Business Bytes
Renee Oricchio

Netbook to Laptop Whiplash

 

If you read this blog on a regular basis, then you might recall that I took the Netbook plunge a couple of months ago.

My laptop met an untimely demise (lightening fried my hard drive) during the summer and I didn't want to replace it with another when we are so close to the launch of Windows 7 (October 22nd).

Solution: I got a Netbook thinking that I would just use it to get by for a few months.

My expectations at the time:

- I would miss my laptop, especially the larger screen and the DVD drive.

- I would get by without a full size laptop, but it would be somewhat frustrating in the meantime.

- I will get a laptop later this year and then my Netbook would likely get dusty on a shelf used as a backup or pawned off to my kids.

I started a new job this week (in a unrelated field to this one) and was issued a laptop by my new employer. It's a 15 inch Hewlett-Packard with Windows XP and is probably about four years old.

Let me clear:

It feels like it weighs about the same as a Volkswagen and is the size of my dining room table.

I repeat:

It feels like it weighs about the same as a Volkswagen and is the size of my dining room table.

Oh my gosh! Holy albatross, Batman!

I put it in my briefcase and it felt like I was carrying a bag of rocks home.

Let me add to that; I haven't used my briefcase since I bought the Netbook. My Netbook actually fits in my messenger bag size and shaped purse. So I have downsized to carrying just one bag, instead of two, which has been liberating and great for my shoulders and back.

Three days after schlepping a laptop back and forth in a briefcase, I'm ready to call a chiropractor

About those expectations that I mentioned at the top of this posting:

- The smaller screen and the lack of a DVD drive is a pain in the you-know-what.

- I probably will buy my own full-size laptop after Windows 7 comes out later this Fall.

- I am a little frustrated with the limitations of my Netbook.

All that being said, I really don't care and there is no going back to lugging a laptop.

What I have learned from the Netbook is that a laptop doesn't belong in my lap and portable as it is; I don't want to carry it around anywhere. It belongs sitting on a desk. Period.

What does this mean for my Netbook?

It will not be gathering dust and as for my kids; from my cold, dead hands, children.

Love, Mom.

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio