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57 lines
4.4 KiB
Plaintext
57 lines
4.4 KiB
Plaintext
Episode: 1147
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Title: HPR1147: Eulogy for the Netbook
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Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1147/hpr1147.mp3
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Transcribed: 2025-10-17 19:45:41
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---
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Want to do something different this coming New Year's Eve? Want to make some new friends,
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share some laughs and give something back to the community? Then please come along and join
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in with the Hacker Public Radio New Year's Eve Show, a 24 hour oddcast marathon. We're running
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for the full 24 hours starting from Monday December 31st at 1200 UTC. I'll be there and I really
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want to spend my New Year's Eve getting to know you too. Full participation details are available
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at www.hackerpublicradio.org
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Friends, hackers, fellow geeks, lend me your ears. I come not to bury the netbook, but to praise it.
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I remember my first netbook, the ASUS Triple EPC 701, the tiny keys, the tiny 4GB SSD,
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the tuck sticker I slapped on the back of it, the black matte finish of the case, which made it
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feel like Sinclair would made a laptop. The 7-inch screen introduced me to the F11 key in Firefox.
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I watched all my illicitly acquired TV shows during my lunch breaks on that screen,
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stored on an external stick, or the 8GB SD card slotted on the side.
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The tiny chunk of graphics memory somehow managed to run Compass and its spinning cube.
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I wrote a short story and after noon on that tiny keyboard.
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Did I imagine how tiny it was? You could just about fit it in my coat pocket.
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I took it to my PC repair and give it in classes to take notes. I would lay in bed at night with
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it propped on my chest, falling to sleep in the glow of the LCD screen. I bought a white one for
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my sister. Her and her friends used it so much for I.M. the keys knackered. Those poor, poor, tiny
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keys. In the end, I gave it to my brother to use for college while I replaced it with a Dell Mini
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9. I loved it just as much as the EPC, bigger screen, nicer keyboard, but shiny, prone to fingerprints.
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A year later, I got the Dell Mini 10 with an extra big battery. I sometimes regret that.
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It got too big, too heavy. But the Mini 10 was my longest running netbook and was my main
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machine after I moved to Croatia. Nearly three years before I got a full-size laptop again,
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but the netbook is still used for casual use. Beyond what my phone can do.
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Ah, my Android phone. I love my XSS, but the tech is out of date now. Too many apps and games coming
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out which are made for more powerful phones or tablets. And that's the crux of things.
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My beloved netbook was killed by the tablet. Yes, yes, no one can prove anything. There's no
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smoking gun or blood spatter, but when I see the rows of iPads and cheap Android tablets on the
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shelves where there was once lovely netbooks, it sickened me. I'm tempted, of course, especially
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the new Nexus 7 and 10, but I feel sick with guilt. I know when my Mini 10 finally gives out,
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I will likely get a tablet. But I can't prop it up in my lap and type something on the tablet.
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I can't easily just install the Linux distro on it. The only thing tablets really have over a
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netbook is a sexy touch screen, and thanks to the humble bundle I have a load of games to play on it.
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In an ideal world, there would be netbooks with retina displays, but as small as my beloved and
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much misty PC. Perhaps if the current push for flashing your bundle on the Nexus 7 spreads to
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other distros and tablets, and if I can find a decent keyboard dock, well, time will tell.
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If you have an old netbook laying around gathering dust, take it out and give it some love.
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Install a nice lightOS on it and write something. Watch something.
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These wonderful little machines of chains computing and I'm sure gave Linux a boost as well.
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I'm OkonDK at AUKONDK.com. Thanks for listening.
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You have been listening to Hacker Public Radio at Hacker Public Radio.
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We are a community podcast network that releases shows every weekday on day through Friday.
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Today's show, like all our shows, was contributed by a HPR listener like yourself.
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If you ever consider recording a podcast, then visit our website to find out how easy it really is.
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Hacker Public Radio was founded by the digital dot pound and the infonomicum computer cloud.
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HPR is funded by the binary revolution at binref.com. All binref projects are proudly sponsored by
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Lina pages. From shared hosting to custom private clouds, go to Lina pages.com for all your hosting needs.
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Unless otherwise stasis, today's show is released under a creative commons,
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attribution, share a line, lead us our lives.
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