4 ms·

I liken it to when ultrabooks and netbooks launched in a time when most people were offline and uninterested in connectivity. Full featured laptops existed then

I liken it to when ultrabooks and netbooks launched in a time when most people were offline and uninterested in connectivity. Full featured laptops existed then, as well. In this case, dedicated capacity for AI has been in systems for a while behind the scenes (ie- Intel GNA) but without consumer demand; it's OEMs and OS/software vendors who are most interested in pushing the "AI Ready" standard. If Microsoft built a set of local tools and models that integrated with Office or other applications (like Krita + ComfyUI) that were "sold" out of the Microsoft Store and only available on AI Ready systems, it might ignite some consumer interest. However, leading with "Look how we can record your screen in secret and use AI to harvest your private information!" instead of "Here's you as a cartoon character" more or less solidified everyone's distrust in their responsible intent.

rchaud 1y ago
Netbooks were so underrated. Small screen, full-OS laptops for $300 at a time before the iPad/iOS era of dumbing down computers. I wrote most of my undergrad thesis on a Dell Mini, with STATA installed for regression analysis. 9-inch screen, 1 GB RAM, 1GHz Intel Atom was plenty powerful for handling office work and watching Youtube. Its battery life was actually better than most high TDP Intel laptops, and games up to 2003-04 worked very well on it.
- ActorNightly 1y ago
  I used one as well, would just remote desktop in to my box running in my dorm.
- freedomben 1y ago
  I agree, but only when running Linux. The Windows powered netbooks I tried were all too underpowered for the OS. Inputs were super laggy because of that and waiting for an application to load was aggravating. If you were very disciplined and only kept one app open at a time, and never more than 5 browser tabs, you could live on it, but it wasn't a great experience for me.
- kotaKat 1y ago
  I wish we could get a mainline manufacturer like HP or Dell to come back around with a 7"-9" ultraportable laptop.
  - rchaud 1y ago
    The PC market is too enshittified for this to happen. Companies no longer differentiate on hardware but on "subscriptions and services". Portable gaming machines like Steam Deck, ASUS ROG Ally and some indie OEMs are the closest thing we have to a mainstream mini PC.
  - jaxtracks 1y ago
    This niche is pretty well served by some of the portable gaming PC companies that have added business netbooks to their lines. GDP has the mini 8" transformer which isn't bad. The 4 just came out with ridiculous specs for such a small machine, but with poor battery to match. The 3 can be had cheaper with less powerful CPUs and better battery. I'm using a onexpro netbook 5, a really high quality 10" that compiles large rust code bases fast enough for me to be happy and also doesn't suck at all to type on, battery is fine at 5 hours with really fast charging.
  - phonon 1y ago
    Tablets with portable keyboards replaced that niche, mostly.
  - nunez 1y ago
    This is served by tablets with a keyboard, like the iPad Pro or the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
- olyjohn 1y ago
  You must have had one of the better ones. Most of them were literally not usable. Even YouTube was pretty choppy on most of these things. And the screen resolution so bad that web browsing was terrible on them. A lot of dialog boxes wouldn't even fit on the screen, leaving you stuck and unable to change settings or even save files in a lot of situations. The drives were slow in most of them too. Not to say that they couldn't be better, but they were rated poorly because most of them really were trash.
  - pjmlp 1y ago
    Asus ones like 1215B were quite good, mine lasted between 2009 and 2024, now a tablet has taken over its role as travel computing device.
- nunez 1y ago
  We must have had a different experience. I remember netbooks like the Asus eee PC and Dell Mini (which I think I had for a spell) being _very_ portable but being capable of _maybe_ three hours of battery life with the most conservative power settings, which made these tiny laptops dog slow most of the time.
- acdha 1y ago
  That’s interesting because I knew a fair number of people who had those and got rid of them due to terrible performance and battery life. One of the big ways they hit the low price point was using spinning metal drives, which really held back the entire system.
  - rchaud 1y ago
    The standard was an 8GB SSD and a screen no larger than 8.9inches, 16:9. Asus and Acer started putting mechanical HDDs and bumping up the screen size to 11.6 inches, making netbooks look like "cheap laptops" to the regular person.

rchaud 1y ago

Netbooks were so underrated. Small screen, full-OS laptops for $300 at a time before the iPad/iOS era of dumbing down computers. I wrote most of my undergrad thesis on a Dell Mini, with STATA installed for regression analysis. 9-inch screen, 1 GB RAM, 1GHz Intel Atom was plenty powerful for handling office work and watching Youtube. Its battery life was actually better than most high TDP Intel laptops, and games up to 2003-04 worked very well on it.

ActorNightly 1y ago
I used one as well, would just remote desktop in to my box running in my dorm.
freedomben 1y ago
I agree, but only when running Linux. The Windows powered netbooks I tried were all too underpowered for the OS. Inputs were super laggy because of that and waiting for an application to load was aggravating. If you were very disciplined and only kept one app open at a time, and never more than 5 browser tabs, you could live on it, but it wasn't a great experience for me.
kotaKat 1y ago
I wish we could get a mainline manufacturer like HP or Dell to come back around with a 7"-9" ultraportable laptop.
- rchaud 1y ago
  The PC market is too enshittified for this to happen. Companies no longer differentiate on hardware but on "subscriptions and services". Portable gaming machines like Steam Deck, ASUS ROG Ally and some indie OEMs are the closest thing we have to a mainstream mini PC.
- jaxtracks 1y ago
  This niche is pretty well served by some of the portable gaming PC companies that have added business netbooks to their lines. GDP has the mini 8" transformer which isn't bad. The 4 just came out with ridiculous specs for such a small machine, but with poor battery to match. The 3 can be had cheaper with less powerful CPUs and better battery. I'm using a onexpro netbook 5, a really high quality 10" that compiles large rust code bases fast enough for me to be happy and also doesn't suck at all to type on, battery is fine at 5 hours with really fast charging.
- phonon 1y ago
  Tablets with portable keyboards replaced that niche, mostly.
- nunez 1y ago
  This is served by tablets with a keyboard, like the iPad Pro or the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
olyjohn 1y ago
You must have had one of the better ones. Most of them were literally not usable. Even YouTube was pretty choppy on most of these things. And the screen resolution so bad that web browsing was terrible on them. A lot of dialog boxes wouldn't even fit on the screen, leaving you stuck and unable to change settings or even save files in a lot of situations. The drives were slow in most of them too. Not to say that they couldn't be better, but they were rated poorly because most of them really were trash.
- pjmlp 1y ago
  Asus ones like 1215B were quite good, mine lasted between 2009 and 2024, now a tablet has taken over its role as travel computing device.
nunez 1y ago
We must have had a different experience. I remember netbooks like the Asus eee PC and Dell Mini (which I think I had for a spell) being _very_ portable but being capable of _maybe_ three hours of battery life with the most conservative power settings, which made these tiny laptops dog slow most of the time.
acdha 1y ago
That’s interesting because I knew a fair number of people who had those and got rid of them due to terrible performance and battery life. One of the big ways they hit the low price point was using spinning metal drives, which really held back the entire system.
- rchaud 1y ago
  The standard was an 8GB SSD and a screen no larger than 8.9inches, 16:9. Asus and Acer started putting mechanical HDDs and bumping up the screen size to 11.6 inches, making netbooks look like "cheap laptops" to the regular person.