Buying a netbook

When I told my wife that I wanted a new computer she told me to write a business case. I ended up buying an EEE PC 901 that is BRILLIANT! More on that later, here was my case in March:

I would like to buy an Asus Eee PC 900, costing £350 (on offer).

There are two reasons I have for wanting a new laptop:
1) I have a hobby (coding) that I get precious little time to practice
2) In the evenings and at weekends you use my laptop, leaving me without a computer

I could gain more time for my hobby (without impacting time at home) by doing it on the train, meaning I need a very, very small laptop. Coding requires a certain amount of computing power, meaning my psion is somewhat underpowered. I don't have much time to devote to my hobby outside train journeys and lunchtimes, which means that getting my psion set up is going to take a very long time. I regularly wish to use my laptop whilst you are using it - I don't begrudge you it, but I think that for £350 we could both have a computer and it would be great!

This particular computer is Asus' latest release of the popular Eee PC (specs: mem-1Gig, hd-20Gig, speed-900MHz, screen-8.9"), the older ones have less memory, less storage, are slower and have a much smaller screen, however they are less expensive. There is an 8G, a 4G and a 2G, which all have a much smaller screen (7"). The memory is less in the 4G and 2G (0.5Gig), the hard disk (hd) is much less in all three (8, 4 and 2Gig respectively) and the speed it less (600Mhz). The price differential is not huge, so I think the extra screen size alone is worth it (£340, £250 and £200 respectively).

Other offerings in this market are:
MSI Wind PC - not out 'til June. Will be bigger but better specs. similar price
ECS G10IL - bigger but slightly better specs (looks really cool too), £400ish, no due date.
Medion Akoya E1210 - some better specs, bigger, not available 'til June (in France). similar price
HP Mini-Note - heavier and slightly bigger, much better specs, but it's £460
Everex CloudBook MAX - basically the same, but unavailable in the UK
CTL 2go PC - no info on availablilty, similar to the Eee PC on specs and price.
Maxdata Belinea s.book 1 - mixture of better/worse specs, £420 is too much
Packard Bell Easynote - smaller screen, more expensive £400
Van Der Led Jisus - lower spec, similar to the 4G on spec and price
Surcouf La Revolution Mobile PC - due out this month, similar to the Eee, smaller screen, £320
Vye mini-v S37BVHP - Much more expensive, but better specs. £720 is too much

New approach

I CBA with my psion anymore. It has taken too long and too much effort to get to a state that isn't anywhere near usable for me. There now exists a version of Debian that ought to install, but I need something that can deal with the CF card I bought.. perhaps the CF card is broken, but I just can't get it going. Perhaps I need to install a linux machine to start things off, but hey.. I'll think about that *after* I have done this:

the new Asus Eee PC is out.. the 901, and OMG it's the machine I've been waiting for! recent Atom processor at 1.6GHz, 1G ram and a 20G HD. Linux (some Debian clone) installed and it just works! It's the right physical size (tiny) and has just enough horse-power and, thank the FSM, they made the battery last more than 3.1 seconds. I'll get java 1.6 on there, install ANTLR and whammy! I just have to wait for some availability in the local shop to go look at it (just make sure they haven't added an inch here, a lb there), decide if I want white or black then buy it online for 300quid-ish.

Inappropriately excited? Me? Oh yeah!