One for the road
LITTLE MINI NOTEBOOKS – or netbooks, as they’re more commonly called – are currently all the rage. Asus (better known for making components rather than whole computers) kicked off the craze with its EeePC and almost every PC vendor has jumped on the bandwagon.
I got my hands on the Acer Aspire One netbook to play with for a couple of weeks and on the whole I was very impressed. The Aspire One comes with a choice of operating systems – either Windows XP or a scaled down Linux – and who you are will dictate your choice.
If you’re buying it for your ageing technophobic aunt then you’d want to go with the Linux version, simply because it has a very simple interface and not much can go wrong. However, for some reason Acer chose not to include Skype in the list of programs on the machine and putting new software on to it is a challenge no mortal should have to tackle. For the more business orientated user, Windows is clearly the better option. This is a full version of Windows XP and will be familiar to almost every PC user.
The keyboard takes some getting used to because of the diminutive size of the device (it has a 9" screen). And its trackpad has its buttons on the side instead of underneath, which requires changing the way you interact with the computer. Though you really can’t use it for daily computing, while you’re on the road it could become a trusted companion.
The biggest problem with the Aspire One is its price. The Linux version costs R4 999 and the Windows R5 999. That’s almost double the cost of the entry level EeePC and if all you need is something to take on the road then you have to decide if the more robust construction of the Acer is worth the price.
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