The last item on the list is storage. There are two options when it comes to storage choices, solid state and traditional hard drives. Solid state drives have the benefit of having no moving parts and lower power consumption but cap out at about 16gb. There are other downsides as well such as slower access speeds in some models (although some are quicker than a traditional drive) and the inability to defragment the drive, but they have proven to be very rugged and are insensitive to shock. Netbooks with a traditional hard drive aren’t a bad way to go either, they offer a much larger storage capacity (typically between 60gb-160gb) and pretty good access speeds, but they aren’t as shock-proof as their solid state counter-parts and consume more battery power.

That about covers your netbook basics, the market is very diverse and you’ll find plenty of machines to choose from. As long as you keep in mind the limitations of the platform and what it’s intended purpose is you’ll find them very enjoyable to have around. I have had a few clients consider a netbook to replace an ailing notebook or as a primary machine for their children going to college due to the price, but I wouldn’t recommend purchasing a netbook for these reasons due to it’s limitations. The netbook scene is also changing very quickly so make sure to keep up on your research before purchasing one.