Been offered a net book, opinions please.

parcival

I have a netbook of that spec which is just for taking away. Have found it rather underpowered and therefore slow.

Did not want to spend any more on it so have just converted it to run Linux Ubuntu and I must say it goes like s*** off a shovel compared to running Windows 7 stater edition.

kwikbreaks

If it's an older one it will be running XP. I had a netbook that was an MSI Wind clone running XP and that worked well as a surfer although for me the screen was a little small plus of course the quite low resolution. A memory upgrade from 1 to 2 GB will make a slight difference but it won't be huge. As mentioned Ubuntu or Linux Mint are viable options especially if it is running Win 7. You'd need to install from a USB stick or external USB CD/DVD drive though.

If it's working then £50 makes it a good buy IMO so long as the limitations are kept in mind.

henm2

£50 for a netbook sounds good. I would at the very least turn it into a dual boot system as others have suggested as some Linux operating systems (not all) will perform much better on it.
I currently have Windows 7/Lubuntu on an Acer D260 netbook. Has worked well for the past 18 months.
Other lightweight linux systems which would do well include Peppermint 3, PCLinuxOS LXDE 2012.
To install you will need to use a USB flash drive. Put your choice of Linux on the USB using the utility Rufus http://rufus.akeo.ie/

sillygoose

henm2 wrote: »

£50 for a netbook sounds good. I would at the very least turn it into a dual boot system as others have suggested as some Linux operating systems (not all) will perform much better on it.
I currently have Windows 7/Lubuntu on an Acer D260 netbook. Has worked well for the past 18 months.
Other lightweight linux systems which would do well include Peppermint 3, PCLinuxOS LXDE 2012.
To install you will need to use a USB flash drive. Put your choice of Linux on the USB using the utility Rufus http://rufus.akeo.ie/

All well and good but to quote the op..

"all I need it for is for surfing, email, on here, just basic stuff really as I have my PB Easynote for anything else."

Which it will do absolutely fine as it is and I very much doubt really warrants messing with it and learning how to use a new operating system!

esuhl

I hope it's not really 16Hz! Mine runs at 1,600,000,000Hz!

I love my netbook. It comes in really handy and is perfectly fast enough for what I want it to do. But the Linux distro it came with was too buggy to be usable, and Windows XP ran so slowly it was hardly worth the effort of turning in on. I stuck Arch Linux on and it zips along (relatively speaking).

Stooby2

I'm using my Acer Apire One at the moment - resolution set to to 1024 x 768 - there are ways to make netbooks run at higher resolutions. The text is large enough to read OK. It's running Windows 8 just because I wanted to try it and that has really helped performance from the Windows 7 it was using before.

I don't find the keyboard too small, have no problems with it.
I don't have problems with the CPU - but then I didn't buy this to run high end programs. It copes fine with MS Office 2010 and will run a reasonably complicated Powerpoint without issue.

I bought an external DVD reader/writer for about £20 and can watch DVD's quite happily.

It sits neatly on my lap without getting too hot and the battery lasts about 5 hours.

It does exactly what I wanted from a netbook. If I wanted better performance, better graphics etc, I'd have got a proper laptop. This fits neatly in my rucksack. I bought it a couple of years ago for some studying I was doing and I had no problems using it for typing essays, presentations etc.

For £50 if the one you're looking at is in good nick, I'd say go for it.

McKneff

sillygoose wrote: »

All well and good but to quote the op..

"all I need it for is for surfing, email, on here, just basic stuff really as I have my PB Easynote for anything else."

Which it will do absolutely fine as it is and I very much doubt really warrants messing with it and learning how to use a new operating system!

Spot on, been using it tonight and its brilliant.

I can even get Skygo on it :j or so I;m told lol.
Time will tell.

sillygoose

McKneff wrote: »

Spot on, been using it tonight and its brilliant.

I can even get Skygo on it :j or so I;m told lol.
Time will tell.

..and I am reading you post on mine! Windows XP, Chrome Browser. Fine.:T

Yours have a webcam in the top of the lid? mine does and it works with Skype video calling fine too.

McKneff

sillygoose wrote: »

..and I am reading you post on mine! Windows XP, Chrome Browser. Fine.:T

Yours have a webcam in the top of the lid? mine does and it works with Skype video calling fine too.

Well there is something in the lid where the web cam would be but not sure. Where would i look to find details. I think I will have to download Chrome Browser.
My laptop does but havent used it as such.

sillygoose

McKneff wrote: »

Well there is something in the lid where the web cam would be but not sure. Where would i look to find details. I think I will have to download Chrome Browser.
My laptop does but havent used it as such.

You can look around in the start menu for anything mentioning 'cam' or webcam as they usually come with some sort of utility from the manufacturer to try the cam.
Alternatively on mine when I look down the tree in Windows File Explorer there is a Cam entry on the end of the list, clicking on it activates the cam and shows me what it sees in the right pane.