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100% agree. The netbook is the perfect cheap portable hacking tool. You can certainly get some development done on them (as long as you don't use eclipse as IDE
by wladimir 15y ago
100% agree. The netbook is the perfect cheap portable hacking tool. You can certainly get some development done on them (as long as you don't use eclipse as IDE :-). Phones or iPads are generally more expensive and not nearly as suited to that.
That's why I also get a bit sad at all the 'the netbook is dead!' posts. On the other hand, it'll probably remain a niche for a long time. I mean, if you believe the stories here, the phone is dead, e-mail is dead, the web is dead... and so on.
It seems to be common here to forget that things can have a use and make some people very happy without being "the great next mainstream thing".
- rayiner 15y agoCheap, yes, but I'm not sure "perfect" is the right word. Most netbooks are just a bit too underpowered to run a modern IDE comfortably, and at the same time they don't have particularly impressive battery life (3-4 hours of web surfing is typical). An MBA 11" has a bigger screen, is tons faster, and will get you 6+ hours of battery under similar circumstances. Sure it's $1000 versus $350, but are developers looking for a good portable hacking machine that price sensitive?
- wladimir 15y agoFor a lot of things I feel I don't need to run a modern IDE. Gcc + a text editor does fine, or something light like Qt Designer. This is why I explicitly added "if you don't use eclipse" :-) You have to be a bit creative with resources, if you expect a full high-profile dev machine you're indeed not well-off with a netbook. And indeed, finding one with decent battery life can be a bit of a challenge. And yes, $1000 versus $350 matters for a lot of people, we're not all silicon valley rock stars. Also if you, for example, use the device in risky/dirty/etc environments, you'd usually want to settle with something easily replacable.