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NetbooksSometimes, small is big!

The perfect fit for low-cost miniature laptops – “netbooks” or “mini-notebooks” is under lime light for quite some time now. One of the prime reasons for their sale is price, apart from the size of course. Linux plays an important role in keeping the price to the minimal and is known to work quite well on netbooks. Most manufacturers are offering netbook models with pre-installed Linux. These netbooks have low memory and are largely meant for web browsing. Lightweight Linux distros works smartly over these machines delivering better performance with mini laptops’ low-configuration hardware. 

A netbook is distinguished from a laptop by its size (it is smaller), its price (cheaper), and what it does (optimized for internet based services such as web browsing and e-mailing). For some people they may be the best computers money can buy. Moreover, netbook vendors have an advantage in offering Linux because of the cost factor.

These pint-sized wonders have built-in wireless networking, but lack an optical drive for CDs or DVDs. They have at least two USB ports, and some have a VGA port. They usually measures about 7 to 10 inches diagonally, often feature solid-state hard drives and selling price is as low as US$350. Linux netbooks come in assorted choices including various models, size and a variety of feature packages. The basic requirements offered by most netbooks are pretty much the same except for storage and ram. By sacrificing optical disk drives, display size and storage space; they gain advantage of cost and portability. This makes netbooks fall under the impulse buy range for consumers.

Netbooks are basically designed to be used with the Internet and apart from a small hard drive, the availability of USB ports allow a secondary storage device to be plugged in. One can also use a small SD-card flash memory into one of the ports, made available for the reading memory cards.

Here is a comparative study of Netbooks which prevail in the existing market. I am sure you’ll love it!

Today, Netbooks are one of the hottest selling personal technology gadgets. This tech toy, together with preinstalled Linux offers advantages like;

• It’s fast and secure as any other laptop.
• Sleek and WiFi-enabled for a good web browsing experience.
• The price-point for netbooks.
• Considered as energy-efficient laptops.
• They are ultra-portable systems.
• Because it has Linux, there is no licensing costs or activation requirements for the software.
• Linux provides a customized OS experience

It is shortly that netbooks have taken consumer-level Linux for both personal and professional reasons. With the increase in demand for these ultra-small netbook computers, Linux has a fair chance to attract its consumers. Linux is offered as a standard on many netbooks. They are a paradigm changer and their USP is the price and openness which the user experiences. Netbooks provide a real opportunity for Linux to market and gain the mind-share.

The entire netbook concept with Linux makes them a whole separate purchase: they are cheap, simple and small – just apt for performing the basic tasks. The future for this next wave of personal technology gadgets or netbooks is simple as it doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket and has portability advantages. I wonder if it also opens new opportunities for niche softwares?

Praval, the author of this article is an independent blogger, entrepreneur and social media evangelist. He writes articles, stories and reviews on Startup ecosystem, Blogging, Business, WordPress, Linux, Open Source Software and technology in general.