As those of you who have seen me rave about announcements from Steve Jobs know, I’m a bit of an Apple fan. My primary computer’s an iMac, I use a Mac mini for work, and I carry around an iPad and an iPod touch almost everywhere I go. That’s why my purchase of a Asus Eee netbook on Tuesday night might confuse a few people.
Turns out I need a computer to fit a very specific need. I’m working from home a lot more, and while I like the peace and quiet that it provides, sometimes I feel the need to actually see people every once in a while. I needed a computer with:
- Great battery life (at least 6-8 hours, for a full day of work)
- Very portable (so that I don’t need to lug around a backpack)
- Multitasking (so I can check Twitter e-mail while I work)
- A command line interface (for Subversion and server management)
- A keyboard (for long stretches of typing and keyboard commands)
- A low price tag (just in case I lose the thing; I grabbed the netbook on Newegg for under $200 shipped)
Normally I’d use my iPad out on the road. It actually features everything I’ve listed above in one way or another, but it’s an ideal machine for coding. Sure, there’s Gusto and command line apps. And Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard is pretty convenient to carry around, too; I brought it along on my trip to Acadia yesterday. It just wouldn’t work well for a full day of code, though. I need commands running in the background, multiple documents opened at once… using the iPad would kill my zone. The netbook has the added benefit of having Windows 7 (as well as Linux, once I install it), giving me a physical computer I can use to test sites on Internet Explorer instead of using Parallels on my iMac.
So yes, I bought a netbook. But I want it to be clear that I bought it for a very specific reason. If you’re an average user who spends 80% of your time on the web and reading e-mail, buy an iPad instead. I’ve had mine for six months, and I still absolutely adore it. It’s a case of different tools for different jobs; a netbook’s what I need for what I do as a geek, but for the things everyday users do with computers, I hands-down believe that devices like the iPad are the future.